Alexandria

Alexandria, the ancient capitol city of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt, was founded by and named for Alexander the Great. Under Roman rule, Alexandria was the mint location for the province and became a regular imperial mint in 294 - 421 A.D. and 457 - 474 A.D. Roman mint marks for Alexandria included AL, ALE, ALEX, and SMAL. The mint was reopened by the Byzantines 525 -646 A.D.

The genius of Alexandria was featured on Roman coins as discussed in the |Dictionary of Roman Coins| below.

Moneta Historical Research by Tom Schroer

ALEXANDRIA (Egypt - 31°13'N, 29°55'E), was founded on the site of a fishing village at the mouth of the Nile in Egypt by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. After his death in 323 BC his empire was divided and Egypt was given to Ptolemy I Soter, one of his generals. The Ptolemaic dynasty continued to rule Egypt until it was captured by Octavian in August of 30 BC and its last queen, the famous Cleopatra VII, committed suicide. Under the Ptolemies the city flourished and became an intellectual center as well as a center of commerce. Its "Museum" was famous as a center of scientific endeavor and its library which held over 500,000 scrolls by the time of the Roman conquest. It had a world-famous lighthouse, the Pharos, which stood at the entrance to its two artificial harbors. It had a prosperous Jewish community which was the reason the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament), was commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the early third century BC. After Octavian added Egypt to the Roman dominions, he made it a special kind of province which was under his direct control through a praefect (it maintained an independent coinage until the year 297 AD). Alexandria was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, with a population estimated at 500,000 by the time of Christ. Alexandria had been a mint city from the Ptolemaic days, and it continued so under the Romans, although for 200 years it issued coinage which could only circulate in Egypt, consisting of tetradrachms, drachms, and various fractions. This singular coinage was also unique in its regnal dating, because the Egyptians started all new regnal years on their New Year's Day, August 29 (30 if it were a leap year). Thus from Egypt there are such seeming anomalies as both regnal year one and two coins for emperors like Galba, who although his reign was only seven months, it spanned the Egyptian New Year and thus was reckoned in his second regnal year when he was murdered. The first regular Imperial coins were denarii issued in the last year of the reign of Commodus (q.v. - 177-192), and after his murder (December 31, 192) the mint struck some rare denarii for his successor, Pertinax. After news of the murder of Pertinax (March 28, 193) reached Egypt the mint ceased Imperial coinage until sometime after Egypt abandoned Pescennius Niger and declared for Septimius Severus on February 13, 194. Thereafter the production of denarii was resumed for Severus, his wife Julia Domna, and even for Severus' western Caesar, Clodius Albinus. For unknown reasons the mint discontinued Imperial denarii before 196, and again confined itself to the unique Egyptian coinage. Almost 100 years later Diocletian began to use the mint in 294 to issue regular imperial types and denominations, and by 297 the peculiar Egyptian coinage ceased. The Roman coinage from Alexandria continued without interruption until the mint was closed by Theodosius II about 421. It was briefly re-opened by Leo I (q.v. - 457-474), but soon closed. The Byzantines re-opened it about 525 and it continued production until Alexandria was finally conquered by the Muslims in 646 and lost forever to the Empire, except for the winter of 697/698 when it was briefly reoccupied by a Byzantine fleet sent by the Emperor Leontius (695-698). Sadly, after the capture in 646, the Muslims perpetrated one of the greatest acts of cultural vandalism ever committed, the burning of the great library of Alexandria. It is said the Muslim General Amru, under orders of the Caliph, used the books to heat the bath waters of the city. Despite the city's growth through the centuries to over 2,300,000 people today, Roman remains can still be seen.

|Dictionary of Roman Coins|

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ALEXANDRIA. On the reverse of a silver Hadrian (engraved in Oiselius, TAB. xxxiv. p. 149), the type of a female standing clothed in a tunic [supposed to represent the genius of Egypt]. She holds in her right hand the sistrum, in connection with the worship of Isis [the movement of that instrument signifying the rise of the Nile.] In her left hand she holds a bucket or water-pot (situla) by which is indicated the flow of canals or watercourses.--Rasche.

The genius of Alexandria, or of Egypt in general, is figured on a brass medal of Hadrian (struck in Egypt), as a man, wearing on his own head the skin of an elephant 's head and holding in his right hand a bundle of corn ears. He takes with the left hand that of the emperor, and lifts it to his lips, as if to kiss it, in acknowledgement of Hadrian 's benefits to the city and country. Round the coin is engraved ALEXANDREA, and in the filed LIE (year 15).--Zoega, Num. Aegpt. vii.--[Mr. Akerman, some time ago referring to a specimen of the very interesting coin, then in his own possession, had remarked that the numeral 15 denotes the year of Hadrian 's arrival at Alexandria.]

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