SELEUKID KINGS. Seleukos IV Philopator, 187-175 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 17.01 g, 12 h), Antiochia in Persis. Diademed head of Seleukos IV to right. Rev. BAΣIΛΕΩΣ - ΣΕΛEYKOY Apollo seated left on omphalos, holding arrow in his right hand and resting his left on grounded bow; to outer left and outer right, monograms. CSE 1058. HGC 9, 580k. Le Rider, Suse sous les Séleucides et les Parthies. Le trouvailles monétaire et l'histoire de la ville, pl. 46D (this coin). SC 1340 (this coin cited). Rare. Lovely iridescent toning and with a very old pedigree. Minor marks, otherwise, good very fine.



Antiochia in Persis is known to us thanks to a fortunate coincidence: it is attested in not just one but two inscriptions - an exceptionally rare case among the many Seleukid city foundations in the Upper Satrapies, which are otherwise poorly documented both epigraphically and historiographically. Both inscriptions originate from Magnesia on the Maeander in Ionia and concern the institution of the panhellenic games of Artemis Leukophryene in that city. These inscriptions reveal that the citizens of Magnesia sent embassies to various cities to announce the founding of the games and to request their recognition as panhellenic. The famous inscription OGIS 233 preserves the reply from Antiochia in Persis to the Magnesians. The letter opens with the striking dating formula:

(Decree) of the citizens of the people of Antiochia in P[ersis]. In the year in which the priest of Seleukos (I) Nikator and of Antiochos (I) Soter and of Antiochos (II) Theos and of Seleukos (II) Kallinikos and of King Seleukos (III) and of King Antiochos (III) and of his son King Antiochos was Heraklitos son of Zoes [...].

The letter confirms recognition of the games in Magnesia as panhellenic and also offers valuable insights into the political structures and history of Antiochia in Persis. It attests to the existence of a boulē (council), an ekklesia (assembly) or dēmos, of prytaneis (executives of the boulē), and of tamiai (treasurers). Antiochia in Persis thus emerges as a fully developed Greek polis. We also learn that the city was founded by Antiochos I (281-261 BC) - presumably during the period between 294 and 281 BC, when he served as viceroy under his father Seleukos I (305-281 BC) and undertook the administration and urbanization of the Upper Satrapies. To support this new foundation, Magnesia sent settlers in response to the king’s request.

The Antiochene letter concludes with a passage - unfortunately only fragmentarily preserved - that lists other cities visited by the Magnesian envoys, which likewise recognized the games of Artemis Leukophryene as panhellenic:

[...] the Seleukeians near the Tigris, the Apameians near the Sellas, the Seleukeians by the Erythraean Sea, the Seleukeians near the [Eu]laios, the Seleuk[eians] by the [...], the Anti[chenes] by [...], the Al[exandrians ...].

Evidently, the Magnesian embassy undertook a veritable tour through the Seleukid East.

The second inscription (OGIS 231) provides the date of the embassy: it is a letter from Antiochos III (222-187 BC) himself to the Magnesians, in which he reports having met the envoys - named here as Dempohon, Philiskos, and Pheres - in Antiochia in Persis. This dates the event to 205 BC, when the great Seleukid king was on his return from the grand Anabasis (212-205 BC), during which he had reasserted Seleukid dominance over the far eastern regions of the empire.

The fact that Antiochos’s great campaign made a stop at Antioch in Persis, and that the king from there crossed the Gulf to Tylos (modern Bahrain), underscores the city’s importance: it was clearly a thoroughly Greek settlement of regional significance, where the king held court, which possessed a naval base, and later even hosted a royal mint - established in the 2nd century BC, as attested by our beautiful tetradrachm of Seleukos IV, the son and heir of Antiochos III. Although the precise location of Antiochia in Persis remains unknown, current research places it near modern Bushehr on the southwestern coast of Iran. The city stands as a testament to the Seleukids’ determined efforts to control not only Persis - the former heartland of the Achaemenids - but also the Persian Gulf and its vital trade routes.