page_title: Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
section_title: Currency, finances, and resources
hierarchical_section_title: Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom) / Currency, finances, and resources
caption_attribution_description: Mints of Alexander the Great: 24-25. Tetradrachms 29-30. Drachms Numismatic Museum of Athens, Greece. Η νομισματοκοπία του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου: 24-25. Τετράδραχμα 29-30. Δραχμαί Νομισματικό Μουσείο, Αθήνα.
context_page_description: The earliest government of Macedonia was established by the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings some time during the period of Archaic Greece. Due to shortcomings in the historical record, very little is known about the origins of Macedonian governmental institutions before the reign of Philip II of Macedon, during the final phase of Classical Greece. These institutions continued to evolve under his successor Alexander the Great and the subsequent Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties of Hellenistic Greece. Following the Roman victory in the Third Macedonian War and house arrest of Perseus of Macedon in 168 BC, the Macedonian monarchy was abolished and replaced by four client state republics. However, the monarchy was briefly revived by the pretender to the throne Andriscus in 150–148 BC, followed by the Roman victory in the Fourth Macedonian War and establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia.
  It is unclear if there was a formally established constitution dictating the laws, organization, and divisions of power in ancient Macedonia's government, although some tangential evidence suggests this.
context_section_description: The minting of silver coinage began during the reign of Alexander I as a means to pay for royal expenditures. Archelaus I increased the silver content of his coins in addition to minting copper coins in order to promote foreign and domestic commerce. Macedonians were the first who issued different coins for internal and external circulation, a sophisticated approach which shows an elaborate monetary system at an early date. In order to properly pay the soldiers of the Macedonian army with something other than general spoils of war, the minting of coinage significantly increased during the reigns of Philip II and Alexander the Great, especially after the increase in state revenues following the seizure of the Pangaion Hills. During the Hellenistic period the royal houses of Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Kingdom of Pergamon exercised full monopolistic control over mining activities, largely to ensure the funding of their armies. By the end of the conquests of Alexander the Great, nearly thirty mints stretching from Macedonia to Babylon were producing nearly identical standard coins. Yet the right to mint coins was shared by the central and some local governments, i.e. the autonomous municipal governments of Thessaloniki, Pella, and Amphipolis within the Macedonian commonwealth.
  In addition to mining, the crown and central authorities also raised revenues by collecting produce from arable lands, timber from forests, and taxes on imports and exports at harbors. The king was capable of exploiting the mines, groves, agricultural lands, and forests belonging to the Macedonian state, although these were often leased as assets or given as grants to members of the nobility such as the hetairoi and philoi. Tariffs exacted on goods flowing in and out of Macedonian seaports began since at least the reign of Amyntas III of Macedon, while the Oikonomika by Pseudo-Aristotle explains how Callistratus of Aphidnae (d. c. 350 BC) aided Perdiccas III in doubling the kingdom's annual profits on customs duties from 20 to 40 talents.
  After the defeat of Perseus at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC, the Roman Senate allowed the reopening of iron and copper mines, but forbade the mining of gold and silver by the four newly established autonomous client states replacing the monarchy in Macedonia (i.e., before the resumption of the monarchy in 148 BC and creation of the Roman province of Macedonia in 146 BC). The Roman-era historians Livy and Diodorus Siculus asserted that the law was originally conceived by the Senate due to the fear that material wealth gained from gold and silver mining operations would allow the Macedonians to fund an armed rebellion. It is also possible that the Romans were concerned with stemming inflation caused by an increased money supply from Macedonian silver mining. The Macedonians continued minting silver coins between 167 and 148 BC, and when the Romans lifted the ban on Macedonian silver mining in 158 BC it may have only reflected the local reality of this illicit practice continuing regardless of the Senate's decree.
caption: Tetradrachms (above) and drachms (below) issued during the reign of Alexander the Great, now in the Numismatic Museum of Athens
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