Macedonian Kingdom Philip V, 221-179 BC. Tetradrachm circa 221-211 BC, Pella or Amphipolis. Diademed and bearded head right / Athena Alkidemos striding left, preparing to hurl a thunderbolt held in her upraised right hand and with a shield over her left arm; in the inner left field, monogram; in the inner right field, monogram. 17,02g. Boehringer, Chronologie, pl. 7, 6-7 (same dies) and pl. 10.3 = Kraay & Hirmer 577 (this coin); de Luynes 1703 (same obverse die); Mamroth 1 and pl. 5, 2 (same dies). Extremely fine. Provenance: Ars Classica XVII (3 October 1934), 384. From the stock of J. Hirsch, Hess-Leu (16 April 1957), 194. Leu 45 (26 May 1988), 141. Tradart (17 November 1994), 53 (illustrated on front cover). This tetradrachm is among the finest Hellenistic portrait coins and depicts Philip V as a young man, shortly after his accession to the Macedonian throne and following his early victories over the Dardani. The coin was probably issued around the beginning of his successful campaigns against the Aetolians and Spartans (220–217 BC). An energetic and ambitious ruler of considerable ability, Philip V nevertheless faced the growing power of Rome, which led him to form an alliance with Hannibal in 215 BC. His political maneuvers and support for Rome’s enemies eventually brought him into direct conflict with the Romans, who declared war on him in 200 BC after the defeat of Carthage. Under the command of Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the Roman army finally defeated Philip’s forces at the Battle of Cynoscephalae in Thessaly in 197 BC, where the Macedonian phalanx was decisively overcome. Philip V then devoted the remainder of his reign to consolidating and strengthening his kingdom while confronting the ever-increasing Roman threat. Just a few decades later, in 168 BC, Macedonia would become a Roman province following the defeat of Philip’s son, Perseus. This tetradrachm therefore represents one of the final great portraits of the Hellenistic monetary art, struck at a time when the political power of the Hellenistic kingdoms was already facing the inexorable rise of Rome.