SELEUKID KINGS. Antiochos III ‘the Great’, 222-187 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 27 mm, 16.74 g, 6 h), Ekbatana, after 197. Diademed head of Antiochos III 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, monogram above head of a horse to left. ESM 638 and pl. XLVIII, 12 (same obverse die). SC pl. 62, 1232.2a (same obverse die). Extremely rare. A lightly toned piece with a wonderful portrait struck in exceptionally high relief. Light die rust on the obverse and the reverse struck slightly off center, otherwise, extremely fine.

This very rare late series from Ekbatana is known from only a single obverse die. It is distinguished by a magnificent portrait of the great Seleukid king, carved in exceptionally high relief. SC suggests a date of '197 BC or later' for the issue. The portrait, featuring the king’s increasingly thinning hair, clearly points to a late emission, possibly from the final years of Antiochos III’s reign. Antiochos III was murdered in 187 BC in Elymais after decades of nearly continuous warfare, numerous major victories, and a decisive defeat by the Scipios, allegedly while pillaging a temple of Bel to raise urgently needed funds after agreeing to pay massive war indemnities to Rome. However, this could also be a literary topos in pro-Roman historiography, as the act of coining temple treasures was not necessarily considered sacrilege. Temples often served as local treasuries scattered throughout the kingdom, especially in the vast Seleukid Empire, and the king’s use of these resources may have been seen as a pragmatic solution rather than a violation of sacred space. The fact that a similar 'sacrilegious act' is attributed to Antiochos IV, often referred to as the 'persecutor king' from a Jewish perspective, makes such an interpretation even more plausible. Nevertheless, the murder of both monarchs suggests that the indigenous populations were unwilling to tolerate actions that, while acceptable in the Greek world, were not in their own cultural context