KINGS OF COMMAGENE. Epiphanes & Kallinikos, circa 60s-72. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 21 mm, 7.54 g, 12 h), Antiochia on the Orontes. BACIΛEΩC YIOI Epiphanes and Kallinikos, both on horseback, riding side by side to the left.
Rev. KOMMAΓHNΩN Capricorn to right with star above and anchor below; all within laurel wreath. Kovacs pl. 20, 241 (
this coin). RPC I 3861. Rare. Boldly struck and with a beautiful near black patina, by far the finest known example, and the Kovacs plate coin. Minor adjustment marks as made
, otherwise, extremely fine.
Ex Tkalec, 7 May 2006, 74, from the D. Freedman Collection of Greek Bronze Coins, Triton V, 15 January 2002, 560 and ex Sternberg XI, 21 November 1981, 192.
The coinage of Antiochos IV (38-40 and 41-72) differs significantly from that of his predecessors: this king is now portrayed not with an Armenian tiara, but with a diadem - the ultimate symbol of Hellenistic kingship (cf. Kovacs, p. 43).
Particularly noteworthy are the issues struck for his two sons, Epiphanes and Kallinikos. They are portrayed together on several coin types: one features crossed cornucopiae, a motif well known from sestertii of Tiberius depicting Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus, which undoubtedly served as a model. Another type - of which our specimen is the best-preserved known example - depicts the two princes riding side by side to the left. This imagery presented them to the people as the rightful heirs to the aging king.
However, hopes for an orderly succession were ultimately dashed. In 72, Antiochos IV was deposed by Vespasian under what were likely false accusations of conspiring with the Parthians. His sons put up brief resistance but eventually fled to the Parthians - only to be handed over to the Romans without delay. Like their father, they spent the remainder of their lives in exile in Rome, while Commagene was incorporated as a Roman province
