Silver tetradrachm of Philip II

Silver tetradrachm of Philip II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Philip II of Macedon, best known as the father of Alexander the Great, was an accomplished king and military commander in his own right. His coinage was issued to finance soldiers and recruit mercenaries, and as a result spread far beyond Greece. The silver tetradrachms with Zeus on the obverse and a horseman on the reverse were copied by Celtic tribes all along the Danube River.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.