Tyrants of the Nile (Book 10)

Description

Egyptian civilization was already steeped in thousands of years of local custom and tradition by the time its rulers began to strike coins in mid-fourth century BC. Despite this late entry into the world of coined money introduced by the Greeks over 200 years earlier, Egyptian rulers quickly caught up and went on to produce coins that are fascinating and spectacular not only for their beauty and their frequent merging of native Egyptian, Greek, Roman culture, but also for their historical importance. Highpoints in the Tyrants of the Nile exhibit include, but are not limited to, the rare staters of Pharaoh Nektanebo II, only coins known to feature hieroglyphic types, and extraordinary gold issues of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy IV, which chronicle the development of the Egyptian Ptolemaic kingdom under its founder and his descendant who saved Egypt from invasion by the rival Seleucids. The full glamor and majesty of Kleopatra, the last great queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty is on display in a very rare tetradrachm of Ascalon struck early in her reign.  The impressive aureus of Vespasian and Titus, possibly struck from the spoils of Jerusalem, and an unpublished solidus of Justinian I illustrate the continued importance of Egypt to the Roman and early Byzantine empires. An extremely rare dinar of the Mamluk queen Shajar-al Durr and a 500 piastres gold commemorative of King Farouk also exemplify the power and opulence of Egypt as a medieval and modern Islamic state.