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| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 165 | Auction date: 26 May 2026 |
| Lot number: 422 Price realized: 15,000 CHF (Approx. 19,014 USD / 16,401 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Ptolemy II Philadelphos, 285 – 246 In the name of Arsinoe II. Octodrachm, Tyre 253-252, AV 27 mm, 27.79 g. Diademed and veiled head of Arsinoe II r. Rev. ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΝ Cornucopiae; below, three monograms. Troxell p. 63, 9c (this coin). Svoronos –. CPE 594. Extremely rare. Edge nick at twelve o'clock on obverse and minor marks on reverse field, otherwise about extremely fine Ex Leu 25, 1980, 194 (as Ptolemy V) and Morton & Eden 100, 2019, 314 sales. The gold octodrachms of Ptolemy II and later Ptolemaic kings were commonly known in Greek as mnaieia because their face value in gold was equivalent to a mina of silver (25 tetradrachms). These impressive coins were produced much more easily in a country like Egypt, which was exceptionally rich in gold, unlike many other parts of the Greek world. The types pairing the head of Arsinoe II, the wife of Ptolemy II, and a filleted double cornucopia were introduced after her death in 270 or 268 BC to celebrate her ascent to divinity. Ptolemy II proclaimed her to be a goddess with aspects of Egyptian Isis and Greek Aphrodite and established temples to serve the rites of her cult at both Mendes and near the harbour of Alexandria. The cult of Arsinoe II appears to have been genuinely popular with both Greeks and Egyptians, and an annual religious procession in her honour seems to have taken place in Alexandria from the time of Ptolemy II down to the late second century BC. Similarly, the image of Arsinoe II continued to be used as the standard type for the Ptolemaic gold octodrachm until they ceased production in the second century BC. There was little indication early in her life that Arsinoe II was destined for divinity and immortalisation on coins that are still greatly admired today. In 300 BC, when she was 15 years old, she was given in marriage by her father, Ptolemy I Soter, to Lysimachus, the 50-year-old Macedonian king of Thrace, to seal a political alliance. Her manipulation of her husband caused Lysimachus to execute his oldest and most popular son by a previous marriage to make room for her own in the line of succession in 284 BC. This triggered a war in Lysimachus' territories in Asia Minor that ended with the death of the king at the Battle of Corupedium and the conquest of his Anatolian territories by Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC. Soon after, Seleucus I was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunos, an exiled son of Ptolemy I and half-brother of Arsinoe II, who had been living at the Seleucid court. After using troops from Seleucus' army to seize the Macedonian territories formerly belonging to Lysimachus, Ceraunus negotiated a marriage to Arsinoe II to lend an air of legitimacy to his claims of kingship. Arsinoe II, who had fled to Ephesus after the death of Lysimachus, agreed to return to Macedon and accepted the proposal with the proviso that her children by Lysimachus would be first to succeed to the kingship after Ceraunus. All seemed well and it appeared that Arsinoe II would again be queen until the wedding night, when Ceraunus ordered the murder of her youngest children. Not surprisingly, the horror of this unwanted prompted Arsinoe II to immediately flee, first to Samothrace and then back to the Ptolemaic court in Egypt in the early 270s BC. Once back in Egypt, Arsinoe II quickly returned to her old manipulative ways. She engineered the exile of her sister-in-law, Arsinoe I, by accusing her of plotting the death of her brother, the reigning king, Ptolemy II. With Arsinoe I out of the way, Arsinoe II quickly moved to fill the void, and by 274/3 BC she had married Ptolemy II, thus becoming the new Ptolemaic queen of Egypt with the title of Philadelphos ("Sibling-loving"). Their incestuous union was scandalous for many Greeks, but court apologists argued for its acceptability on the grounds that Zeus had married to his own sister, Hera. Such persuasion was unnecessary for the native Egyptians, for whom brother-sister marriage was an old custom within pharaonic dynasties. As Ptolemaic queen, Arsinoe II was an influential figure who participated in public rituals alongside her husband and shared his titles while serving as a patron of temples and literary works in her own right. Estimate: 8000 CHF |  |
