SELEUKID KINGS. Seleukos II Kallinikos, 246-225 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 16.95 g, 12 h), Teos or Ephesos (?), circa 246-242. Diademed head of Seleukos II to right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ Apollo standing left, holding arrow in his right hand and resting left elbow on tall tripod; in inner left field, palm frond. HGC 9, 303c. SC 644.2. SNG Spaer 447. Beautifully toned and with a portrait of fine style. A wonderful coin with an exceptionally attractive reverse. Very minor doubling on the obverse and with a faint scratch on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.



Despite his long reign, we know surprisingly little about Seleukos II Kallinikos. His epithet, 'the Victorious,' may strike modern ears as faintly ironic in view of his many defeats and reverses. In the war against his brother Antiochos Hierax, he lost Asia Minor. At the same time, Seleukid authority in parts of the upper satrapies began to erode, while in northern Iran the Parthian kingdom was beginning to take shape. Already in the first year of his reign, he even lost Antioch on the Orontes to Ptolemy III, and the Lagid ruler eventually pushed on as far as Seleukeia on the Tigris. Yet Seleukos II gradually succeeded in stabilizing the situation and securing the Seleukid heartland of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran. In 225 BC, however, in the midst of preparations for a campaign to recover Asia Minor from Attalos of Pergamon, he died unexpectedly in a riding accident.

Our magnificent tetradrachm was struck in the early years of Seleukos' reign, when he still controlled parts of Asia Minor in the course of the war with Hierax. It was probably minted at Teos or Ephesos and features a splendid depiction of Apollo, the tutelary god of the Seleukid dynasty.