MACEDONIAN KINGDOM
Alexander III the Great, 336-323 BC
AR Drachm. 4.08g, 16.4mm
MINTED: Kolophon mint, circa 310-301 BC. Posthumous issue, struck under Antigonos I Monophthalmos.
REF: Price 1802
OBVERSE: Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress.
REVERSE: ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus Aëtophoros seated left, holding long sceptre and eagle; N in left field, Σ below throne.
 
Notes:
Toned. Minor scuffs and scrapes, and two ancient bankers' punch marks on obverse. 
 
Historical Notes:
Alexander III of Macedonia (336-323 BC) easily ranks amongst history's greatest conquerors, generals, and military strategists.  He was tutored by the great philosopher, Aristotle, and ascended to the throne at the young age of 20 after his father Philip II was assassinated.  After a quick consolidation of power and suppression of several revolts amongst his Thracian, Illyrian and Greek subjects, he embarked upon his storied conquest of Persia in 334 BC.  Within a period of 4 years, Alexander had utterly defeated the armies of the Persian king Darius III and occupied all the major cities of the once mighty Empire, including its capital Babylon.  Not satisfied with this achievement, Alexander continued to march his troops through Central Asia and towards India, in a quest to unify under his rule as much of the known lands of both the west and east.  

In 326 BC, Alexander fought and defeated Porus, the Indian king who ruled over the region of what is now the Punjab.  He was next going to send his army against the Nanda Empire to the east, but when his war-weary veterans refused to march and threatened to mutiny against him, and Alexander finally agreed to allow them to reutrn home.  Alexander himself marched with some of his troops back to Babylon, where he based himself for the next few years.  In 323 BC, he was planning an invasion of Arabia when he fell ill with a fever and died, at the age of 32.  He was undefeated in battle and had created one of the largest empires in history, one over 5 million square kilometres in land area and stretching from Greece to northwestern India.