SELEUKID KINGS. Demetrios I Soter, with Laodike IV, 162-150 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 15.73 g, 4 h), Seleukeia on the Tigris, 161-150. Jugate busts of Demetrios I, diademed, and Laodike, draped and wearing stephane, to right.
Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ΔHMHTΡIOΥ - ΣΩTHPOΣ Tyche seated left on throne supported by tritoness, holding short scepter in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left; to left, monogram and palm frond. SC 1689.1. Very rare. Some roughness and numerous light scratches and with a die break on the obverse and the reverse struck slightly off center
, otherwise, very fine.
From a West German collection, privately acquired from Bank Leu in 1986 (for 6,250 CHF).
Laodike IV, daughter of Seleukos IV, was married to the Macedonian King Perseus in 178 BC. Unlike her husband and three children, she escaped Roman captivity after the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC and returned to Syria. Around 160 BC, her brother, Demetrios I, offered her as a wife to Ariarathes V of Cappadocia. To the great outrage of the Seleukid court, however, Ariarathes rejected the proposal. Consequently, Demetrios appears to have married his sister himself, with Laodike later depicted alongside him on Seleukid coinage. Some years later, in 150 BC, the siblings met a violent end, slain by Alexander Balas.
