Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="John Anthony, post: 2246512, member: 42773"]It's a very nice coin indeed. Whatever "issues" these tets have are frequently offset by being big chunks of ancient silver, at least in my opinion. They're always great in hand. The tets of Antiochus VII exhibit many off-center strikes, so what you have there is more the norm than the coin I sold. Since the owner of that coin is yet to receive it, I'll take the liberty of posting it myself, along with the brief history surrounding Antiochus' relationship with the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus... [ATTACH=full]443851[/ATTACH] Antiochus VII was the last of the "great" Seleucid kings, ruling from 138 to 129 BC. According to Josephus, the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus paid Antiochus VII a tribute of three thousand talents, directly from King David's sepulchre, in order to spare Jerusalem. The tribute must have worked, because Josephus also records that Antiochus treated the Jews very well, and they themselves bestowed the title "Euergetes" on him, meaning "Benefactor." We don't really know what happened after that event, as Josephus goes silent, and the Book of Maccabees ends before Antiochus' time. However, we do know that Hyrcanus refrained from attacking Seleucid-controlled areas during his rule, and that he even assisted Antiochus in his various campaigns.[/QUOTE]