SELEUKID KINGS OF SYRIA. Kleopatra Thea & Antiochos VIII, 126/5-121/0 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 16.41 g, 12 h), Ake-Ptolemais. Jugate busts of Kleopatra Thea, diademed, veiled and wearing a stephane, and Antiochos VIII, diademed, to right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ / ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ / ΘEAΣ - ΚΑΙ / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ Zeus seated left, holding Nike in his right hand and long scepter in his left; to outer left, monogram. Franke-Hirmer pl. 208, 760 V (this coin). SC 2271. Beautifully toned and with two lovely portraits. Good very fine.


Kleopatra Thea went down in history as one of the most ambitious and ruthless Seleukid queens. She was a daughter of Ptolemy VI Philometor and his sister-wife Kleopatra II and married to no less than three Seleukid kings: Alexander Balas, Demetrios II, and Antiochos VII Sidetes, the latter of whom were brothers. Antiochos VII died in 129 BC while campaigning against the Parthians, whereas Demetrios II, who had been a Parthian captive for ten years, was murdered by his former wife Kleopatra after his defeat against Alexander II Zabinas in 126 BC. The cold-blooded queen then established herself as sole ruler for a few months before accepting Antiochos VIII, her second son by Demetrios II, as co-ruler in 126/5 BC. But the apple never falls far from the tree, and so the young king murdered his own mother a few years later, in 121 BC, allegedly by forcing her to drink poisoned wine she had prepared for him - what a lovely family!