This bronze coin has been attributed to Antiochus l Soter, 281-261 BC Seleucid king of Syria. Tarsos mint obverse: helmeted head of Athena right, reverse: Dioscuri (skull)caps of twins Castor & Pollux, Club below. Special thanx to David@PCC for attribution Ref. SC 332.1 FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS & COINS PEEPS
I almost bid on that one, it was a good price I thought. Just one problem, your description is the wrong and off by a couple of centuries.
..is it?.. it very well could be David... can you give me a reference?.. this is what the Good Dr. said it was but...that's why i put in thread "has been attributed to"..there was another Antiochus l Soter of earlier. i've been studying on it for a couple of weeks and this is what have come up with.
Someone mixed up the Kingdom of Commagene with the Seleucid empire. The two were not contemporaneous. It should be SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA Antiochos I Soter 281-261 BC Tarsos mint Helmeted head of Athena right Caps of the Dioskouroi, club below The seller also has the wrong reference. It is SC 332.1
..well... hahaha.. that's actually what i wanted in the 1st place because i got a Antiochus ll Apollo/lyre coin..ok, thanks David, i'll see if i can change it.
That is one cool OP beauty. Who doesn't like a bronze coin? I wish I had more Greek bronzes. All I have is a Widow's Mite. The closest I have to your OP coin is this one from a century later, and sadly no bronze. Demetrius I Soter AR drachm (minted circa 152-151 BCE)
well, big O, thanx. i wanted a coin of Antiochus l Soter, but until i posted this thread, i didn't know i had one ..maybe your SS(secret santa) is watching and i dig your silver Demetrius, man!
No Greek bronzes, though my Secret Santa sent me two separate packages...one with a 3rd century Roman silver coin and the other with a 3rd century billon Roman coin, so I ain't complaining.
Non-roman Dioscuri reverse is always cool! Such a mournful looking guy... This historical blurb by @TheRed was so good I stole it for my database: Antiochus I Soter was the eldest son of Seleukos I Nikator, the greatest of the Diadochi, and Apama of Sogdia, and Iranian noblewoman. He was born in 324/3 BC. At the age of 29/30 he married his stepmother with the blessing of his father. They would go on to have five children. Upon his father's murder in 281 BC, Antiochus inherited an empire that stretched from Macedon to India, and encompassed almost all of Alexander's old empire save Egypt and parts of Greece. The task of holding together the empire of his father would prove too great for Antiochus. A revolt in Syria drew him East, and Macedon and Thrace were lost to his father's murderer, Ptolemy Keraunos. Philetaerus established defacto independence in Pergamon with Antiochus unable to halt the gradual loss, despite several attempts. The First Syrian War, fought over control out Coele-Syria with the Ptolemaic Kingdom, was largely a defeat for Antiochus. He also failed in attempts to conquer Cappadocia and Bithynia. The one bright spot in his military career was a crushing victory over Gauls that had entered Anatolia at the behest of a king of Bithynia who was in the midst of a civil war with his brother. The roughly 20,000 Gauls were broken by the war elephants of Antiochus, and thereafter settled in the highlands of Anatolia. Over time the area became known as Galatia. Antiochus I Soter died in 261 BC and was succeeded but his son Antiochus II Theos, under who's rule the Seleukid Empire would continue to fragment and decline.
Both of these Seleucid bronze coins have an elephant on reverse. The first was struck under Antiochus I and had the Macedonian shield with an anchor on the obverse( SNGIs 185 ). The second was struck under the Antiochus Dynasty and had a nymph on obverse.
Cool coin @ominus1 ! Dioscuri always cool by me! NON-ROMAN DIOSKURI: I have a bunch of Dioscuri from the Roman Republic / Empire, but few outside that area. Baktria Greco-Baktrian Kingdom Eukratides I Megas 170-145 BCE Dioscuri AE Quadruple Unit
Eukratides (170-145 BCE) was clearly fond of the Dioscuri. Obol: His presumed Indo-Greek descendant Antialkidas was also. c. 110-95 BCE Hemiobol[?]. The obverse shows the father of the Dioscuri, namely Zeus (with a thunderbolt over his shoulder):
They're kool coins. i'd never actually seen(to my knowledge) any before i got interested in getting a coin of Antiochus l (only because of my Antiochus ll then). i didn't even know what the dioscuri was until yesterday. learn something new everyday.
It's interesting finding out about those twins. sometimes they're both immortal, sometimes one is and one ain't. Zeus is dad to one and a Spartan prince is to the other sometimes.. one could make a collection and interest just out of those type coins. i couldn't find anything on them and just happened to be watching a Docu. on Greeks in Italy and it showed where a church had been built over a temple to them, ironically while i was researching the coin...
Thanks for the shoutout Severus, I'm glad you enjoyed the write-up on Antiochus. That is a great tetradrachm you have. The sorrowful portrait has made these coins one of my favorite issues of the Seleucids.
