Balakros

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Balakros
Phila of Macedonia
Cilicia is located in West and Central Asia
Cilicia
Cilicia
Location of Cilicia.
Coinage of Alexander the Great struck under Balakros or Menes circa 333-327 BC. The letter "B" appears under the throne of Zeus.

Balakros (

Nicanor, one of Alexander the Great's "Somatophylakes" (bodyguards), was appointed satrap of Cilicia after the Battle of Issus, 333 BC.[2] He succeeded to the last Achaemenid satrap of Cilicia, Arsames
.

Career

Balakros completed the conquest of

Asia Minor together with Calas, satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, and Antigonus, satrap of Phrygia.[3]

It was probably this Balacrus who married

Phila, the daughter of Antipater, and subsequently the wife of Craterus.[4]

He was probably supervised by Menes from 331 BC, who held the position of Hyparch or Strategoi for the area from Babylon to the satrapies of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia.

He fell in battle against the

Pisidians in the lifetime of Alexander.[5] His death is variously placed circa 328 BC or 323 BC.[6][7]

Coinage

Balacrus is among several Hellenistic satraps who continued to use an Achaemenid type for their coinage, complete with the local deity of Tarsus, Baal.[8] His coinage bore his name, and later only his initial "B".[3] This coinage is said to have influenced Alexander's imperial coinage, which was initially minted in the same mints.[8] The Imperial coinage of Alexander is often said to have been started in Tarsos circa 333–327, under the rule of either Balacrus or Menes.[9]

References

Notes

  1. .
  2. ^ .
  3. Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 166
  4. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xviii. 22
  5. .
  6. .
  7. ^ a b Mildenberg, Leo (2000). "On the so-called satrapal coinage". Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes. 12 (1): 10 and Note 8.
  8. .

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1870). "Balacrus (1)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. p. 454.