Greek King: Philip V - King of Macedonia: 221-179 B.C.
Bronze 20mm (6.70 grams) Struck circa 221-179 B.C.
Reference: SNGCop 1262
Head of bearded Hercules right in lion's skin.
 ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ above and below harpa (flute), ΔI above, all within oak  wreath.

Son of Demetrios II, Philip V  came to power in 221 B.C. on the death of Antigonos Doson. He was a vigorous  ruler and maintained the power of the Macedonian kingdom in the earlier part of  his reign. However, he made the mistake of arousing the enmity of the Romans,  and in 197 B.C. his power was crushed at the battle of the Kynoskephalai by the  Roman general T. Quinctius Flamininus. After this his power and territory were  severely curtailed by Rome, and the days of the Macedonian kingdom were  numbered.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,  provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of  Authenticity.  

Hercules and the Hydra (ca.  1475) byAntonio  del Pollaiuolo the  hero wears his characteristic lionskin and wields a club

Hercules is the Roman name for  the Greek divine hero Heracles,  who was the son of Zeus (Roman  equivalent Jupiter)  and the mortal Alcmene.  In classical  mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous  far-ranging adventures.

The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature  and art under the name Hercules.  In later Western  art and literature and in popular  culture, Hercules is  more commonly used than Heracles as  the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory  characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how  to represent him. This article  provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later  tradition.

The Latin name Hercules was  borrowed through Etruscan,  where it is represented variously as Heracle,  Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite subject for Etruscan  art, and appears often on bronze  mirrors. The Etruscan form Herceler derives  from the Greek Heracles via syncope.  A mild oath invoking Hercules (Hercule! or Mehercle!)  was a common interjection in Classical  Latin.

Baby Hercules strangling asnake sent  to kill him in his cradle(Roman  marble, 2nd century CE)

Hercules had a number of myths that  were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules' defeat of Cacus,  who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine  Hill through his son Aventinus. Mark  Antony considered him a personal  patron god, as did the emperor Commodus.  Hercules received various forms of religious  veneration, including as a deity  concerned with children and childbirth, in part because of myths about his  precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman  brides wore a special belt tied with the "knot  of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie. The  comic playwright Plautus presents  the myth of Hercules' conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon; Senecawrote  the tragedy Hercules Furens about  his bout with madness. During the Roman  Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul.

Germanic association

Tacitus records a special  affinity of the Germanic  peoples for Hercules. In chapter  3 of his Germania,  Tacitus states:

... they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into  battle, they sang of him first of all heroes. They have also those songs of  theirs, by the recital of this barditus as  they call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the  result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire  or feel alarm.

In the Roman era Hercules'  Club amulets appear from the 2nd  to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including Roman  Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A  specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears  the inscription "DEO HER[culi]",  confirming the association with Hercules.

In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration  Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from the Elbe  Germanic area across Europe.  These Germanic "Donar's  Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or  precious metals.They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn  either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type is replaced by  the Viking  Age Thor's  hammer pendants in the course of  the Christianization  of Scandinavia from the 8th to  9th century.

Medieval mythography

Hercules and the Nemean  lionin the 15th-century Histoires  de Troyes

After the Roman Empire became Christianized,  mythological narratives were often reinterpreted as allegory,  influenced by the philosophy of late  antiquity. In the 4th century, Servius had  described Hercules' return from the underworld as representing his ability to  overcome earthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumer of bodies. In  medieval mythography, Hercules was one of the heroes seen as a strong role model  who demonstrated both valor and wisdom, with the monsters he battles as moral  obstacles. One glossator noted  that when Hercules  became a constellation, he showed that strength was necessary to gain  entrance to Heaven.

Medieval mythography was written almost entirely in Latin, and original Greek  texts were little used as sources for Hercules' myths.

Renaissance mythography

The Renaissance and  the invention of the printing  press brought a renewed interest  in and publication of Greek literature. Renaissance mythography drew more  extensively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically under the Romanized  name Hercules, or the alternate name Alcides.  In a chapter of his book Mythologiae (1567),  the influential mythographer Natale  Conti collected and summarized an  extensive range of myths concerning the birth, adventures, and death of the hero  under his Roman name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter on Hercules with  an overview description that continues the moralizing impulse of the Middle  Ages:

Hercules, who subdued and destroyed monsters, bandits, and criminals, was  justly famous and renowned for his great courage. His great and glorious  reputation was worldwide, and so firmly entrenched that he'll always be  remembered. In fact the ancients honored him with his own temples, altars,  ceremonies, and priests. But it was his wisdom and great soul that earned  those honors; noble blood, physical strength, and political power just  aren't good enough.

In art

In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art, Hercules can  be identified by his attributes, the lion  skin and the gnarled club (his  favorite weapon); in mosaic he  is shown tanned bronze, a virile aspect.

Roman era

• 

  Hercules of the Forum Boarium (Hellenistic,  2nd century BCE)

   
• 

  Hercules and Iolaus (1st  century CE mosaic from the Anzio Nymphaeum, Rome)

   
• 

  Hercules (Hatra,  Iraq,Parthian  period, 1st-2nd century CE)

   
• 

  Hercules bronze statuette, 2nd century CE (museum of Alanya, Turkey)

   
• 

  Hercules and the Nemean  Lion (detail), silver plate,  6th century (Cabinet  des Médailles, Paris)

Modern era

• 

  The Giant Hercules (1589)  by Hendrik  Goltzius

   
• 

  The Drunken Hercules(1612-1614) by Rubens

   
• 

  Hercules in the Augean  stable (1842, Honoré  Daumier)

   
• 

  Comic book cover  (c.1958)

   
• 

  Hercules, Deianira and  the Centaur Nessus, byBartholomäus  Spranger, 1580 - 1582

   
• 

  Henry IV of France, as Hercules vanquishing theLernaean  Hydra (i.e. theCatholic  League), byToussaint  Dubreuil, circa 1600. Louvre  Museum

In numismatics

Hercules was among the earliest figures on ancient Roman coinage, and has been  the main motif of many collector coins and medals since. One example is the 20  euro Baroque Silver coin issued  on September 11, 2002. The obverse side of the coin shows the Grand Staircase in  the town palace of Prince  Eugene of Savoy in Vienna,  currently the Austrian Ministry of Finance. Gods and demi-gods hold  its flights, while Hercules stands at the turn of the stairs.

• 

  Juno, with Hercules fighting a Centaur on  reverse (Roman, 215-15 BCE)

   
• 

  Club over his shoulder on a Roman denarius (ca.  100 BCE)

   
• 

  Maximinus II and  Hercules with club and lionskin (Roman, 313 CE)

   
• 

  Commemorative 5-francpiece  (1996), Hercules in center

Other cultural  references

• 

  Pillars of Hercules, representing the Strait  of Gibraltar (19th-century  conjecture of the Tabula  Peutingeriana)

   
• 

  The Cudgel of Hercules, a tall limestone rock  formation, with Pieskowa  Skała Castle in the  background

   
• 

  Hercules as heraldic  supporters in the royal  arms of Greece,  in use 1863-1973. The phrase "Ηρακλείς του στέμματος" ("Defenders of  the Crown") has pejorative connotations ("chief henchmen") in Greek.

In films

A series of nineteen Italian Hercules movies were made in the late 1950s and  early 1960s. The actors who played Hercules in these films were Steve  Reeves, Gordon  Scott, Kirk Morris, Mickey  Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel, Dan  Vadis, Brad  Harris, Reg  Park, Peter  Lupus (billed as Rock  Stevens) and Michael Lane. A number of English-dubbed Italian films that  featured the name of Hercules in their title were not intended to be movies  about Hercules.

Philip V (Greek: Φίλιππος Ε΄) (238 BC - 179 BC) was King of Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip's reign  was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as  a young man. A dashing and courageous warrior, he was inevitably compared to Alexander the Great and was nicknamed the  darling of Hellas (Greek: η αγάπη μου για Ελλάδα).

 Early  life

The son of Demetrius II and Chryseis, Philip was nine  years old at his father's death in 229 BC. He had an elder paternal half sister  called  Apame.  His cousin, Antigonus Doson, administered the kingdom as  regent until his death in 221 BC when Philip was seventeen years old.

On his ascent to the throne, Philip quickly showed that while he was young,  this did not mean that Macedon was weak. In the first year of his rule, he  pushed back the  Dardani and other tribes in the north of the  country.

 The  Social War

In the Social War (220  BC-217  BC), the Hellenic League of Greek states was assembled at Philip V's  instigation in  Corinth. He then led the Hellenic League in  battles against  Aetolia, Sparta and Elis. At the same time he was able to stamp on his own authority  amongst his own ministers. His leadership during the Social War made him  well-known and respected both within his own kingdom and abroad.

 First  Macedonian War

After the Peace of Naupactus in 217 BC, Philip V tried to replace Roman influence along the eastern shore of the Adriatic, forming alliances or lending  patronage to certain island and coastal provinces such as Lato on Crete. He first tried to invade Illyria from the sea, but with limited success.  His first expedition in 216 BC had to be aborted, while he suffered the loss of  his whole