Duane W. Roller

directly to his death, 29 and her lack of gold was probably more because
it was no longer a Ptolemaic habit. Bronze coinage is known for most
of the queen’s regnal years and silver from two, her sixth and eleventh
(47–46 and 42–41 b.c.). Th e emphasis on baser coinage demonstrated
her fi nancial problems, and it is perhaps no surprise that the queen
seems to have written a treatise on weights and measures. 30 In addition
to the Egyptian coins, ones are known from Antioch, Askalon, Berytos
(fi g. 11c), Chalkis in Syria, Cyprus, Damascus, Orthosia, Patrai, and
Ptolemais and Tripolis in Phoenicia. Caesarion appears on a coin probably
from Cyprus showing him as Eros, along with his mother (fi g. 11a).
Other coins imitate the types of her ancestor Arsinoë II, the greatest
of the early Ptolemaic queens. 31 A denarius from an unknown mint
has Antonius with “Armenia devicta” on one side and the queen with
“Cleopatrae reginae regum fi liorum regum” on the other, demonstrating
the titulature of the Donations of Alexandria (fi g. 11e). Although the
coinage is ambiguously Roman, this seems the fi rst time that a foreign
woman had appeared on assumed Roman coinage with a Latin inscription,
something that could easily be used against Antonius. 32 Also associated
with the queen are a series of crocodile coins from the Cyrenaica,
minted under the authority of P. Canidius Crassus, probably the royal
governor aft er the Donations affi rmed Cleopatra Selene’s control of the
district. 33 Cleopatra VII’s coins are not only known from the regions in
which they were minted, but have been found on the Adriatic at Split,
and at Este in the Veneto of northern Italy, perhaps an indication of
trade eff orts by the queen up the Adriatic and into the Po valley. 34
Cleopatra’s royal administrators were in many cases inherited from
her father, as demonstrated by the long career of Kallimachos. Although
some, like Potheinos, who was chief fi nancial offi cer, ended up on the
wrong side of the Alexandrian War, bringing their careers fatally to
an end, many continued on, producing a prosopography of about 100
names from the queen’s administration. Practically all these are found
on papyri or inscriptions rather than in literature. 35 Most are merely
names. A certain Diomedes was her secretary in 30 b.c.; 36 in 38 b.c. her
majordomo was Noumenias. Someone named Chelidon was one of the
court eunuchs, but his role is uncertain, although important, since he
became famous for the great wealth that he amassed. 37 Apollodoros of
Sicily is only known from when he helped her sneak into Caesar’s presence,
but he must have been a close associate to be trusted with such
a delicate task (see pp. 169–70). Dexiphanes of Knidos was her royal
Th e Operation of the Kingdom 107