This tiny gold piece was struck in the name of Alexander I of Epeiros — uncle to Alexander the Great — during his Italian campaign, in which he crossed to Tarentum around 334 BC to aid the city against the Bruttians and Lucanians. The parallel with his nephew's simultaneous invasion of Persia was not lost on contemporaries; Alexander himself reportedly remarked that he was fighting men while his nephew fought women. He was killed at the Battle of Pandosia around 330 BC, leaving the campaign unfinished and the coinage abruptly terminated.
This tiny gold piece was struck in the name of Alexander I of Epeiros — uncle to Alexander the Great — during his Italian campaign, in which he crossed to Tarentum around 334 BC to aid the city against the Bruttians and Lucanians. The parallel with his nephew's simultaneous invasion of Persia was not lost on contemporaries; Alexander himself reportedly remarked that he was fighting men while his nephew fought women. He was killed at the Battle of Pandosia around 330 BC, leaving the campaign unfinished and the coinage abruptly terminated.