SELEUKID KINGS. Antiochos IV Epiphanes, 175-164 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 16.01 g, 12 h), Antiochia on the Orontes, summer-autumn 168. Laureate and bearded head of Zeus to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ / ANTIOΧOY - ΘEOY / EΠIΦANOYΣ - NIKHΦOPOY Zeus seated left, holding Nike in his right hand and long scepter in his left. HGC 9, 620a. SC 1398. Rare. Beautifully toned and with a beautiful head of Zeus of the finest style. Light porosity and with a minor edge chip, otherwise, very fine.



Traditionally linked to Antiochos IV's famous month-long festival at Daphne in 166 BC, this special coinage issue is now believed to commemorate his invasion of Egypt in 168 BC, during which he conquered much of the Ptolemaic heartland. Just as it seemed that Antiochos was poised to revive the waning Seleukid power at the expense of the dynasty’s bitter rivals, a Roman delegation arrived, presenting him with an ultimatum: immediate withdrawal or war (the famous 'Day of Eleusis'). Faced with the threat of Roman intervention, the Seleukid king swiftly withdrew, returning with his army to Syria. There, he transformed his humilation into a symbolic victory, commissioning these beautiful tetradrachms coins that featured not his own portrait on the obverse, but that of his patron, the Olympian Zeus.