Portraiture and the Persians

The purpose of this brief paper is to consider the relationship between the choice of coin types to represent the authority of the Persian king and his officials, and the emergence of portraiture on coins during the fourth century BC. It reflects the recent work of a number of scholars, and is intended simply as an expression of some thoughts (not all conventional) on the background to the royal coinages of the Hellenistic period.6 page(s