Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

THE ROLE OF THE ARGEADAI 127
size and the snake-fringed aegis that covers the torso of Alexander, as
well as other serpentine details, cannot preclude a more generalized
domestic worship of Alexander associated with good fortune. 28
Ptolemy I was quick to realize the dynamics of Alexander’s potential
for legitimating his rule and equally keen to exploit the attraction
he held for the Hellenic-Macedonian public. Alexander’s posthumous
presence in Egypt was not limited to the abstract memory of
his achievements and to his worship in domestic or state cults, allpervasive
as they might have been. 29 The early Ptolemies made sure
that visual prompts of their association as rulers with the conqueror
of Egypt were in constant supply. A study of the extant portraits of
Alexander from the early Ptolemaic period reveals that his image was
institutionalized to an unprecedented degree in comparison to the
rest of the Successor Kingdoms. 30 It also fi gured on early Ptolemaic
coinage, the primary function of which “is to record the messages
which the [ruler] and his advisers desired to commend to the populations
[under their control].” 31 Although the minting of particular coin
types can be attributed to commemorative and honorifi c purposes
alongside propagandistic ones, a conscious thought process is invariably
involved in the choice of symbols to be portrayed on the coinage
of a political unit. 32 Ptolemy I was the fi rst of the Successors to mint
coins bearing the portrait of Alexander and the fi rst to tweak the iconography
of the standard Alexander-type tetradrachms into a uniquely
Ptolemaic variety. 33 Although remarkably similar to the idealized
head of the youthful Heracles with the lion-skin on Alexander’s lifetime
issues, the young man depicted on the new Ptolemaic Alexanders
wore an elephant headdress: a distinct historical allusion to
Alexander’s conquest of India. The Alexanders remained in circulation
until the need to pay for mercenary armies in recognizable, hence
legitimate, currency subsided and Ptolemy felt secure enough in his
newly-proclaimed royal position to mint coins bearing his portrait. 34
Once more, he was the fi rst to supplant the image and legend of Alexander
with his own. However, certain of the symbols Ptolemy chose
to emphasize as signifi cant (e.g., the Ptolemaic eagle) are encountered
in earlier Argead issues, indicating a continuity in dynastic semiology
that will be further elucidated below.
As far as visual prompts go, however, the most dramatic in providing
a concrete reminder of the Ptolemies’ rightful claim to the
throne was Alexander’s own body. Diverted from its funeral cortège,
which was probably escorting it back to Aigai, it was fi nally put on
prominent display in Alexandria where it stayed until at least the
reign of Caracalla in the early third century A.D. 35 Although not
an absolute prerequisite for succession, it appears to have been the