Egypt. Alexandria. Antoninus Pius, 138-161. Tetradrachm. (Billon, 23.00 mm, 11.83 g). Dated RY 6 = AD 142/3. AYT K T AIΛ AΔP ANTѠNINOC ЄYCЄB Laureate head right. Rev. AI ѠN Phoenix with nimbus standing right; Lç (date) across field. Geissen 1424-5. Dattari-Savio 2431. RPC IV.4.610. K&G 35.180. Emmett 14119.6. Toned, roughness. Very Fine. From the Stein A. Evensen Collection. Ex CNG, E-Auction 216, 12.08.2009, lot 416 and E-Auction 477, 23.09.2020, lot 332. Tetradrachm with relevant astrological and astronomical significance. The phoenix that stands on the reverse was a mythological and sacred bird to whom it was attributed the power to be reborn from its ashes after death and was connected to the liturgy of Ra, the divine sun, which is represented here by the halo radiated around the head of the phoenix. In this order of thinking the legend indicates, in the traditional Greek cosmology, the personification of time in the sense of its infinite passage, that is to say eternity, which is well suited to the resurrection of the phoenix. This emission was also related to the "sothic cycle". The renewal of the Great Sothic Cycle occurred in AD 139. It was a cycle of 1461 years beginning with the rise of the star Sothis (Sirius) on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This tetradrachm type was initially minted in year 2 (AD 138/9) and afterwards reintroduced for year 6 of Antoninus Pius’s reign.