|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||
| Hall 24 | ||||
|
where 255 specially pivoting panels display a magnificent collection of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic coins. Some of the most ancient examples were minted by Persian overlords, who copied silver Athenian currency in order to pay their Greek mercenary troops (panels 18-19, fig.38). |
|
|||
|
The coins of Greek cities found in the Delta (panels 5- 16), represent the archaic and classical ages (7th-4th centuries BC). With the foundation of Alexandria in 331 BC, there are the coins of Alexander the Great, with Zeus Ammon of Siwa Oasis on the reverse (panels 36-43), followed by the currencies of the Ptolemaic kings whose portraits can be seen in gold and silver (panels 44-88). |
|
|||
|
The collection possesses several profiles of the famous Cleopatra, the seventh of that name. These official portraits show an attractive woman with regular features and a slightly hooked nose (panel 88, fig.39), though nothing like that which legend has given her and made Pascal declare, "If Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the face of the world would have been changed!" She was a brilliant politician who knew how to maintain a balance in the troubled circumstances at the end of the 1st century BC when the supremacy of Rome asserted itself. She managed to win the heart of Caesar and then of Mark Antony, but finally came to grief with the impassive Octavian, the future Augustus. After the naval defeat at Actium in 31 BC, she preferred to commit suicide (holding an asp to her breast, according to legend), rather than being dragged through the streets of Rome as a prisoner in the triumphal procession of the new master of the world. With her death and that of Caesarion, her son by Caesar, the dynasty of the Ptolemies ended and Egypt was to be, henceforth, a mere Roman province. |
||||
|
However, the Roman emperors who followed, continued to use the Alexandrian mint, decorating their coins with Egyptian mythological motifs or representations of the monuments of the town. On the reverse of a piece from the reign of Marcus Aurelius (panel 119) one can see the image of the famous lighthouse, on others, temples of the city. |
||||
|
The cabinet under panels 130-137 displays clay moulds which testify to the fact that, in less prosperous moments under the Roman Empire, money was no longer struck but cast. This was often the sole means by which the garrison commander could pay his troops. Lastly, there is a beautiful collection of Byzantine and Islamic coins. These latter are among the few pieces in this museum from the centuries which followed the conquest of Alexandria by Amr in 642 up until the reign of Mohammed Mi, a period of more than one thousand years in the history of Egypt. |
||||
|
Games | Guestbook
| Send a Card | Useful Links | Object VR | News |
||||
