Stater - Archelaus I Aegae

Archelaus I moved the Macedonian capital from Aigai to Pella around 413 BC and spent his reign modernizing a kingdom that Greek city-states still largely dismissed as semi-barbarous. Thucydides credited him with doing more for Macedonian military infrastructure than all his predecessors combined — building roads, establishing garrison posts, and reorganizing the cavalry and infantry. He attracted Euripides, Agathon, and Zeuxis to his court, dying in 399 BC in what ancient sources variously describe as a hunting accident or assassination.

The coinage issued under his name marks one of the earliest Macedonian silver series struck to a consistent Thracian-Euboic weight standard.