Stater - Alexander Tarentum

This stater was struck during the Italian campaign of Alexander I of Epeiros — uncle to Alexander the Great — who crossed the Adriatic at the invitation of Tarentum to fight the Lucanian and Bruttian tribes threatening the Greek colonies of southern Italy. The coin reflects that joint political arrangement: Tarentum retained its magistrates and monetary apparatus while Alexander supplied the military muscle. He was killed at the Achandrus River around 330 BC, reportedly fulfilling an oracle that warned him to beware "Acheron" — which he had assumed referred to the river in Epeiros, not an obscure stream in Lucania.