Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 150. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $3800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PAEONIA. Audoleon. 315-286 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.31 gm). Struck circa 306 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion's skin headdress / BASILEWS AUDWLEONTOS, Zeus seated left, holding eagle in right hand, lotus-tipped sceptre in left; monogram before. AMNG III 12; SNG ANS 1062 (same obverse die); SNG Copenhagen -. Good VF, choice flan. Very rare. ($4000)

After the death of Perdikkas III of Macedon in 359 BC, the Paeonians, one of the tribes surrounding Macedon, began to rebel. While he consolidated his own hold on the Macedonian throne, Philip II of Macedon temporarily checked them with bribes and promises. The Paeonians, fearful of Philip's designs, sought the assistance of Athens and, in the summer of 356 BC, the king of Paeonia, Lykkeios, signed a treaty of alliance with the city-state. This proved fruitless as the Macedonians, again under Parmenion, recaptured Paeonia, and for the remainder of the 4th century BC it was an "allied" state, maintaing a sense of semi-autonomy while supplying the armies of Alexander III of Macedon with mercenaries.

In the confusion and civil war in Macedon following the death of Alexander IV of Macedon, Paeonia once again became independent. Kassander, wearied by the struggle to make himself king of Macedon, secured his northern border by assisting Audoleon in defeating the Autariatae. This alliance worked for the Paeonians as well; Audoleon acquired a powerful ally. That Audoleon continued to build such connections with his neighbors is clear through the marriage of his daughter to Pyrrhos, King of Epiros and cousin to the Macedonian royal house through Olympias, the mother of Alexander III. Shortly after the death of Audoleon, however, Paeonia reverted to Macedonian control under Antigonos II Gonatas.