Featured Antiochus IV Epiphanes Tetradrachm and a little bit of Microbiology

Early Life
Antiochus IV was the youngest son of Antiochus III Megas and Laodice III and was born in 215 BCE. Antiochus's early life isn't well documented; after the Seleucid defeat by the Roman Republic he was exchanged as a political hostage by his father. After the death of Antiochus III in 187 BCE, he was exchanged for his nephew, Demetrius I, and spent his time in Athens. It appears that during his brief stay in Rome Antiochus grew fond of Roman customs and traditions, he notably spent a lot of time at gladiatorial games.

King of the Seleucids
In 175 BCE Seleucus IV was murdered by his minister of finance, Heliodorus. Antiochus immediately traveled to Syria and deposed Heliodorus, who at the time was acting as a regent for the younger son of Seleucus IV. Antiochus IV ruled jointly with his nephew until 170, where the boy disappears from history. It is unknown if he was murdered or died of natural causes.

Antiochus IV finished paying off the massive indemnity to Rome by 173 BCE. As a result of the massive difficulty of paying off such as large amount of silver, the Seleucids reduced the weight of their tetradrachms from roughly 17.1 grams to 16.5 grams.

Luckily for Seleucus IV his sister, Cleopatra I, acted as regent for her sons Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII. During this time both countries enjoyed a well needed peace that allowed them to deal with severe internal crises. Unfortunately for Antiochus IV however, his sister died in 176 BCE and his nephews came under the influence of two men named Eulaeus and Lenaeus. The regents pushed for immediate war with the Seleucid empire with the intent of retaking the valuable province of Cole-Syria which had been lost to Antiochus III nearly twenty years earlier.

War!
Antiochus IV immediately recognized the imminent invasion that the regents were planning and decided to strike first. Despite being a "palace prince" it turns out Antiochus was also a very good general. Antiochus swept away all Ptolemaic forces from the border and defeated the main Ptolemaic army at Pelusium.
The councilors of the Pharaohs recognized their error and quickly replaced the two regents, but the damage was already done. Antiochus IV proclaimed Ptolemy VI to be the rightful king of Egypt to the dismay of the people of Alexandria. Antiochus besieged the city and his forces took over large chunks of the kingdom. Eventually the Romans got involved and famously demanded that Antiochus IV decide to leave Egypt before he left a circle that had been drawn on the ground by a Roman emissary. Antiochus IV reluctantly left Egypt and Ptolemy VI and VIII became joint kings.

While the outcome of the Sixth-Syrian war was technically a status quo antebellum, the fact that a Seleucid monarch had managed to defeat and scatter the entire Ptolemaic army, occupy Thebes, and a large part of the country side; would have severe repercussions for the Ptolemies down the road. In addition both Ptolemy VI and VIII would never agree to a stable power sharing agreement that would leave both men content. The Ptolemies had been in decline since Ptolemy V, but the Sixth Syrian war marks the beginning of their eventual total loss of sovereignty to the Roman Republic.

Twilight Years
While returning from Egypt, Antiochus IV took Jerusalem by storm and ordered the Jews to be forcefully hellenized. Jewish customs were forbidden and temples were rededicated to the Greek Pantheon. Unsurprisingly the Jews immediately revolted at the intolerance shown to them. The Maccabean revolt initially started under Antiochus IV, but wouldn't require a direct response from the Seleucid crown until the reign of Demetrius I Soter.

Around the time of the Maccabean revolt the Parthians in the east began to slowly encroach on Seleucid territories in greater Iran. Antiochus IV assembled his army at the city of Daphne near Antioch for a grand religious and military festival. The Daphne festival showed how much Seleucus IV and Antiochus IV had pieced the Seleucid army back together after their defeat by Rome nearly twenty years earlier.

Polybios describes the Seleucid military marching through the streets of Daphne in great detail:

"A splendidly outfitted army of more than 40,000 infantry and about 10,000 cavalry marched at the head.
These were mainly heavy armed troops and guard regiments. More than half of the infantry consisted of Macedonian shock troops, including the elite regiments of the Bronze Shields and the Silver Shields, both numbering 5,000 men, another 10,000 regular phalangites, and 5,000 soldiers wearing breast-plates and chain armour ‘after the Roman fashion’."

In addition the Seleucids marched numerous images and statues of the gods with a hundred white ox and goats to be sacrificed to them. The procession also included gifts given by Greek cities and emissaries. Large wagon trains are described by Polybios containing gold embroidered cloth, ivory, and silver plates taken by Antiochus IV in his campaign against the Ptolemies.

After the celebrations at Daphne, Antiochus IV and his army marched east and defeated the Armenian King Artaxias; forcing him to become a Seleucid vassal. It was around this time however that Antiochus IV began rapidly losing weight and becoming deathly ill. Antiochus IV Epiphanes died in what is now modern day Isfahan, Iran; he was 51 years old.



Speculation and History of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
I cannot definitely prove anything as both the men in question have been dead for over two millennia, however here are my thoughts as to what Seleucus IV and Antiochus IV may have been afflicted with.

Seleucus IV was described as being very sickly during his tenure as King, which is possibly another reason why he never engaged in any wars. Futhermore, Antiochus IV's death is described as him slowly "wasting away" by the time he reached greater Iran.
As the sources specifically use the word "wasting" this is what leads me to believe that both men were possibly afflicted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As I am typing out this write up, roughly 25 percent of the human race is currently afflicted by this bacterium and an estimated 1 million persons die each year. And this is with modern medicine mind you! In ancient times with no knowledge of Germ Theory and certainly with no effective treatments, the rates of Tuberculosis infection would have been very high.

To briefly describe the process of infection:
A person with an active tuberculosis infection coughs profusely which releases the bacteria on vapor droplets to the surrounding environment. If a nearby person inhales the infectious droplets there is a decent chance the immune system will successfully destroy the bacteria before an infection occurs. If the person’s immune system does not destroy the bacterium initally, then it enters the lung and successfully replicates. The body eventually recognizes that there is a foreign bacterium in the lung and sends large amounts of neutrophils and macrophages(types of white blood cells) to the lungs to kill the invader. Mycobacterium tuberculosis has unfortunately evolved to resist destruction by these white blood cells, and even thrives inside of them!
The body eventually creates a hollow cavity in the lungs and isolates the bacterium in the granuloma. At this point the infection can go latent for years, decades and even the remaining time of the persons natural life span. The patient is not infectious and cannot spread the disease to other people in this stage. Unfortunately what all to often happens is that whether due to stress or another unrelated infection the Tuberculosis bacteria in the lungs can escape the granuloma and infiltrate other parts of the lung, organs, bone, and nervous tissue. When a reactivation of infection occurs the body goes into overdrive to try to kill the bacteria, inflammatory cytokines are released that lead to the destruction of infected tissue and uninfected tissue alike. At this stage without treatment the patient is extremely infectious and is showing signs of malnutrition. In the end the patient usually dies of a secondary infection, shortness of breathe, or starvation.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were very familiar with this stage of infection which is why they came up with the term Phthisis( Consumption) to describe the disease as a whole.

The thought of dying in this manner makes me shutter with fear; I cannot think of many worse ways to go.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Robert Koch in the late 1800's in identifying the causative agent of TB and Dr Albert Schatz and Dr Selman Waksman in the 1940's who discovered a way to treat it; we live in an age where TB infections in the developed world are rather rare. Though we have come along way, let us continue to work towards a world where this insidious bacteria is banished to the history books and can no longer destroy lives.


Antiochus IV Epiphanes AR Tetradrachm

Seleucid Kings, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 175-164 Antiochia Tetradrachm circa 168-164, AR 32 mm. 16.2 gm. Obv: Diademed head r. Rev: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY ΘEOY EΠIΦANOYΣ NIKEΦOPOY, Zeus Nikephoros seated l.; monogram to outer l. SC 1400. Attractive find patina.

An artist's rendition of what the soldiers on parade at Daphne would have looked like.



Mycobacterium tuberculosis(Pink)and WBC's(blue) in a stain of a sputum sample from an infected person.

A very good chart explaining the types of TB infections.


A drawing of a lung afflicted with Pulmonary TB


Sources
https://alexander-the-great.org/wars-of-the-diadochi/sixth-syrian-war.php

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antiochus-IV-Epiphanes

https://www.academia.edu/1665570/Antiochus_IV_Epiphanes_and_the_Daphne_Festival
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312808001546

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/mycobacterium-tuberculosis

 

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Great post and very interesting medical theory (though it’s hard for me to feel much sympathy for a guy like Antiochus). That’s a beautiful tetradrachm too...here are a couple of his bronzes.


Antiochos IV Epiphanes, (AE, 20.5 mm, 6.33 g), Antioch on-the-Callirhoe (Edessa), quasi- municipal issue, 168-164. Radiate and diademed head of Antiochos to right. Rev. ANTIOXEΩN TΩN EΠI KAΛΛIPPOHI Zeus Aëtophoros standing left, holding scepter; MY monogram to outer left.


Antiochus IV Epiphanes, (AE 32mm, 35.39g). Laureate head of Zeus-Serapis right/ Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY ΘEOY EΠIΦANOYΣ, Eagle standing right on thunderbolt.

 

I've shown this before, but I think it is very appropriate to this thread, and sure to enrage the Maccabean Jews of his time Note also the weight of the coin:

Antiochos IV Epiphanes. 175-164 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.27 gm, 1h, 32mm). Antioch mint. Struck 169-164 BC. Obv: Laureate and bearded head of Zeus with features of Antiochos right, within fillet border. Rev: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY ΘEOY EΠIΦANOYΣ NIKHΦOPOY, Zeus seated left, holding Nike in left hand, scepter in right. SNG Spaer 1003; Le Rider, Antioche, Series IIIA, 247 (A24/P173); Mørkholm Series III, 14 (A22/P93); SMA 63.

 

Nice write-up, @Magnus Maximus!

The persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV, who regarded himself as Zeus, and thus took the name Theos Epiphanes ("God Manifested"), was severe. He plundered the temple, banned Judaism, and executed many observant Jews. The temple was desecrated with an altar to Zeus upon which a pig was sacrificed. This provoked an uprising in 167 BC led by a rural priest named Mattathias the Hasmonean and his sons. When Mattathias died in 166 BC, his son Judah the Maccabee (the “Hammer”; Latinate: Judas Maccabeus) took his place. He recaptured Jerusalem in 164 BC (at a time when the Seleucid army was preoccupied with a Parthian attack by King Mithridates I), and the temple was purified and rededicated to Yahweh. A new celebration was instituted to recall the restoration of Jewish worship at the temple- The Feast of Dedication, as it's referred to John 10:22, or Hanukkah, as it's called today [the Hebrew word for "consecration" of "dedication" is "Hanukkah"
(חנכה)].


Seleukid Kingdom. Antioch on the Orontes. Antiochos IV Epiphanes 175-164 BC.
Bronze Æ. 20 mm, 9.02 g. Radiate diademed head of Antiochus right / ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ / ΠΡΟΣ ΔΑΦΝΗΙ, Zeus, wearing himation, standing facing, looking left, holding wreath in outstretched right hand.

 

Antiochos IV Ar Tetradrachm Antioch SC 1400 HGC 620a Obv. Head right diademed. Rv. Zeus Nikephoros seated left. 168-160 B.C. 16.86 grms
31mm Ex Bunker Hunt Collection Photo by W. Hansen

 

Very nice coins, all!

 

Great tetradrachm and write up @Magnus Maximus. From his last series with Nikephoros epithet.

Here a bronze coin with a similar reverse as the 2nd series (without the Nikephoros epithet) of his tetradrachms:

Antiochos IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) Æ Denomination B. Uncertain Syrian mint, struck ca. 173-168 B.C.
Obverse: Radiate, diademed head of Antiochus IV right.
Reverse: BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ ANTIOXΟΥ ΘEOY EΠIΦANOYΣ (“of King Antiochos, God Manifest”). Zeus seated left on high-backed throne, holding phiale and scepter.
Reference: SC 1437;
7.47g; 21mm