Silver tetradrachm of Demetrios Poliorketes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nike with trumpet on ship's prow/Poseidon with his trident Salamis, Cyprus Mint of Salamis Heralded as "the Besieger of Cities" Demetrios I was renowned from a young age for the brilliant naval campaigns he waged against rival dynasts across the Eastern Mediterranean. On this coin, Nike alighting on the prow of a defeated battleship commemorates his important naval victory in 306 B.C. at Salamis on Cyprus where this coin was minted.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art