Ptolemy X Alexander I ruled Egypt twice — expelled by a popular uprising around 107 BC, he reclaimed the throne only after his mother Cleopatra III's death, a succession that many ancient sources suggest he engineered. His reign remained turbulent, and he was ultimately driven out again circa 88 BC when he reportedly melted down the gold sarcophagus of Alexander the Great to pay his mercenaries — an act so offensive to Alexandrian sentiment that it sealed his political fate.
The Svoronos 1680 attribution places this piece within a tightly dated emission of his second reign, cross-referenced by the SNG Copenhagen series.
Ptolemy X Alexander I ruled Egypt twice — expelled by a popular uprising around 107 BC, he reclaimed the throne only after his mother Cleopatra III's death, a succession that many ancient sources suggest he engineered. His reign remained turbulent, and he was ultimately driven out again circa 88 BC when he reportedly melted down the gold sarcophagus of Alexander the Great to pay his mercenaries — an act so offensive to Alexandrian sentiment that it sealed his political fate.
The Svoronos 1680 attribution places this piece within a tightly dated emission of his second reign, cross-referenced by the SNG Copenhagen series.