SELEUKID KINGS. Antiochos, son of Seleukos IV, 175 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 17.07 g, 12 h), Antiochia on the Orontes, 3 September-October/November 175. Diademed head of Antiochos to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ANTIOXOY Apollo seated left on omphalos, holding arrow in his right hand and resting his left on grounded bow; to left, tripod; in exergue, monogram of ΠA. Newell, Antioch, 47. Le Rider, Antioche, 35 (A2/P19). SC pl. 4, 1369a (same dies). Very rare and among the finest known. A wonderful example of this very difficult issue, beautifully toned, struck on a broad flan, and with a splendid portrait of the child king. Good very fine.

Seleukos IV was murdered by his minister Heliodoros on 3 September 175 BC. Upon hearing the news, the king’s younger brother, Antiochos (IV), hastened from Athens to Antioch with the support of Eumenes II of Pergamon, where he arrived in late October or late November 175 and successfully claimed the throne. Appian describes this transition as relatively smooth; however, the numismatic record attests to the brief rule of another Antiochos - namely, the younger son of Seleukos IV. It is likely that Heliodoros, unable to seize the throne for himself, installed the infant as a puppet king in place of his assassinated father, hoping to act as the éminence grise of the new regime. This plan backfired upon the arrival of Antiochos IV, who had the bureaucrat executed in 175, followed by the ill-fated young prince in 170. With Antiochos IV’s rise to power, the principle of direct succession within the Seleukid dynasty was broken for the first time. Since Seleukos IV’s older son, Demetrios - later Demetrios I (162-150 BC) - was still alive but held as a hostage in Rome, this disruption of succession would lead, after Antiochos IV’s death, to bitter and protracted dynastic conflicts between the now-competing branches of the brothers Seleukos IV and Antiochos IV. These struggles would prove instrumental in hastening the empire’s decline