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Macedonia
316 - 168 BCE

After Alexander III died, Philip III (Alexander's mentally deficit half brother) and Alexander's baby son were made joint rulers of his Macedonian Empire with Perdiccas as their regent and the generals of Alexander as the satrapies. Perdiccas was killed by his own colonels - Peithon, Antigenes and Seleucus in the campaign against Ptolomy in Egypt. Antipater was appointed as new regent and organized a conference at Triparadisus (Syria) in 320 BCE.  Antipater divided the Empire between all the generals and returned to Macedonia with  Philip III, Alexander's wife Roxane and Alexander IV to rule as regent. Polyperchon become regent after Antipater's death in 319 BCE.  Philip III Arrhidaeus was murdered by Olympias (mother of Alexander III) in 317 BCE.  Cassander  drove Polyperchon out of Macedonia and captured Roxane & Alexander IV in 316 BCE. Alexander IV and Roxane were murdered by Cassander in 310 BCE and declared himself the King. He ruled Macedonia untill his death in 297 BCE. Cassander's sons ruled briefly. Demetrius Poliorcetes occupied Macedonia and declared himself the King in 294 BCE. He started the Antigonid dynasty  of Macedonia that lasted till 168 BCE with a brief interruption.

Alexander's  successors continued to issue coins in the name of Alexander the Great but slowly they also started issuing coins with their names.

List of Macedonian Kings / Rulers

House of Antipater
316 - 294 BCE

Cassander  316-297 BCE

Philip IV 297 BCE
(ruled 4 months - no known coins of his time)

Alexander V 296-294 BCE
(No known coins of his time)

Antigonid Dynasty
294 - 168 BCE

Demetrius Poliorcetes  294-287 BCE

Interruption in Antigonid rule

Pyrrhus  287-285 and 274-273 BCE

Lysimachus  287 - 281 BCE

Ptolemy Ceraunus  281 - 279 BCE

Meleager   279 BCE
(ruled 2 months - no known coins of his time)

Antipater II   279 BCE
(ruled 45 days - no known coins of his time)

Antigonid Dynasty (restored)

Antigonus Gonatas II 277-239 BCE

Demetrius II 239-229 BCE

Antigonus III Doson 229-220 BCE

Philip V 220-179 BCE

Perseus 179-168 BCE
 

Philip V (starting in 197 BCE) gave the privilege of minting autonomous coinage to the main cities Thessaloniki, Amphipolis & Pella,  various administrative districts  like Amfaxitis & Bottiaea and to the Confederacy  of the Macedonians (Koinon).
 

Perseus was the last king of Macedonia to issue the royal coinage. Roman general L. Aemilius Paullus defeated the Macedonians in the battle of Pydna in 168 BCE ending the independent Macedonian Kingdom.  Macedonia became a Roman protectorate from 168 - 148 BCE. It was divided into four regions called Merides. The most important production center of the coins was of Amphipolis, capital of the first Meris.  Macedonia  was incorporated into the Roman state as Provincia Macedonia in 148 BCE and Roman coinage was issued in Macedonia.

References:

Arrian of Nicomedia., Sequel to Anabasis.  Section 34-38. Byzantine excerpt of the Sequel to Anabasis by Photius (820-897 CE). Translation by John Rooke.

Encyclopædia Britannica.
 


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RK. April 20, 2002