SELEUKID KINGS. Antiochos I Soter, 281-261 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 17.06 g, 2 h), Magnesia on Mount Sipylos (?), circa 263-261. Diademed head of Antiochos I to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ANTIOXOY Herakles seated left on lion skin draped on large rock, holding club set on his left foot in his right hand and leaning left on rock; in exergue, two monograms. HGC 9, 129. SC 318c. WSM 1456 var. (slightly differing monogram). Beautifully toned and with an exceptional portrait in particularly dramatic early Hellenistic style. Minor marks and the obverse struck slightly off center, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



The emphasis on deep-set eyes and an uplifted gaze is one of the most striking expressive devices of late Classical and early Hellenistic art. It belongs to that heightened language of movement and human emotion that also characterizes contemporary sculpture. In numismatic portraiture, this effect is especially pronounced in the early Seleukid series, above all under Antiochos I and II. The present tetradrachm of Antiochos I pushes this dramatic idiom to its limit, both stylistically and technically: the strongly raised upper orbital ridge, further accentuated by the locks falling across the forehead, rises almost vertically several millimetres above the deeply set eye.