Philip III Arrhidaeus was Alexander's half-brother, cognitively disabled and used as a figurehead king by the competing generals — the Diadochi — who were already carving up the empire before Alexander's body was cold. Coins struck in his name at Babylon continued using Alexander's types precisely because his own name carried no political weight. The mint at Babylon was among the most productive in the immediate post-Alexander period, sitting on captured Achaemenid bullion reserves of staggering scale.
Philip III was murdered on Olympias's orders in 317 BC, closing this brief issue window to six years at most.
Philip III Arrhidaeus was Alexander's half-brother, cognitively disabled and used as a figurehead king by the competing generals — the Diadochi — who were already carving up the empire before Alexander's body was cold. Coins struck in his name at Babylon continued using Alexander's types precisely because his own name carried no political weight. The mint at Babylon was among the most productive in the immediate post-Alexander period, sitting on captured Achaemenid bullion reserves of staggering scale.
Philip III was murdered on Olympias's orders in 317 BC, closing this brief issue window to six years at most.