Although the silver and many of the bronze issues of Seleucia on the Tigris had long been recognized as such by the present writer in arranging the Seleucid coins in his own collection, he hesitated to publish his researches, because the final proof of the correctness of his attributions depended upon the ascertained find spots of the copper coins. Many of these pieces existed in his own, as well as in the large public collections of London, Paris and Berlin; but their primary source or origin was generally unknown. The most that could be said was that such coins seemed, as a rule, to come from Mesopotamia and western Persia—hardly enough evidence upon which to base a definitive study. The necessity of waiting any longer has now been removed by the appearance of Dr. McDowell's important description and study1 of the thousands of copper coins unearthed in the course of the excavations carried on by the University of Michigan at Tel Umar, the site of ancient Seleucia.
Seleucia on the Tigris, as is well known, was founded by Seleucus I at or near the once flourishing city of Opis.2 It was situated some forty miles to the north-east of Babylon and fifteen miles to the south of modern Baghdad, near the spot where the "Royal Canal" (Nahr Malcha) of Nebuchadrezzar and earlier kings joins the Tigris river. The basic reasons for Seleucus' new foundation were doubtless commercial and political, strengthened by his determination to remove his capital from the subversive associations of the past, as well as from the constant and, at times, possibly malign influence of a powerful and independent priesthood, for many centuries deeply entrenched in Babylon. Seleucus fully appreciated that one city, however vast, could not successfully and peacefully contain an immense hierarchy wielding enormous influence over the resident multitudes of superstitious natives, a thoroughly Greek government, and a large Greek population as well.
History proves that the site of the new capital was indeed wisely chosen. To it, Seleucus moved all government offices and settled there large numbers of Greeks as well as native Babylonians. The city grew rapidly in size, wealth and consequence,2a drawing to itself an ever increasing number of the former inhabitants of Babylon. The older city, the metropolis and capital of Mesopotamia for millenniums, now sank to the status of a provincial town, later to a mere "holy site," and eventually disappeared entirely except for vast fields of deserted and crumbling ruins. From that day to this, Seleucia and its successors—Ctesiphon in Sassanian, Baghdad in mediaeval and modern times—have remained the centre of both government and population in the "Land of the Two Rivers."
The exact date of the founding of Seleucia is unknown. Regarding it, modern scholars are somewhat at variance. But Beloch,3 with his date put at shortly after 311 B. C., and Kaerst,4 with his at shortly after 306 B. C., are almost certainly more nearly correct than Bouché-Leclercq,5 who does not place the founding until after the battle of Ipsus in 301 B. C. The new and rapidly growing city replaced Babylon as the administrative centre, and it may be taken as certain that an important mint was at once opened here. Whether the old mint of Babylon was transferred in toto to Seleucia, or whether it was allowed for a time to continue coining the "lion" staters only, later to be closed down as no longer necessary, we cannot as yet be certain.
In any case, the present chapter proposes to deal only with the coins struck by Seleucus and his immediate successors in the new capital of Seleucia. But as these issues are the direct continuation of those struck previously at Babylon, a few words with regard to the latter may not be out of place.
Imhoof-Blumer was the first6 to point out the Babylonian coinages of Alexander the Great and Philip III. The numerous tetradrachms of these issues have also twice been added to, listed, and described by the present writer,7 and need no further discussion here. Through sequence of dies, style and fabric the Babylonian Alexandrine issues, both gold and silver, from the death of Philip III to circa 305 B. C., are easily determined. They will be found in Müller's great work8 under Nos. 709–49, 1484 and 1488–90. To these, of course, must be added many varieties not known to Müller and therefore not found in his lists. Alongside the Alexandrine coinages for Babylon, there was also the prolific so-called "lion type" coinage: obverse, Baal-Tars (or Zeus) enthroned to l.; reverse, Prowling lion to l. These have been carefully listed by Six,9 Imhoof-Blumer 10 and Hill.11
In 305 B. C. Seleucus, following the example set by his fellow satraps (Antigonus, Demetrius, Cassander, Lysimachus and Ptolemy), officially assumed the title of king. His Alexander type coinages immediately reflect this important step and, thenceforth, we find the name of Seleucus replacing that of Alexander on the coins issued from Seleucia. In other respects, i.e. types, weight, and fabric, these new issues are but the continuation of the immediately preceding coinages of Babylon.
In the following catalogue only such specimens have been gathered together as have been most easily available to the writer. No claim to completeness is made, especially for the period after Seleucus I. But enough specimens have been accumulated to offer a reasonably clear picture of the productions of the Seleucia mint from circa 305 B. C. down to the death of Antiochus III.
Only for the reign of Seleucus himself has attention been paid to the dies used, and the gold and silver coins arranged accordingly. The obverse dies of the gold staters have been given capital, the reverse dies italic, letters. The obverse or anvil dies of the tetradrachms have been numbered A1, A2, etc.; the reverse or punch dies P1, P2, etc. Both the small silver and the bronze issues of Seleucus, as well as all the coins of his immediate successors, have not had their dies numbered, as the writer's material is largely confined to his own collection and to illustrated catalogues. The assembling of casts of these coins, preserved in the various museums and private collections, seemed, for the present at least, unnecessary as entailing too great a burden upon the already much-tried generosity and time of their various curators.
In the case of the bronze coins, the denominational designations suggested must be considered as absolutely arbitrary and employed only to render it possible to distinguish the various sizes at a glance. No die positions of any of the gold, silver or bronze coins have been given as, throughout this period, the coins at the mint of Seleucia appear to have been struck from loose dies. This had also been the practice at Babylon ever since the second issue under Alexander the Great.12
Where ascertainable, the weights of all coins catalogued have been given. Students, however, must be cautioned with regard to the present weights of the silver coins from the Haynes and Gejou Hoards. When found, these coins were so heavily corroded by the salts present in the Mesopotamian soil that all details of their types and magistrates' monograms were invisible. In the process of cleaning, they have naturally lost in weight from one to two grammes per tetradrachm—the smaller pieces in proportion. The same is also true with regard to most of the bronze coins from the excavations at Seleucia. Throughout the catalogue itself, coins from Prof. Haynes' Babylonian Hoard (Noe No. 118) are designated by the name "Haynes," those from M. Gejou's Mesopotamian Hoard (Noe No. 680) by "Gejou." The great European public collections in London, Paris, Berlin, etc. are referred to by the names of these respective cities. The catalogues of Seleucid coins in the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale are designated by the names of their authors, Gardner and Babelon.
1. Stater.
Head of Athena to r. wearing a triple-crested Corinthian helmet adorned with a coiled serpent.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l., ΣEΛEYKOY on r. (to be read from the centre out). Winged Nike standing, facing l., holding wreath in her outstretched
r. and
stylis in her l. Behind Nike, 
.
2. Tetradrachm.
Youthful head of Heracles to r. in lion's skin. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue, ΣEΛEYKOY on the r. Zeus, naked to waist, seated l. on
high-backed throne, holds eagle in outstretched r., rests l. on sceptre. In l. field, .
3. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, . Beneath throne, 
.
4. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, . Beneath throne, 
.
5. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, . Beneath throne, K.
). α) London (Gardner, No. 4, who mistakes the overcut letters for a star), gr.
17.11; β) Newell, gr. 17.09. PLATE II, 11.
6. Bronze Double.
Head of Athena to r., with long hair and wearing a crested Attic helmet. Circle of dots.
Humped bull to r. Above, .
α) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); β) London (Recueil géneral, etc., p. 247, No. 2, Pl. xxxvii, 6). PLATE III, 2; γ) London; δ) London; ε) Newell, gr. 8.51; f) Newell, gr. 9.24. PLATE III, 1.
7. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding
Similar to the preceding, but with the beneath the bull.
London. PLATE III, 3.
8. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with the Seleucid anchor above the bull, and 
in the
exergue.
α) London; β) London; γ) London. PLATE III, 4; δ) London. PLATE III, 5; ε–f) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11 (the two specimens said to have an anchor probably belong here. See below, p. 34, No. 108a).
9. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 5.
Similar to No. 5. In l. field, in wreath. Beneath throne, .
10. Stater.
From the same die as No. 1 (A).
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l., ΣEΛEYKOY on r. (to be read from the centre out). Winged Nike to l. as on No. 1. In l. field,
in wreath. In r. field, K.
11. Stater.
Same die as the preceding.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l., AΛEΞANΔPOY on r. (to be read in the usual manner). Type similar to the preceding. In l. field, in wreath. In r. field, K.
12. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 9.
Similar to No. 9. In l. field, in wreath. Beneath throne, K.
13. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but Zeus holds a wreath-bearing Nike in his outstretched r.
In l. field, . Beneath throne, K.
14. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, . Beneath the throne, BE.
15. Bronze Double.
Head of Athena to r. wearing a crested Corinthian helmet. Circle of dots.
The monogram above an elephant standing to r. Beneath elephant, B.
α) Newell (Mavrogordato-Beltazzi Coll., Jour. int. d'arch. num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 287, No. 623, Pl. xi, 28), gr. 6.03. PLATE IV, 4. This coin has been restruck on a specimen of No. 6. β) London. PLATE IV, 5. Also restruck over a preceding coin. γ) Newell, gr. 9.14. PLATE IV, 3; δ) London; ε) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 8, No. 29, Pl. lxiii, 14), gr. 8.75; f) Newell (from Irak), gr. 7.83.
15A. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, with above, and B beneath elephant to r.
Newell (sent from Beyrouth), gr. 4.55. PLATE LVI, 16.
16. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but is beneath the elephant, and B is in front.
α) Newell, gr. 3.96. PLATE IV, 6; β) London. PLATE IV, 7; γ) Rev. Edgar Rogers, Num. Chrtm., 4th Ser., Vol. XII, 1912, p. 240, No. 3, gr. 3.95, Pl. ix, 5.
17. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to No. 15, but with P beneath the elephant.
α) Newell, gr. 8.54. PLATE IV, 8; β) London. PLATE IV, 9; γ) London; δ) Paris (Babelon No. 61, Pl. ii, 15) gr. 8.20; ε) Cahn Sale 84, Nov. 1933, No. 403, gr. 8.50, Pl. 14.
18. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with 
beneath the elephant.
α) Newell, gr. 8.36. PLATE IV, 10; β) Newell (restruck on No. 6), gr. 8.19. PLATE IV, 11.
19. Tetradrachm.
Similar to Nos. 13 and 14.
Similar to Nos. 13 and 14. Zeus holds Nike in his outstretched r. In l. field, No. Beneath throne, Σ.
20. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same magistrates' letters.
α) Newell, gr. 2.13. PLATE IV, 14; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 25, Pl. I, 9), gr. 2.00.
21. Obol.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same magistrates' letters.
Cambridge (Leake Coll.), gr. 0.67. PLATE IV, 15.
22. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 19.
Similar to No. 19. In l. field, 
(or 
).
). α) Naville X, June 1925, No. 769, gr. 16.74, Pl. 26; β) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 6, No. 10, Pl. lxiii, 9), gr. 17.13. PLATE IV, 16.
). Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 7, No. 11), gr. 17.13. PLATE IV, 17.
). University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
). London (Gardner No. 17), gr. 16.50.
23. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, NO.
24. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with eagle (instead of victory) held by Zeus.
25. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, with eagle (instead of victory) held by Zeus. In l. field,
.
26. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but now Zeus again holds a victory. In l. field, A 
.
27. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, . Beneath throne, M.
28. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, M. Beneath throne, 
.
The initial coinage at Seleucia in the name of Seleucus I was, as might have been expected, of very considerable extent.
Although only four specimens of the gold stater (No. 1) are actually known to the writer, it required four obverse and four reverse dies to produce them, showing clearly how poorly represented this gold issue must be today. The tetradrachms, on the other hand, have survived in greater bulk. For the three known varieties of this denomination, eighteen obverse and fifty reverse dies are known. But, as every new specimen turning up almost invariably gives us a new reverse die, we can only surmise the real extent of the issue. Furthermore, although there are sixty recorded specimens, these fall into no less than fifty die combinations, of which only eleven are represented by more than one extant coin. Thus, the comparative poverty of our present-day material is again revealed.
Obviously, Seleucus was desirous of issuing his new coinage in sufficient quantity to replace as soon as might be
the old coins bearing the names of Alexander and
Philip III. In charge of the initial production was the magistrate
signing himself . At first, he alone supervises the gold (No. 1), silver (No. 2) and bronze (Nos. 6, 7)
issues, but the required extent of the coinage was apparently more than he could manage single-handed, and assistants were
soon added—three
for the silver (cf. Nos. 3–5) and one for the bronze (cf. No. 8).
Since the types employed by Seleucus for his gold and silver are well known from the preceding masses of Alexander coins, there is little need of comment. The gold staters (No. 1) are in
type, style and fabric but the direct continuation of what had previously been issued from the mint at Babylon.
Only in the arrangement of the inscription is there an innovation. On the Alexander staters of Babylon, when the title is added to the name, the invariable scheme is: 
. On the new issues of Seleucus, however, the schematic arrangement is: 
.
The gold, as well as the tetradrachms of Group A, is closest in style and fabric to the latest issues of Babylon.
Just as on all the tetradrachms of Alexander struck at Babylon, there is no exergual line on the reverse, and a cushion beneath the seated Zeus is more often present than absent. The only noticeable innovation is that on a few dies (P9, P13, P30, P31, P39) there is no back to the throne. The coins are all struck from loose dies. As K interchanges
with ΔI and , this letter cannot represent a date (as was suggested by Percy Gardner,13 and justly refuted by Babelon
14), but must be a magistrate's initial.
The mint at Babylon had apparently never previously coined in copper.15 Hence, Seleucia had no precedent to follow, and entirely new types were chosen (Nos. 6–8, PLATE III, 1–5). On the obverse we see a handsome head of Athena wearing a close fitting, crested helmet of Attic form, in contradistinction to the Corinthian form16—a type peculiar to the gold staters. The reverse is adorned with a humped bull to right, his forelegs braced stiffly before him, his head partially lowered. Sometimes, as on PLATE III, 1, the head is not markedly lowered, and the left foreleg seems to be pawing at the ground, as if in rage and defiance.
The sudden appearance on the bronze coins of such a type17 must have had some definite allusion, known to all beholders. With Eckhel,18 the present writer would here see a direct reference to what must have been a wide-spread story told of Seleucus' prowess. It is best presented to us in Appian,19 who states: "He (Seleucus) was of such a large and powerful frame that once when a wild bull was brought for sacrifice to Alexander and broke loose from his ropes, Seleucus held him alone, with nothing but his hands, for which reason his statues are ornamented with horns."20 Babelon, however, would see21 in this story merely a later tale concocted to explain the bull's horns so often to be noted on the portraits of Seleucus. The attitude of the bull on our coins would seem to be best explained by accepting the story as related by Appian. For the animal is not here depicted in the act of butting—its more usual representation on Seleucid coins—but its stance does actually suggest the wild bull of Appian's tale, just broken from its bands and defiantly facing the man approaching to overpower it.
| 13 |
Brit. Mus. Cat., Kings of Syria
, p. 2, No. 20.
|
| 14 |
Les rois de Syrie, etc., Introd., p. xxxviii.
|
| 15 |
To the writer, no copper coins of the Alexander type are known to exist which
can be assigned to Babylon, from the date of its conquest by Alexander in 331 down to 305 B. C. Small change was obviously furnished by the numerous
silver obols and half-obols which were issued from time to time and which bear the accustomed Babylonian mint-marks.
|
| 16 |
Cf. the interesting article by Dr. Lederer, Zeitschrift für Numismatik, Vol. XXXIII,
1921, pp. 198–200, dealing with these two types of helmet which sometimes appear on connected issues of coins. The present
coinage
furnishes still another instance of such a juxtaposition.
|
| 17 |
These copper coins have been attributed by Wroth, Brit. Mus. Cat., Pontus, etc., p.
109, Nos. 3, 4, Pl. XXV, 2, followed by the Recueil général des monnaies d'Asie Mineure, I2,
1908, p. 247, No. 2, Pl. XXXVII, 6, to Apamea-Myrlea in Bithynia. The style and fabric of the coins, however, are typically
Seleucid, and au tonomous coins very seldom, if ever, have the name of the minting city rendered by a monogram
only. Furthermore, the monogram itself cannot be made to resolve itself into MYPΛEA, as the upsilon is entirely
missing, and the monogram contains an eta which does not occur in the city's name. The anchor in the field of No.
7 proves the coin to be a royal Seleucid issue, and not autonomous. Finally, and this is surely the deciding
factor, specimens of No. 6 were later re-used as blanks upon which to strike Nos. 15 and 18.
|
The issues of this group are characterized by a wreath of myrtle, laurel or olive leaves encircling the monogram of the chief magistrate. Whether or not this fact had any historical significance can hardly be proved. Its presence may simply have served to differentiate the issues of this year from those preceding. Furthermore, the practice of encircling the chief magistrate's monogram with a wreath had previously been employed at Babylon over a long period.22 On the other hand, the sudden presence of the wreath, where previously for several years there had been none, is at least suggestive. If our proposed dating is accepted, this particular issue would fall about 304–3 B. C., or just when the news of Seleucus' successes in the East,23 and his recovery of distant Persian provinces, must have reached Babylonia.
There was now also a re-introduction of the gold stater (Nos. 10 and 11), which this time bears the subordinate's initial (K) as well as the monogram of the chief magistrate. Curiously enough, one of these staters (No. 11) displays the name of Alexander instead of that of Seleucus. The temporary change in the arrangement and content of the inscription on No. 11, back to what they had been under Alexander himself, clearly suggests a deliberate copying of an earlier coin for some definite purpose. Can it be that it was thus intended to link the names of Alexander and of Seleucus, the two great conquerors of the East? In the course of our studies we shall have occasion to comment on numerous other and yet more obvious allusions to the great Alexander, conqueror par excellence and the chosen model of Seleucid sovereigns.
The close association of Group B with A is shown not only by their common style and fabric, but also by the continued use of obverse die A in the production of the staters (Nos. 10 and 11), and of obverse dies A14, A15, A18 in that of the tetradrachms (Nos. 9 and 12). Discovery of further specimens of these coins will doubtless add to the number of instances of such re-use. The scanty number of examples which have survived bearing the subordinate's signature ΔI is noticeable. The fact that obverse die A15, associated with his issues in Group A, is here found used with three reverse dies signed K (P55, P56, P57), having in each case the new initial recut over the former ΔI, is significant of the procedure followed in the mint at this time.
| 18 |
Doctr. num. vet., Vol. III, p. 213.
|
| 19 |
Syr. 57. Aelian, Libanius and Codinus also know the story.
|
| 20 |
Translation by Horace White, Loeb Classical Library.
|
| 21 |
Les rois de Syrie, Introd., p. xxxii. Babelon here speaks with regard to the other
bulls which appear so frequently on Seleucid coins—for the present pieces were not recognized by him as being
of Seleucid origin. He suggests, as an explanation of the type on the coins of Seleucus I, an allusion to the famous bull
Nandi of India, Personification, as he says, de l'Inde comme les éléphants. Hence, he
regards the type as an allusion to Seleucus' campaigns in India. It seems very doubtful to the present writer that the Greeks, at this time, would think of personifying India by means of the bull, especially as to them the elephant appeared a far more
striking and characteristic animal. In any case, no reference to India can have been
intended on our particular coins because they were introduced previous to Seleucus'
invasion of India. According to older historians (Bevan,
Bouché-Leclercq, etc.), Seleucus signed the peace with Chandragupta in 302 B. C., just before he returned in haste to join
Lysimachus in Asia Minor. Beloch, loc. cit., p. 142, footnote 2, assigns this event to 304–3 B. C.
|
| 22 |
Müller, loc. cit., Nos. 709–49.
|
| 23 |
Beloch, loc. cit., p. 142, footnote 2, places the peace with Chandragupta "in the summer of 304 or at the latest in the following winter."
|
The heavy coinage of tetradrachms in Groups A and B seems now to have slowed production, and the present quantity is much reduced. Only two obverse (A22, A23) and five reverse dies (P67, P68, P69, P70, P71) are known, while the number of actual specimens recorded has fallen to eight. Corresponding staters appear to be entirely lacking.
Of particular interest is the sudden appearance in Zeus' right hand, on these
tetradrachms, of a tiny winged victory, facing to right and offering the god a wreath. On the other hand, the monogram is no longer surrounded by a wreath—possibly because that position, encircling the monogram of a mere magistrate,
was not so significant and the presence of the symbol was actually rendered unnecessary by the more telling symbolism of the
victory in
Zeus' hand. Coming as it does at this particular juncture in the coinage, the
allusion is obviously to the successes which Seleucus had gained (or wished his subjects to believe that he had
gained), in the eastern portions of his empire.
What the apparent sequence and dating of the silver coins suggest, the types now chosen for a fresh issue of bronze coins
render certain.
For it is at this very point that a completely new coinage of bronze, in two denominations, makes its appearance (Nos. 15–18).
The obverses
still present the head of Athena, but now wearing a helmet of Corinthian instead of
Attic form. The reverse type of both denominations is a splendid Indian elephant, which appears for the first time on Seleucid
coinages. Its obvious connection with Seleucus' Indian campaign and, above all, with his impressive
acquisition from Chandragupta of five hundred war elephants can hardly be escaped. That the new bronze issue
surely accompanied the tetradrachms of Group C is obvious from the fact that the monogram is without the
encircling wreath on both the silver and the bronzes, while the accompanying magistrate B, found on the bronze coins Nos.
15 to 16,
probably represents the same person as the BE of the tetradrachm No. 14. Thus, the two peculiarities—the victory on the silver,
the
elephant on the bronzes—together with their particular position in our sequence of issues, show the connection of Group C
with Seleucus' eastern successes to be practically certain.
It may be surmised, therefore, that the wreath in Group B may refer only to Seleucus' recovery of the easternmost Persian provinces. It could hardly have been until news of his peace with Chandragupta and the acquisition of the elephants had reached Seleucia, that the innovations represented by the Nike and the elephant would have appeared on the coins of that mint. Assuming that it would take at least a little time to prepare the new dies, their position in our sequence of issues brings their appearance between 303 and 302 at the earliest. This fact supports Beloch's dating (cf. IV. 1, p. 142) of the Peace Treaty in 304/3 B. C., as against that of earlier writers.
The new bronze coinage was apparently issued in considerable quantities. Not only are many specimens now known, but two additional
subordinates, P and , had to be appointed to assist the original incumbents. The coinage, furthermore, was
either brought out in somewhat of a hurry, or the facilities of the mint were not adequate to the occasion, for several of
our specimens
are restruck upon coins of the previous issues. This suggests that old coins were employed as blanks without waiting to prepare
a
sufficient quantity of fresh flans. From an official standpoint, the sooner the attention of the general public could be focussed
on the
king's eastern victories the better. Hence the obvious haste in the production of humble bronze coins bearing the symbolic
type of the
Indian elephant.
With Group D, entirely new magistrates have been appointed to supervise the mint at Seleucia, but the connection with previous issues is kept up by the continued employment of some of the former die-cutters. Thus, for instance, the man who cut A24 (PLATE IV, 12) is surely the same artist who had produced A16 (PLATE II, 10–11).
As no small silver denominations had as yet appeared at Seleucia, and as the last small silver of the Alexander type from the Babylon mint24 was by now from ten to twenty-eight years old, it is not surprising that we should here meet with a coinage of fractional silver pieces to bridge the gap between bronze and tetradrachms. Only three specimens have so far come down to us—two hemidrachms (No. 20) and one obol (No. 21).
There are also several other unusual features connected with this particular group. Each of the tetradrachms, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26, bears the signature of one magistrate only instead of two, as had been the practice heretofore. That these issues all belong to one coinage may be seen not only in the identity of their style and fabric, but also by the use in common of such obverse dies as A25, A26 and A27.
About halfway through the issue, for some reason or other, the victory in Zeus' hand was temporarily omitted and the former (and long sanctioned) eagle substituted (on Nos. 24 and 25). But before the coinage had ended, the victory was replaced (on No. 26). Perhaps its happy symbolism of success was more obvious to Seleucus' subjects than the eagle. It must also be remembered that, if the dates here proposed for the several groups be correct, then, before the end of this issue (Group D, c. 302–1 B. C), the glorious news of the decisive victory won by Seleucus and his ally Lysimachus over the powerful Antigonus at Ipsus must have reached Seleucia. This would surely have been quite sufficient reason to cause the hasty replacement of the Nike figure on the coinage!
In addition to the pieces described in our catalogue, there exists a variety of the tetradrachm, known only by a single specimen
in Paris (Babelon, No. 26, gr. 17.20, Pl. i, 10), which by the
monogram 
and the letters BEΛ which it bears, should fall into our Seleucia series.
The monogram occurs with slight variations—but all obviously representing the common name Zώπυρoς—on Nos. 22, 25, 27; while
BEΛ might well
be the BE of No. 14, and the B of Nos. 15 to 16. But the style, fabric and general appearance have not the slightest similarity
with those
of the remaining tetradrachms of our mint. If we assume that the monogram and the letters actually do represent the same persons
who had
supervised the issue of Nos. 14, 15, 16, 22, 25, 27, then we must suppose: either that the dies of the Paris coin were cut by an entirely different die-cutter from those generally employed at Seleucia, or that the two magistrates
in question had been sent to some other city where they employed a local
die-cutter to produce the Paris tetradrachm. Parenthetically, it may be stated that the
writer knows of no other tetradrachm of Seleucus which is at all similar to this one. Neither is there any
indication that the coin is an ancient or a modern forgery. For the time being, therefore, it must remain an anomaly and an
enigma.
| 24 |
In name of Alexander: cf. Müller, op. cit., Nos. 668, 675, 676, 806, 1273, 1274, together with numerous varieties not known to Müller.
In name of Philip III: cf. op. cit., Nos. 31,
32, 104a, together with some varieties not known to Müller.
|
With this group, the former practice of placing the signatures of two magistrates upon each coin is resumed. Zopyros continues in office with two assistants, M and ΔI (the latter possibly the same person who had previously placed his initials on Nos. 4 and 9). The Nike continues on the tetradrachms, following her reappearance on the final tetradrachm of the preceding issue.
From the presence in known hoards of any of the Seleucian tetradrachms described above, little can be deduced. An example of No. 9 was in the Kiouleler hoards;25 five specimens of No. 4 were in the hoard from Babylonia once owned by Prof. Haynes;26 one specimen each of Nos. 4, 14, 19 and 27 was in the Armenak Hoard27—but none of these hoards were buried before c. 280 B. C., and so can furnish us with little new information concerning the Seleucian tetradrachms. Still more so is this the case with Gejou's Mesopotamian hoard,28 which contained a specimen of No. 4, but which was not buried until the reign of Seleucus II. On the other hand, a specimen of No. 3, one of No. 4, one of No. 12, and two of No. 24 (these last in extremely fine condition) turned up in the Angora Hoard29 and serve to date that particular deposit. Their presence therein would suggest a burial not long after the battle of Ipsus, probably during the period of re-adjustment when Seleucid forces were taking over this portion of Antigonus' empire. The re-adjustment may have been not entirely peaceful, thus accounting for the burial.
29. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Zeus to r., with long locks of hair. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l., ΣEΛEYKOY in the exergue. Helmeted and draped Athena, holding shield in outstretched l. and brandishing javelin in upraised r., standing in chariot drawn by four horned elephants to r. Above, anchor. Behind Athena, B. Beneath anchor, ΔI.
30. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, ΠΣ.
31. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above the anchor, Π. To r. of anchor, Σ.
32. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of anchor, Π. In the exergue, Π (or 
?).
33. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of elephants, Σ.
34. Tetradrachm.
Same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, Π and uncertain monogram (
?).
35. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, 
Σ (or 
Σ).
36. Tetradrachm.
Same die as the preceding, but slightly re-touched in the locks about the neck.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of elephants, Σ. In the exergue, 
(?).
| 25 |
S. P. Noe, A Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards, Numismatic Notes and Monographs No. 78,
Hoards 563 and 564.
|
| 26 |
Op. cit., Hoard 118.
|
| 27 |
This very remarkable hoard, containing nearly two thousand tetradrachms and drachms of Alexander III, Philip III,
Lysimachus and Seleucus
I, was found somewhere in Asia Minor in 1927. It is said to have come
from near Armenak in southern Asia Minor, but the writer has been unable to verify
this report. A study of its contents proves that it must have been buried in, or shortly after, 280 B. C. Cf. Noe, op. cit., Hoard 67.
|
| 28 |
S. P. Noe, op. cit., Hoard 680.
|
| 29 |
S. P. Noe, op. cit., Hoard 51.
|
37. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, 
above 
.
38. Tetradrachm.
Same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, 
.
39. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding. Die A36 is continued in use, but now in a very worn and damaged condition.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, ΔN.
40. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath the anchor (on P109), NI. On die P110, NI is above the anchor. In the exergue, ΔN.
41. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath Athena's l. arm, NΔ.
42. Drachm.
Head of young Heracles r., wearing lion's skin. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue, ΣEΛEYKOY on the r. Zeus seated l. on throne, holding eagle in outstretched r. and resting l. on sceptre. In l. field, anchor. Beneath throne, NΔ.
α) Newell (Cahn Sale 60, July 1928, No. 1033), gr. 3.94; β) Berlin (Konsul Strauss), gr. 4.09. PLATE VII, 5; γ) Athens (Sophiko Hoard).
43. Stater.
Head of Athena, with flowing locks, to r. wearing a triple-crested Corinthian helmet adorned with a coiled serpent.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l., ΣEΛEYKOY on r. Victory standing, facing l., holds wreath in her outstretched r. and stylis in l. To
l. of her r. wing, 
. Beneath r. wing, 
. Beneath l. wing, 
.
44. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Zeus r., and the same die as No. 41.
Athena r. in quadriga of elephants as on No. 41. Behind Athena, . In front of Athena, 
.
45. Bronze Quadruple.
Horned head of horse r. Circle of dots.
Anchor, inverted, On. l., BAΣIΛEΩΣ, on r., ΣEΛEYKOY. To r., .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 59, Pl. ii, 13), gr. 14.90; β) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 10.26; γ) Leningrad (Jour. Int. Num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 134, No. 49), gr. 16.72; δ) London, gr. 14.51; ε) Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 6, No. 9, gr. 7.73; f) Congreg. der Mechitaristen in Wien, Num. Zeitschr., XVI, 1884, p. 292, No. 146, gr. 16.40; ζ) Newell, gr. 15.54. PLATE VII, 8.
46. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 62, Pl. ii, 16), gr. 4.35; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 3.49; γ) London (Gardner, No. 47, Pl. ii, 6), gr. 3.01; δ) Leningrad (Jour. Int. Num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 134, No. 50), gr. 4.18; e–σ) Seltucia on the Tigris , p. 6, No. 9, fifteen specimens ranging in weight from gr. 4.00 to 2.08; τ) Newell (Philipsen Coll., Hirsch Sale XXV, 1909, No. 2860), gr. 3.41. PLATE VII, 9; υ) Newell, gr. 3.64.
47. Stater.
Similar to No. 43.
Similar to No. 43, except that BAΣIΛEΩΣ is on the r., and ΣEΛEYKOY is on the l. Beneath r. wing of Nike, ;
beneath l. wing, 
.
48. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Zeus r. Circle of dots.
Inscription and types as on No. 44. In the exergue, 
.
48A. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding but the monograms in the exergue are in the inverse order.
49. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as No. 48.
Similar to the preceding, except that is to the r. of the king's name, and is
beneath.
50. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, except that 
is to r. of the king's name, and is
beneath.
51. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue,
.
51A. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above the elephants, ; in front, IΣ.
52. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of anchor, 
(?). In the exergue, AP.
53. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with both (?) monograms in the exergue.
54. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of the anchor, 
. In the exergue, 
.
55. Tetradrachm.
From a previous die, now in a worn condition.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, Δ 
.
56. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, apparently only .
57. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In the exergue, Δ.
58. Obol.
Tripod-lebes with cover. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. of an inverted anchor. On l. of shaft, Δ; on r., .
α) Pozzi Coll. (Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2926, Pl. lxxxiv), gr. 0.67; β) Naville X, June 1925, No. 809, Pl. 27, gr. 0.64; γ) Naville X, June 1925, No. 810, Pl. 27, gr. 0.57; δ) Hamburger Sale, June 1930, No. 410, gr. 0.62, Pl. 13; ε) Newell, gr. 0.63; f) Paris (Babelon, No. 58, Pl. ii, 12, gr. 0.65; ζ) London (Gardner, No. 42, Pl. ii, 2), gr. 0.65;30 η) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 773), gr. 0.57. PLATE VIII, 7; θ) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, p. 325, No. 9245, gr. 0.52, Pl. 335, 11.
59. Tetradrachm.
Similar to Nos. 55–57.
Similar to Nos. 55–57. To r. of the elephants, 
. In the exergue, .
60. Obol.
Similar to No. 58, but the tripod has fillets hanging on either side.
Similar to No. 58. On l., ; on r., 
.
α) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani, 1925, Pl. 13, No. 738 (= Cahn Sale 60, July 1928, No. 1034, Pl. 16), gr. 0.62; β) Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, 1912, No. 635, Pl. xvii, gr. 0.59; γ) Naville X, June 1925, No. 811, Pl. 27, gr. 0.59; δ) Naville X, June 1925, No. 812, Pl. 27, gr. 0.60; ε) Newell, gr. 0.68; f) Newell, gr. 0.52. PLATE VIII, 9; ζ) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (Ward Coll., No. 772), gr. 0.54; η) R. Jameson Coll., No. 1659, Pl. lxxxiii, gr. 0.62.
61. Obol.
Tripod similar to No. 58. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Quiver and bow. In outer l. field, 
; in outer r. field, . Circle of dots.
α) R. Jameson Coll., No. 1660, Pl. lxxxiii (= American Collector, Sotheby Sale, April 1909, No. 76, Pl. iii), gr. 0.63; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 813, gr. 0.61, Pl. 27; γ) Berlin, gr. 0.60. PLATE VIII, 10.
| 30 |
Specimens f, ζ and θ are described in their respective catalogues
as having
or K for the second monogram. Actually they are all , badly
formed. The coins are from the same obverse and reverse dies.
|
62. Tetradrachm.
From the same obverse die as No. 57.
Similar to No. 59. In the exergue, Δ ⊙.
63. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, Δ. In the exergue, ⊙.
64. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, ⊙. In front of Athena's shield, Δ.
65. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, ⊙.
66. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Heavy corrosion has obliterated the letters or monograms once in the exergue. Hence, the true position of this variety is uncertain.
67. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, 
above 
.
68. Stater.
Helmeted head of Athena, as before, to r.
On r. ΣEΛEYKOY. No title. Nike, as before, to l. On l., 
above 
.
69. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Zeus, as before, to r. within a circle of dots.
Types and inscriptions as on the preceding tetradrachms. The nearest elephant wears a bell suspended from its neck. Behind
Athena, ; beneath anchor, .
70. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath Athena's shield, .
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 4.01. PLATE IX, 4.
71. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as No. 69.
Similar to the preceding. Above Athena's shield, ; below
the shield, 
.
71A. Drachm.
From the same die as No. 70.
Similar to the preceding. Above shield, . Beneath shield, .
Newell, gr. 4.04. PLATE IX, 5a.
72. Drachm.
From the same die as No. 70.
Similar to the preceding. To the r. of Athena's shield, .
Berlin, gr. 4.06. PLATE IX, 6. From the same obverse die as Nos. 70 and 71a.
73. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but without the bell. Above Athena's shield, (?). This monogram is not absolutely certain as the three known specimens are much corroded. In style, the coins
fit in at this place, whatever the monogram.
α) Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, Nov. 1912, No. 638, Pl. xvii, gr. 3.19; β) Newell (Haynes), gr. 3.07; γ) London, gr. 3.99. PLATE IX, 7.
All are struck from the same obverse and reverse dies.
74. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 71.
Similar to the preceding issue, but without bell. Behind Athena, ⊙. In front of the
anchor, 
.
75. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To l. of anchor, ; to r. of anchor, ⊙.
76. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with bell. Behind Athena, . Above Athena's shield, ⊙.
77. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but without bell. Behind Athena, . Beneath shield, ⊙.
Berlin (Fox Coll.), gr. 4.075. PLATE IX, 11.
78. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, ⊙. Beneath shield, .
79. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above the elephants, ⊙.
80. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above the elephants, ⊙.
α) A. Cahn Sale 71, Oct. 1931, No. 515, Pl. 16, gr. 4.13; β) Newell (Gejou), gr. 3.72; γ) Newell, gr. 3.54. PLATE IX, 14; δ) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 767), gr. 3.71.
81. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, 
. Below shield,
⊙.
82. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, . Beneath
shield, ⊙.
α) Hamburger Sale, June 1930, No. 411, Pl. 13, gr. 4.15; β) Newell (Naville Sale XII, 1926, No. 1942, Pl. 56), gr. 4.19. PLATE IX, 17; γ) London (Gardner, No. 30), gr. 4.15; δ) Egger Sale XLV, Nov. 1913, No. 632, Pl. xviii, gr. 4.26; ε) Newell (Gejou), gr. 3.82; f) Newell, gr. 4.19. PLATE X, la; ζ) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.) gr. 4.13. PLATE X, 1; η) Glasgow, Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 5, No. 3, gr. 4.15.
α, β and γ are from the same obverse die. δ, ε and f are from another obverse die.
83. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, except that Athena is in an elephant biga. Behind Athena, . Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (J. Ward Coll., No. 768), gr. 2.01. PLATE X, 2; β) Probably also Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, 1913, No. 639, Pl. xvii, gr. 1.97.
84. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 81.
Similar to No. 81. Behind Athena, ⊙. Beneath shield, .
85. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, ⊙. Beneath shield, .
α) Pozzi Coll., Naville I, Apr. 1921, No. 2919, Pl. lxxxiv, gr. 3.85. PLATE X, 4; β) Newell (from Baghdad), gr. 4.17.
86. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to No. 83, with Athena in the elephant biga. Behind
Athena, ⊙. Beneath shield, .
α) Newell (purchased in Baghdad), gr. 1.92. PLATE X, 5; β) Berlin, gr. 1.93. From the same reverse die as the preceding.
87. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 84.
Similar to No. 84. Beneath shield, ⊙.
88. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Berlin, gr. 3.865; β) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 734, Pl. 13, gr. 4.00; γ) Paris (Babelon, No. 72), gr. 3.90. PLATE X, 9; δ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 789, Pl. 26, gr. 4.10.
α, β, γ and δ are all from the same obverse die as No. 89.
89. Drachm.
Same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, ⊙ .
α) London, gr. 3.62; β) Newell, gr. 3.65. PLATE X, 10. α and β are from the same pair of dies.
90. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but beneath shield apparently only ⊙.
α) Newell (Gejou), gr. 4.07; β) Newell (Gejou), gr. 4.03. PLATE X, 11; γ) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 766, fig.), gr. 3.76.
α and β from the same obverse die.
91. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with no monogram or letter at all.
α) Naville Sale V, June 1923, No. 2783, Pl. lxxvi, gr. 3.86; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 788, Pl. 26, gr. 3.58. PLATE X, 12.
92. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 87.
Similar to No. 87. Behind Athena, . Beneath shield,
⊙.
93. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, . Beneath
shield, ⊙.
α) Newell (Gejou), gr. 4.08. PLATE X, 14; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 791, Pl. 26, gr. 3.42; γ) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, p. 325, No. 9241, Pl. 335, 6, gr. 3.80.
94. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, . Above shield,
⊙.
Newell, gr. 3.75. PLATE X, 15.
95. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as No. 92.
Similar to No. 92. Behind Athena, above ⊙. The near
elephant has a bell.
96. Drachm.
From the same die as No. 94.
Similar to the preceding, but without bell. Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Benson Coll., Sotheby, Feb. 1909, No. 755, Pl. xxv, gr. 4.08; β) Newell, gr. 4.00. PLATE X, 16; γ) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, p. 325, No. 9240, Pl. 335, 5, gr. 4.12.
α to γ are from the same obverse and reverse dies. The obverse die is the same as that used for Nos. 93, 94 and 97.
97. Drachm.
From the same die as Nos. 93, 94 and 96.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, ⊙. In the exergue, .
α) Schlessinger Sale 13, Feb. 1935, No. 1424, Pl. 50, gr. 4.1. PLATE X, 17.
98. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but Athena is in a biga of elephants.
Behind Athena ⊙. In front of the elephants, .
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 792, Pl. 26 (= Egger Sale XLV, Nov. 1913, No. 634, Pl. xviii), gr. 1.52; β) Newell, gr. 2.11. PLATE X, 18; γ) Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge, Vol. I, Part II, Pl. xviii, No. 352), gr. 2.00.
99. Obol.
Head of young Heracles to r. wearing lion's skin. Circle of dots.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r. Zeus enthroned l., holds eagle in outstretched r. and rests l. upon
sceptre. In l. field, 
. Beneath throne, ⊙.
α) Newell, gr. 0.68. PLATE X, 19.
100. Tetradrachm.
Head of Zeus r., similar to No. 95.
Athena r. in elephant quadriga as on No. 95. Beneath shield, pentalpha. To r. of anchor, ⊙.
101. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Immediately beneath the shield, pentalpha and ⊙.
102. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, pentalpha. and ⊙.
Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 4.05. PLATE XI, 3.
103. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, ⊙. Below shield, pentalpha.
α) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 3.87; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 2.91; γ) Newell, gr. 3.56; δ) Newell (Gejou), gr. 4.01. PLATE XI, 4.
α, β, γ, δ are all from the same obverse die as No. 102.
104. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, pentalpha. Below shield, ⊙.
Dr. E. P. Robinson, gr. 4.08. PLATE XI, 5.
105. Bronze Double.
Laureate head of Apollo to r. Circle of dots. Edges bevelled.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY in two parallel lines, between which butting bull to r. Above, ⊙ and pentalpha (at times inversely placed).
α) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 10, No. 38), gr. 5.99; β) London (Gardner, No. 71, Pl. ii, 15) gr. 7.50; γ) Paris (Babelon, No. 86, Pl. iii, 8), gr. 6.45; δ) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll., Num. Zeitschr., XXVII, 1895, p. 13, No. 13, Pl. ii, 10), gr. 6.50; ε) Munich, gr. 7.10; f–θ) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11, various weights; ι) Newell (countermarked twice with an anchor in an oblong incuse), gr. 7.37. PLATE XI, 6.
106. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above, pentalpha and ⊙.
α) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11, gr. 2.49.
107. Bronze Quadruple.
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
Similar to the preceding. Above, 
. Behind bull, ⊙.
α) Munich (Num. Zeitschr., XLVI, 1913, p. 188, No. 69, Pl. iii, 16), gr. 13.67. PLATE XI, 7.
108. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
Similar to the preceding. Above, . Behind, ⊙.
α) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11; β) Newell, gr. 7.15. PLATE XI, 8.
108A. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding (?). Actually this is probably an Athena head. See above, p. 14, No. 8.
Similar to the preceding. Above, anchor. This variety is known only from the coins found at Seleucia.
α–β) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11. These two coins are probably only poorly preserved examples of No. 8, above.
109. Bronze Quarter (?).
Similar to Nos. 105–108.
Similar to the preceding. The only recorded specimens are so poor that any possible letters or monograms are indistinguishable.
α–β) Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 7, No. 11, gr. 0.97, 0.68.
110. Stater.
Helmeted head of Athena to r., as on No. 68.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r. Nike to l., as on No. 68. Behind Nike, ⊙ above 
.
111. Tetradrachm.
Head of Zeus r., as on No. 101.
Athena r. in quadriga of elephants, as on No. 101. Behind Athena, . To r. of anchor, ⊙.
112. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, . To l. of the
anchor, ⊙.
113. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. The monogram usually behind Athena is off flan. In the exergue, ⊙.
114. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Behind Athena, 
. Below shield,
⊙.
115. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 4.00. PLATE XI, 14; β) Munich, gr. 4.10. α and β are from the same obverse die.
116. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar, but Athena in a biga of elephants. Behind Athena, . Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Newell (Gejou), gr. 1.96. PLATE XI, 15.
117. Bronze Quadruple.
Winged head of Medusa r. Circle of dots. Edges bevelled.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY in two parallel lines, between which butting bull to r. Above, ⊙. Between bull's hind legs, .
α) Newell (Philipsen Sale, Hirsch XXV, Nov. 1909, No. 2860), gr. 8.94; β) Newell, gr. 12.11. PLATE XII, 1.
118. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding. Edges bevelled.
Similar to the preceding. Above, ⊙. Between hind legs of bull, .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 91), gr. 5.60; β) Munich (Num. Zeitschr., XLVI, 1913, p. 191, No. 90), gr. 5.75; γ) Newell, gr. 5.17. PLATE XII, 2.
119. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above, ⊙. Between hind legs, .
α) Glasgow, Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 10, No. 43, Pl. lxiii, 18, gr. 2.43. PLATE XII, 3.
120. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Zeus r., as on No. 114.
Similar to No. 114. Beneath shield, 
. To r. of anchor, ⊙.
121. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. The monogram beneath the shield appears to have the form 
(?). The place to the r.
of the anchor where the ⊙ usually appears, is corroded.
121A. Stater.
Helmeted head of Athena to r., similar to PLATE IX, 2 and XI, 9.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r. Winged Nike standing to l. At her feet, to l., 
; to r., ⊙.
122. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 121.
Similar to No. 121. Beneath the shield, . To r. of anchor, ⊙.
123. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, . In the exergue, ⊙.
124. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath shield, ⊙.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 73), gr. 4.20; β) Egger Sale XXXIX, Jan. 1912, No. 335, Pl. xi, gr. 4.08; γ) Newell, gr. 3.64; δ) Newell, gr. 4.25; ε) Newell, gr. 4.17. PLATE XII, 10; f) Glasgow, Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 5, No. 2, gr. 4.21.
α to ε are all struck from the same obverse die.
125. Drachm.
Head of young Heracles to r., wearing lion's skin. Circle of dots.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r. Zeus enthroned l., holds eagle on his outstretched r., and rests l.
upon sceptre. In field, Anchor upright. Beneath throne, ⊙. In the exergue, 
.
α) Newell, gr. 4.17; β) Newell (Ratto Sale, Feb. 1928, No. 739), gr. 4.20. PLATE XII, 11. α and β are from the same obverse die.
126. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. ⊙ above , and both beneath throne.
α) Newell, gr. 4.18. PLATE XII, 12.
127. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above Zeus' r. arm, . In the
exergue, ⊙.
α) Newell (Armenak Hoard), gr. 4.13. PLATE XII, 13.
128. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To l. of anchor, ⊙. Beneath throne, .
α) Newell, gr. 3.08. PLATE XII, 14.
129. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of anchor, ⊙. Beneath throne, .
α) Newell, gr. 4.15. PLATE XII, 15.
130. Drachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Directly above anchor, ⊙. Beneath throne, .
α) Newell, gr. 4.09. PLATE XII, 16.
131. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath throne, ⊙. In the exergue, .
α) Berlin (Fox Coll.), gr. 1.82. PLATE XII, 17.
132. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Beneath the throne, ⊙. In the exergue, 
.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 4, Pl. i, 2), gr. 4.30; β) Newell, gr. 4.20. PLATE XII, 18.
133. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. To r. of anchor, ⊙. Beneath throne, .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 5, Pl. i, 3), gr. 2.05; β) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 2.00. PLATE XII, 19; γ) London, gr. 2.02.
Seleucus, established by the victory of Ipsus as the ruler over a vast territory stretching from Asia Minor and the Mediterranean to the borders of India, now brought out a more appropriate issue of coins at his capital of Seleucia on the Tigris. The new types proclaim his great triumph more clearly than did those of the old Alexander tetradrachm, even with the presence of a Nike in Zeus' hand. For on the obverse we henceforth find a dignified, laurel-wreathed head of Olympian Zeus, its type evidently inspired by the well-known tetradrachms of Alexander's father, Philip II. To the Greeks this could be only Zeus, "the giver of victory". But in the East, Zeus was the Greek equivalent for Bel,31 the chief deity of the Babylonians, whence, possibly, his selection for the new issues of Seleucus. There may also have been some special association (which now escapes us) between Seleucus and Zeus, for, at least at a later period, he bore the cult-title Zεὺς Nιχάτωρ.32
The reverse of the new coins presents us with a warlike figure of Athena standing in a chariot drawn by four great, horned elephants, emblematic of royal magnificence and might. Again, there must here be a direct reference to the Indian campaigns of Seleucus, together with perhaps a somewhat veiled allusion to the battle of Ipsus in which his elephants played so decisive a part. The whole design may well have been suggested by the gold staters first issued about 305 B. C. by Ptolemy, Seleucus' old friend, patron and ally in the days of his direst need. These well-known Egyptian coins depict the deified Alexander standing in a chariot, also drawn by four elephants. If we accept this suggestion, and further note that the types of the new issues of Seleucus, significantly enough, present Alexander's two most favored divinities, Zeus and Athena, then we may again recognize clear evidence on his coins of his desire not only to emulate the great Macedonian hero but also to show the basis for his own claim to the right to rule the East. This "Alexander complex" (to use a modern expression) of Seleucus is further illustrated by some interesting remarks made by Babelon while discussing these very coins. He says: Dans le cortège d' Alexandre rentrant à Babylone, il y avait plusieurs centaines d' éléphants, et le conquérant se glorifiait de posséder ces animaux qu'il employa à rendre sa cour plus imposante. On croit même qu'il fit son entrée à Babylone sur un char tiré par des éléphants. Dans tous les cas, ce furent des éléphants qui figurèrent dans son cortège funèbre et qui ramenèrent son corps en Egypte. Conquérant de l'Inde, Séleucus dut sans doute, à l'imitation d' Alexandre, rentrer dans Babylone environné d'une pompe triomphale, et monté sur un char traîné par les plus beaux des éléphants de Sandracottus.33
That the majority of these elephant tetradrachms of Seleucus must be assigned to Babylonia has already been brought out by Imhoof-Blumer,34 but he unfortunately attributes them to the mint at Babylon and includes among their number also those on which only two (instead of four) elephants draw Athena's car. The tetradrachms 35 bearing the elephant biga were not coined either at Babylon or Seleucia, but at Susa, as the writer will show in Chapter III. That the coins described in the present study came from Babylonia and were actually coined at Seleucia is attested by their style, fabric and usual provenance; by the fact that two hoards from Mesopotamia 36 contained numerous examples of these coins; and, finally, by the fact that a drachm, together with a very considerable number of the accompanying bronze coins, was unearthed in the excavations carried on at the site of Seleucia itself.37
The entire coinage of these elephant-tetradrachms of Seleucia may be divided conveniently into an earlier and a later series by observing the manner in which the die-cutters faced the problem of depicting the four great beasts with their four trunks, eight tusks, eight horns and sixteen legs. At first the artists were at pains to avoid the resulting monotony of any schematic arrangement of this plethora of trunks and legs. The elephant nearest the observer is depicted with his two hind-legs slanting backwards, the right foreleg perpendicular, the left advanced and bent sharply at the knee, the trunk out straight but curving downwards at the end. The forepart of the second elephant is advanced beyond that of the first, his right shoulder and foreleg depicted in a columnar fashion, his left foreleg advanced and his trunk stretched forward like that of the first. The legs of the remaining two elephants are indicated by lines paralleling those of the first pair, while their trunks are raised up in an "s"-like curve, as if trumpeting.
Beginning with No. 50 (dies P118 and P119) a change appears which by Group H (Nos. 55ff.) becomes definitely established, and continues until the end of the entire series. The artists give up their attempt at "staggering" the forelegs and fall back upon the more usual resort of placing them in parallel lines or arranging them in a sort of fan-like design. At the same time, the two near elephants stretch their trunks forward, while the two furthest elephants raise theirs in the air. Also, from time to time, the die-cutter manages to get into the less complicated design at least an attempt at depicting the nearest elephant's tusks (see particularly No. 56, PLATE VIII, 5), which heretofore have only now and then been suggested. For a short period, in Group K and in one instance (No. 76) in Group L, and another (No. 95) in Group N, the nearest elephant wears a bell suspended from its neck.
By carefully observing these minor variations in details, and aided by the more subjective nuances of style and fabric, it will often be possible to allocate a badly worn coin to its proper place in the series now before us. In speaking of worn coins, it should be stated that our catalogue does not contain all known specimens of the elephant coins of Seleucia, even if their general location in the series is determinable. Their monograms are frequently so small, or chance to be damaged by corrosion, or happen to be off flan, that photographs and even casts are inadequate to determine the particular variety of the piece in question. Therefore several coins preserved in public collections, or reproduced on the plates of public sales,38 possess monograms which are quite illegible without the aid of the original coins themselves. Such coins have been omitted from our catalogue, except in the few cases where identity of dies allows of their being placed with certainty.
The issues of Series II, when arranged in their apparent order according to style and sequence of dies and monograms of the individual coins, fall naturally into twenty groups. As the space of time at our disposal between the final Group E of Series I (c. 301–300 B. C.) and the death of Seleucus in 280 B. C. is also just twenty years, it would seem a priori probable that each group may represent the issues of a single year. Acting on this assumption, we secure the following approximate dates for the several groups:
This result, considering the number of coins actually at our disposal, the combinations of monograms and varieties of style, offers a reasonable and workable chronology.
While we may safely assume that all the larger groups once issued are now represented in our trays by at least one example, it is practically certain that we do not yet possess all the varieties originally coined. Of certain varieties, we have but a single specimen. How many more varieties may there have been of which not a single representative has yet reached us? By carefully checking through our catalogue, there are certain obvious, though minor, gaps which still exist here and there. The opening-up process, which especially Irak and Iran are now undergoing, will inevitably bring many new specimens into the hands of scholars to fill the existing lacunae.
Turning now to the coins themselves, let us see what it is possible to glean by a study of the individual groups which compose Series II.
The coinage starts out with an issue of tetradrachms only (PLATE VI, 1). Probably the prolific issue of the minor fractions in bronze, which had characterized Series I, made a further coinage of small denominations unnecessary at that time.
While the Zeus head of the new type possesses certain elements of strength and dignity, the over-large eye, the thick lines of nose and beard, the snake-like locks at the back and the general lack of any subtlety in the modelling produce a rather crude and unlovely effect, which is far from the splendid Zeus heads to be found on the original model—the tetradrachms of Philip II of Macedon. In point of fact, our present coins are distinctly reminiscent of the posthumous tetradrachms of the Philip type which were at this time being coined in Macedonian mints under the rule of Cassander. Surely it must have been one of these latter issues that had actually served as a model for our die-cutter. The reverse, with its entirely new type and rather complicated design, displays his lack of ability to execute anything that demanded finesse and delicacy of touch. Athena and her chariot of elephants are poorly articulated and too much spread over the field, while the letters of both inscription and magistrates' initials are clumsily rendered. A similar heaviness of. style, as compared to what had preceded, was already apparent in the last issue (No. 28, PLATE V, 12) of Series I, signed by the same magistrate, ΔI.
The initials ΔI and B of the officiating magistrates have appeared before on the issues of Seleucia, and may well belong to the same individuals who had signed Nos. 4, 9, 14–16, 28 of Series I.
The slightly improved, yet still heavy, crude style of the Zeus head was at first continued in Series B (die A32, PLATE VI, 2–3). From the outset, however, the design of Athena in her elephant chariot has become far more compact and better executed than in the preceding group. The lettering, too, is more regular and the individual characters better formed. As the issue progresses, this improvement continues in the artistic rendering of both obverse and reverse type. As yet, only tetradrachms are known.
Nos. 30 and 31, Nos. 33 and 34, Nos. 35 and 36 are linked together by the use of obverse dies used in common. The entire group is supervised by two chief magistrates, Π and Σ, who sometimes sign with each other, sometimes singly, or in conjunction with yet other magistrates.
The second monogram of No. 37 is probably but a variant of the second monogram of No. 38, the very small size of these comparatively complicated monograms rendering it difficult for the die-cutter to produce really clear results. In any case, Nos. 37 and 38 are linked by having their obverses struck from one and the same die (A36). The style continues to improve, the designs grow less clumsy in execution, as more able artists are secured for the mint—or the older artists become more proficient by continued practice.
This group makes use of an old obverse die (A36 of Group C) but which by now has become very worn and damaged, thus definitely proving Group D to be a successor of Group C.
For the first time since the inauguration of the new series, a smaller denomination—the drachm—is issued. The types chosen are the old Alexander ones, either for commercial reasons or because the elephant quadriga seemed at first too complicated a design to be suitable for the smaller coin. Before long, however, we shall see that even quadrigas of elephants could be made to fit the flan of the drachm.
Δ and N are the sole officiating magistrates for this issue.
A new issue of the Alexander gold stater (the first to appear at Seleucia since the two issues in Series I) and a large coinage in bronze characterize
Group E. There is also an
accompanying tetradrachm of the usual Zeus—elephant-quadriga type. This latter coin,
closely connected with both the gold and the bronze coins by the presence of the magistrate's monogram ,
makes use of an old and worn obverse die (A39) which had already been employed in the production of Group D. This fact assures
our
sequential arrangement of Groups D and E.
The coinage of gold at Seleucia seems ever to have possessed something of a special nature and was not a routine affair. We first have a coinage in this metal at the very opening of the new mint (No. 1), followed by a similar issue (Nos. 10 and 11) a year or so later on the receipt of the news of Seleucus' successes in the east. No more gold staters appear to have been coined (or, at least, to have come down to us) until Groups E and F of Series II. If our tentative dating of these groups (E to 296–5 B. C., F to 295–4 B. C.) be accepted, then we may be justified in associating the appearance of these unusual gold issues with two important events which we know took place at about this time.
It was in the year 295 B. C. that Seleucus finally decided to take definite action with regard to certain territories (Cilicia and the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre) still held by Demetrius, and which Seleucus had vainly attempted to purchase39 from his father-in-law. While Demetrius was now seriously involved in the affairs of Greece, Seleucus prepared his own forces and, striking suddenly (294 B. C.), secured complete possession of the coveted territories. Soon after this success, Seleucus divided the onerous administration of his huge empire. He retained the direction of the western portion with his capital at Antioch, while he established his son Antiochus at the metropolis of Seleucia on the Tigris, thence to administer the affairs of the eastern portion of the empire, from the Euphrates to the borders of India.40
The sudden appearance of the two gold staters (Nos. 43 and 47) at this juncture may perhaps be interpreted as forming a part of Seleucus' careful preparations for the descent upon the eastern territories of Demetrius, and as an issue in commemoration of the success attending this move.
The issuance, after an interval of some nine years or more, of a large bronze coinage (Nos. 45 and 46) may have a similar significance
These bronze coins are in two denominations and bear types new for the mint of Seleucia.41 On the obverse, we see the splendid head and neck of a horse to right, with bull's horns added. The apparent predilection, exhibited on Seleucus' coins, for embellishing his horses and elephants—or even his own portrait—with symbolic bull's horns, has been thoroughly discussed by Babelon.42 The type of the horse's head has been associated by the same author43 with the story of the king's famous steed who by his courage and fleetness of foot saved his master's life when Seleucus was hard pressed by the minions of Antigonus. In commemoration, the king later erected a gilded bronze monument, consisting of a horse's head, a helmet, and a dedicatory inscription. Especially appropriate would be the appearance of the horse's head as a full type on the coin-issues of the present capital of Babylonia, for it was at Babylon itself that the aforementioned event had taken place.
The type chosen for the reverses of these bronze coins was the anchor, an object that appears to have been adopted by Seleucus as his own personal emblem, for Appian says44 that when he became king, Seleucus "used an engraved anchor for his signet ring." In the same passage, Appian also relates the story that the mother of Seleucus was advised in a dream to give him the ring she should find, "and that he should be king at the place where he should lose the ring. She did find an iron ring with an anchor engraved on it, and he lost it near the Euphrates. It is said also that at a later period, when he was setting out for Babylon, he stumbled against a stone which, when dug up, was seen to be an anchor."45 Justin 46 tells a somewhat similar story, with later embellishments. These tales have led to Haussoullier's conjecture,47 accepted by Bouchè-Leclercq,48 that in some way the anchor was a symbol of Babylon (or of Babylonia, as a whole ?). Thus, this "coat-of-arms" of Seleucus might typify his acquisition of Babylon. Be this as it may, the anchor appeared as an accessory symbol on one of the bronze coins (No. 8, PLATE III, 5) of Series I, as well as on all the tetradrachms of Series II, and becomes the complete reverse type of the new issue of bronze coins now before us. It would seem, then, that no more appropriate types for coins struck and circulated in Babylonia under Seleucus could have been chosen than the horse's head and the anchor.
For the first time in Seleucid numismatics, there is found on these bronze coins of Seleucia the peculiar "bevelled-edge technique" which, henceforth, becomes typical of the minor coins of this mint and spreads thence to most of the other eastern mints of the empire.49 It is to be noted that no less than sixteen specimens of Nos. 45 and 46 turned up in the excavations at Seleucia, which, as Dr. McDowell states,50 represents the largest number of any group of the coins of Seleucus I found on that site. This assures us that the original mint of the coins in question must be Seleucia on the Tigris.
| 39 |
Bevan, p. 63.
|
| 40 |
Bouché-Leclercq, loc. cit., p. 40, dates this event to 294–3 B. C.; Bevan, loc. cit., p. 64, to "about 293"; Beloch IV, 2, pp. 192 and 198, to
292 B. C.
|
| 41 |
Both the horned horse's head and the anchor had already appeared as accessory symbols on lion staters and
Alexandrine tetradrachms, drachms, etc. coined by Seleucus at other mints, i. e. Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, etc.
|
| 42 |
Loc. cit., Introd., pp. xviii–xxv.
|
| 43 |
Ibid., p. xxiii.
|
As stated above, this group contains a further issue of gold staters, No. 47. They were accompanied by four varieties of the
usual
tetradrachm bearing the same two monograms in varying positions. Two additional tetradrachms (Nos. 51 and 51a)
are associated with the other coins of this group by the presence of the monogram
. As previously suggested, the continued coinage of gold staters may have been connected with the
celebrations attending the installment (about 294–293 B. C.) at Seleucia on the Tigris of the king's eldest son
Antiochus as viceroy of all the eastern provinces.
| 44 |
Syr., 56.
|
| 45 |
Translation of Horace White, in The Loeb Classical Library.
|
| 46 |
Justin, XV, 4.
|
| 47 |
Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Fasc. 138: Études sur l'histoire de Milet et du
Didymaion, p. 126ff.
|
| 48 |
Loc. cit., p. 610.
|
| 49 |
This technique proclaims the fact that the blanks were cast before striking. The bevelled edge also appears later at many
of the Syrian
and Phoenician mints under the Seleucids, but in their case the method of production was apparently borrowed
from Egypt, not Seleucia. The western Seleucid issues almost invariably possess the peculiar central hole (resulting from the practice
of smoothing by means of a
lathe the rough surface and edges produced by the casting process) which is so typical of the Egyptian bronze coins after
the middle of
Ptolemy II's reign. The Eastern issues do not have this hole.
|
| 50 |
Loc. cit., p. 30.
|
The position of this group of tetradrachms (Nos. 52–54, PLATE VIII, 1–3) is a little uncertain as we have only the general style upon which to base a judgment. It is to be noted, however, that the forelegs of the elephants represent a half-way point between the "broken up" and the "parallel" arrangements described on p. 40, while the head of Zeus reveals many points of similarity with those found on the preceding dies A33, A34, A36, A38 and A42. The monograms on the reverse dies P122 and P123 are illegible—or very nearly so—but the coins in question must be closely associated with P121 as their obverses are all from the same die, A44.
With Group H appears a prolific issue of obols, in addition to the usual tetradrachms. The coins of the group are associated
by the letter
Δ and the monogram , which occur throughout the issue either in conjunction with each other or with
additional monograms. The position in Series II of Group H is assured by the continued use of an old obverse die (A41) which
first appeared
in Group F and which by now exhibits serious wear.
This represents the first time since the issues of Group D, Series I, nine years before, that the smallest of the silver fractions had again been coined at Seleucia. In the present case, the issue must have been a large one as many specimens have survived. Our obols do not, as in previous issues, reproduce the types of the accompanying tetradrachms. Instead, they bear on the obverse the tripod of Apollo with holmos and sometimes a fillet; and on the reverse either the anchor (PLATE VIII, 7, 9) of the preceding bronze coins, or a bow and quiver (PLATE VIII, 10).
Numismatists have ever, naturally enough, associated this tripod with Apollo and so recognized here an allusion to the reputed divine origin of Seleucus 51—according to the well known story related by Justin XV, 4. Haussoulier, however, suggests52 that it was only the descendants of Seleucus who invented, or played up, the Apolline origin of the dynasty. He denies that Seleucus ever adopted the type of Apollo for his coins or employed any symbol alluding to this divine origin; especially denying that the tripod in particular could possess any such connotation. While it is probably true that Seleucus, himself, never placed the figure of Apollo on his coins,53 we know that he did utilize not only the tripod but the actual head of the god as well, as we shall see when we come to study Group O of the present series. There can, therefore, be no question but that it was Seleucus who introduced Apollo among the more ordinary Seleucid coin types. Hence, it is probable that a story, in one form or another, concerning his supposed Apolline origin was current in his own lifetime. By the beginning of his son's reign the claim was officially encouraged by the royal court.54
| 51 |
For instance, Babelon, loc. cit., Introd., p. xxxiv.
|
| 52 |
Loc. cit.
|
| 53 |
The bronze coin assigned by Gardner (Brit. Mus. Cat.,
Seleucid Kings of Syria
, Pl. ii, 5) to Seleucus I, and accepted as such by Babelon (Introd., p. xxxv), is probably an issue of Seleucus II or Seleucus
III.
|
The magistrate's initials characteristic of this group are Δ and Θ, which occur either singly or together, unaccompanied by
any other
monogram. The tetradrachm is the only known denomination55—unless we are to suppose that the monogram , accompanying the letter delta on the obol No. 60, is only a stylized theta. In that case, Nos. 60 and 61 should be transferred from Group H to Group I.
The true position of this single coin (No. 67, PLATE IX, 1) is uncertain as its monograms vary somewhat from any that we have yet met in Series II. It is possible that the upper monogram behind Athena may be but a variant of the monogram to the right of the elephants on No. 59 of Group H. In any case, the style of both obverse and reverse resembles that found in Groups G to I and, hence, our tetradrachm must have been coined during this period. We can only hope that future finds may bring us additional specimens of this coin, particularly such as may have some definite die connections with the aforementioned groups.
With Group K, the stater once more appears—this time, curiously enough, with the name of Seleucus unaccompanied by any title. It bears the same two monograms as the tetradrachms and drachms, Nos. 69–72, and so must be associated with them in point both of time and issue. This definitely disposes of a theory once held by some scholars56 that the staters of Seleucus without the Bασιλεύς should be assigned to the period when in name he was only satrap and before he had assumed the royal title.
The reason for the sudden omission of the title is not clear, especially as it had been employed on the gold staters ever since the very first issue of this denomination at Seleucia in 305 B. C. Possibly the reason was a purely spatial one, as the title never fails to appear on all the tetradrachms coined at our mint.57 But as it is invariably present on even the smallest denominations of the elephant-chariot type, this aesthetic explanation fails to satisfy completely. In fact, it is to be noted that when the title is omitted, it is omitted only on coins (gold staters, silver drachms, hemidrachms, etc.) of the Alexander type. This being so, Babelon's explanation,58 namely that the presence or absence of the title under Seleucus is merely in pursuance of a practice prevalent under Alexander the Great, Philip III and Alexander IV, still holds the field.
We know too little of the history of the particular period in which Group K must have been issued, to hazard even a guess at the probable reason for the renewed coinage of the gold stater after a lapse of some five or more years.
The tetradrachms are here accompanied by drachms, no longer of the accustomed Alexandrine type but now bearing the Zeus head and the elephant-quadriga of the larger coins. The two varieties of the tetradrachm are struck from a single obverse die. Likewise, the three drachms, Nos. 70, 71a and 72, use one obverse die only.
| 54 |
See especially Pauly-Wissowa, II, 2, pp. 1231–2, where references to the lapidary inscriptions in support of
this are given.
|
| 55 |
The very common bronze coins with a laureate head of Apollo on the obverse and a fighting Athena, accompanied by the letter theta, on the reverse (Brit. Mus. Cat., Pl. ii, 13), might on the
strength of this association of the Athena type and letter, be assigned to the mint
of Seleucia on the Tigris. But style and fabric (slightly cupped flans, straight edges, etc.) are utterly at
variance with the third century issues of our mint and are, in this respect, rather of Syrian origin. Finally, not a single
specimen
turned up in the excavations carried on at the site of Seleucia.
|
| 56 |
Babelon, loc. cit., Introd., pp. viii–ix, pertinently points out that this assumption
is not necessarily true, although even he assigns these coins to the early years of Seleucus' reign as king,
i. e. shortly after 306–305 B. C.
|
Group L comprises a large coinage of tetradrachms and drachms bearing the now accustomed types, and all provided with the
signatures Θ and
either or —the two monograms evidently belonging to the same magistrate who
had participated in the coinage of the immediately preceding group. Whether or not Θ designates the magistrate who had previously
signed in
Group I, is difficult to say. On the other hand, he is undoubtedly the same official who henceforth continues to supervise
the coinage down
to, and including, Group T, which constitutes the final issue of Series II at the time of the death of Seleucus I.
A very prolific coinage of tetradrachms, drachms and even hemidrachms, of the Zeus and
elephant-chariot type, constitutes Group M. All the coins are signed by the magistrates Θ and . On the
reverse of the hemidrachms, the artist evidently felt that he lacked the necessary space to depict the full quadriga of elephants,
and so
substituted therefor the biga. Exigency of room is more probably the likely explanation than that it was thereby
specifically intended to denote visually the hemidrachm as the half of the drachm. Only on the hemidrachms of this and the
succeeding
series at Seleucia do we meet with the biga, although from the beginning this was the
ordinary type on all denominations struck at the sister mint of Susa.
Group M is connected with the preceding group by the carrying over of the obverse die A61 on No. 87.
| 57 |
It does not appear, as we shall see, on some of the tetradrachms coined under Seleucus at Ecbatana, cf. PLATE XXXVII, 6 and
10.
|
| 58 |
Loc. cit., Introd., p. ix.
|
Like the preceding group, Group N also contains many drachms and hemidrachms of the elephant-chariot type. Even a possible
obol (No. 99,
PLATE X, 19) of the old Alexander type is present—but its assignment here is not
quite above question, as the form of the monogram is , instead of the found on
all of the larger denominations. The absence of the title on the obol is paralleled on the contemporary gold Alexandrine issues
of Seleucia (Nos. 68 and 110), as well as on the later prolific issues of Alexander drachms (No. 125ff.), to whose style the present obol bears considerable likeness.
As stated before, the magistrate Θ is probably the same individual who has been functioning for some time at Seleucia (Groups
I, L, M), while similarly may be the same official who was active in Group F.
Whether he is identical with of Group M, is less certain, though not impossible.
The issues of this group are characterized by the presence of a symbol, the pentalpha, accompanied by the now usual ⊙. On many of the coins, the letter is so small that previous writers can hardly be blamed for frequently describing it as an omicron, 'circle,' 'globe,' etc. But on all really well-preserved specimens the central dot is quite clear and the letter must therefore be read as a theta.
To this same group must also be assigned a large issue of bronze coins, comprising at least three denominations and bearing for types the laureate head of Apollo and the humped bull butting to r. Their flans are characteristic for Seleucia, flat on one side, convex on the other, and with bevelled edges. For the first time at Seleucia, the head of Apollo graces the obverse die, while the humped bull is reminiscent of Nos. 6 to 8 of Series I. The possible motives actuating the choice of Apollo for a type have been discussed above on pp. 45–46, while the bull undoubtedly refers to the well-known exploit of Seleucus, as described on pp. 18–19.
It may be taken as certain that the bronze coins Nos. 105 to 106 belong to Group O as they display the accustomed pentalpha and theta. Nos. 107–108 omit the pentalpha but have, instead, the
monogram . All, however, are provided with the supervisor's letter, theta. If these
particular coins are not actually part of Group O, they can only be assigned to the following Group P; for with Group Q, a
further issue of
bronze coins, with a new obverse type, makes its appearance. All these coins have already been assigned to Babylonia by Imhoof-Blumer,59 who recognized
their style and fabric as characteristic of the issues of that province. The attribution is definitely proved by the fact
that no less than
thirteen specimens turned up in the excavations at Seleucia.60 Since the appearance
of Group E, some ten years back, no bronze coins had been issued from Seleucia. Presumably by now, these were
exhibiting signs of considerable wear, which was perhaps the reason for the new coinage.
| 59 |
Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, p. 13.
|
| 60 |
McDowell, loc. cit., p. 7, No. 11.
|
With Group P, a further issue of the Alexander-type gold stater (No. 110, PLATE XI, 9) makes its appearance. It is accompanied by three varieties of the usual tetradrachm, all struck from the same obverse die. Minor denominations have not yet turned up—perhaps because the prolific coinage of such fractions in the immediately preceding groups made a further issue at this time unnecessary.
Here, we find a renewed coinage of divisional pieces, both silver and bronze—the tetradrachm seems to be rare. The bronze coins occur in three denominations and bear a new obverse type, the head of Medusa. The humped bull of the preceding bronze coinage continues to appear on the reverses of the present issue.
The entire issue is again supervised by our old friend, Theta, assisted by an official employing the monogram
. Because of the small size and curious form of this particular monogram, previous scholars have
frequently rendered it as 
; while the accompanying theta, being sometimes weakly
struck, is frequently over-looked altogether.
Of the numerous existing Seleucid bronze coins bearing the Medusa-bull types, only those particular varieties which are described here should be assigned to Seleucia on the Tigris. For it happens that these types were also employed by Seleucus I in at least four, possibly even five, of his other mints. Nearly all are listed and described by Imhoof-Blumer in the Numismatische Zeitschrift, 1913, Vol. XLVI, pp. 190–2, where he assigns them without distinction to the mint of Babylon.61 But those struck in the eastern portion of the empire possess the usual bevelled edges; those struck in the west, straight edges. The former are subdivided by their monograms into three groups, one (ours) struck at Seleucia, the others at Susa and Ecbatana.62 By an obvious error, the Swiss scholar has described one of these coins as bearing the pentalpha and the theta above the bull. Imhoof-Blumer had misread Macdonald's description63—no such coin exists, and it should therefore be eliminated from Imhoof-Blumer's list. The total coinage of these Medusa bronzes at Seleucia (as also at Ecbatana and Susa) was probably small. In contrast to those of western fabric which are very common, those possessing the bevelled edge are comparatively scarce on the modern coin market. None was found (at least among the specimens still legible) in the excavations at Seleucia. But this may be due to the fact that the excavators seldom penetrated below Parthian levels and that, in fact, the majority of the coins brought back "came from the surface débris over the whole extent of the mounds."64 When the Seleucid levels are reached, as is hoped will be the case in the forthcoming campaign, specimens of this type will doubtless be found.
With regard to the Medusa type, Babelon favors65 Visconti's theory that Medusa was adopted by Seleucus as a type for the coin issues of Antioch because of the legendary association of the hero Perseus with Mount Silpius in that city. The type may have been used at Seleucia, Susa and Ecbatana merely in imitation of the more common Antiochene issues. On the other hand, even in those three cities, the Greek officials in charge of the mints might reasonably make use of the type if they knew of the legend according to which Persia had received its name from Perseus, whose descendants are even supposed to have long reigned at Babylon.66 These legends, however, may well be of a very much later age.
| 61 |
Imhoof-Blumer on p. 192 of his study shows a little hesitancy in assigning these
coins to Babylon—as well he might, seeing that he has here actually gathered together indiscriminately the
issues of at least three different mints, with their corresponding variations in monograms, style, fabric and find-spots.
|
| 62 |
See below, Nos. 341 and 501–2.
|
| 63 |
Catalogue of the Hunterian Collection, Vol. III, p. 10, No. 43.
|
| 64 |
McDowell, loc. cit., Preface, pp. vii, 53.
|
Group R comprises tetradrachms only. One of their known obverse dies (A71), continues in use under the next Group S, thus establishing the true sequence of these issues.
In addition to its stater and three tetradrachms, Group S comprises a very large number of fractional silver pieces. With but one exception (No. 124, PLATE XII, 10) these are again of the old Alexander type and appear to have been coined in unusually large quantities. It may be that the size of the issue was due to Seleucus' campaign in Asia Minor against Lysimachus, and that Babylonia was now called upon to furnish food and military supplies of all sorts.67 Because the drachms here suddenly revert to Alexander's types, and because it is just these pieces which are now so numerous, it is possible that they may have been specifically intended for soldiers' pay. Not only were Alexander's types especially favored in Asia Minor at this time, but hoards reveal that the elephant-chariot coins seldom penetrated to the west.67a The renewed occurrence of a gold stater (No. 121A) accompanying this issue also suggests warlike preparations.
The supervising magistrate of both Groups R and S continues to be the person, the initial of whose name is theta. He is assisted by two subordinates whose complicated monograms appear singly alongside the theta.
To the final coinage of Seleucus at his Babylonian capital may be assigned the two Alexander-type coins, Nos. 132 and 133 (PLATE XII, 18–19), still bearing the usual theta but now accompanied by another monogram composed of rho and omega. In style and fabric, these coins are but the continuation of the drachms assembled under Group S. Perhaps future finds will furnish us with the accompanying tetradrachms—if, indeed, any at all were coined. For the entire coinage must have been small as it could have been begun but a short time before the news of the assassination of Seleucus by Ceraunus reached Seleucia in the spring or early summer of 280 B. C.
| 67a |
Cf. p. 51 and footnote 71.
|
| 65 |
Loc. cit., Introd., p. xxxiii.
|
| 66 |
John Malala, II, p. 45.
|
| 67 |
Early in the succeeding reign of Antiochus I this very thing happened, as we know from a tablet in the British
Museum. See Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, p. 150ff.
|
The only hoard really pertinent to our study of Series II is the one secured in Babylonia by Prof. Haynes.68 Besides the eight Alexandrine-type tetradrachms of Seleucus (five from Seleucia, two from Susa, one from Antioch) and one diobol of the victory and trophy type, it contained no less than twenty-three tetradrachms and five drachms of the elephant-quadriga type—all struck at Seleucia on the Tigris. These have been incorporated in our catalogue and designated as coming from this hoard. With regard to their weights, it should be remembered that, when found, the coins were all very heavily corroded; and because of their consequent illegibility, were not weighed until after cleaning. The weights are therefore much lower than they otherwise would have been. The latest coins in the entire hoard are three examples (Nos. 111, 112, 113, PLATE XI, 10–12) of Series II, Group P—all originally in mint state when the hoard was buried. The deposit, according to its contents, thus reaches down to within about four years of the death of Seleucus. Prof. Haynes' hoard proves most useful to us, not only because of the many new varieties which it contained but also because the progressive wear displayed by its coins assists us materially in their chronological arrangement. The fact that none of the elephant-quadriga type attributable to Susa, Bactria, and elsewhere were present in the hoard, proves fairly conclusively that the varieties which it did contain were coined in Babylonia and largely circulated there.
In this regard, the evidence is supported by the only other hoard known to have contained any considerable number of these elephant-quadriga coins—the hoard from Mesopotamia 69 originally owned by M. Gejou, the well known Parisian dealer in Babylonian antiquities. The specimens from this hoard (eight tetradrachms, six drachms, one hemidrachm) have also been carefully recorded in our catalogue, together with their present weights which, because of the drastic cleaning necessary, are also uniformly light. The Gejou hoard, however, was a much later deposit, reaching down to and including the reign of Seleucus II.
The great hoard said to have been found near Armenak in Asia Minor70 throws little light on our subject. So far as the writer knows, it contained no example of the elephant-quadriga coins, showing how seldom these particular pieces penetrated to the west.71 It did, however, furnish us with an example of the Alexander-type drachm of Seleucus No. 127, a fact that tends to support the suggestion made above72 that these Alexandrine drachms of Seleucus may have been specifically coined for use in the campaign against Lysimachus.
| 68 | |
| 69 | |
| 70 | |
| 71 |
Only two western finds appear to have contained such pieces: Sophikon (Noe, loc. cit., Hoard No. 997) which had one tetradrachm (too badly
preserved to embody in our catalogue), and a Serbian hoard (Noe, No. 959) which had
two tetradrachms, Nos. 53 and 306. In addition, we know that the specimen in the Naville Sale X, June 1925,
No. 787, Pl. 27, must once have reached the European shores, for it now bears the counter-mark of Callatis.
|
The sudden death of Seleucus found his son Antiochus at Seleucia on the Tigris acting as his father's viceroy73 over the eastern portion of the empire. Bereft of the strong will and able hands that had formed and hitherto directed it, the great empire now threatened to disintegrate. Many provinces asserted their independence, and the son found himself beset by difficulties and dangers on all sides. But Antiochus, while perhaps not possessed of his father's genius, still had inherited much of the latter's courage, perseverance and energy. He at once threw himself into the unenviable task of holding off his foreign enemies, the while he strove to master rebellion at home and reweld the empire into a solid whole once more.
The first issues of coin in the name of the new ruler employ only old and well-known types. Antiochus at the moment was probably far too engrossed in weightier matters to select new types for his coinage. Besides, in such dangerous and unstable times, widely accepted types were best until conditions had again become stabilized and the empire's prestige reasserted.
| 31 |
For instance, Diodorus II, 8 speaks of "Zeus whom the Babylonians call Bel".
|
| 32 |
In the time of Seleucus IV. Cf. Dittenberger No. 245, 10f. Cf. also, A. D. Nock, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XLVIII, 1928, pp. 41–42, for the epithet Zεὺς
Σελεύχιoς.
|
| 33 |
Babelon, loc. cit., Introd., p. xxviii.
|
| 34 |
Num. Zeitschrift, XXVII, 1895, p. 10 ff.
|
| 35 |
Only the hemidrachms have the biga at Seleucia, as described in our
catalogue, Nos. 83, 86, 98 and 116.
|
| 36 | |
| 37 |
Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris
, p. 5 ff.
|
| 38 |
For instance, Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 790. Four drachms are in Paris from the Susa excavations, but as they have not yet been cleaned it is still impossible to
determine their particular varieties.
|
134. Drachm.
Laureate head of Zeus r. Circle of dots.
ANTIOXOY on l. BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. Athena in quadriga of elephants to r. Between
Athena's shield and the anchor, 
Δ.
Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge, Vol. I, Part II, Pl. xviii, 354, formerly Gen. Cunningham Coll., Sotheby Sale, July 1866, No. 30), gr. 3.93. PLATE XIII, 1.
135. Drachm.
Head of Zeus to r. From the same obverse die as No. 134.
(BAΣIΛEΩΣ, off flan), ANTIOXOY in the exergue. Athena in a quadriga of elephants to r. In
the exergue, 
.
Newell, gr. 4.08. PLATE XIII, 2.
136. Tetradrachm.
Head of young Heracles to r., wearing the lion's skin. Circle of dots.
ANTIOXOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. Zeus Nicephorus enthroned to l. In l. field,
. Beneath the throne, 
.
137. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, H. Beneath the throne, .
138. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding. The die is now in a worn state.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, 
. Beneath the throne, .
139. Tetradrachm.
From the same die as the preceding. The die is now in a very worn state.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, 
. Beneath the throne, .
| 72 |
P. 50.
|
| 73 |
Bevan, loc. cit., I, p. 74; Bouché-Leclercq, loc. cit., p. 58.
|
The drachms, Nos. 134 and 135, with the name of Antiochus, are struck from the same
obverse die. The monogram (apparently 
) which appears above the elephants on No. 134 is in the exergue on No.
135. The two coins have been assigned to Seleucia because of their types and because of the similarity of this
monogram to the one which is present in the left field of No. 136, the earliest known tetradrachm of Antiochus I
struck at our mint.
The four Alexandrine tetradrachms with the name of Antiochus (Nos. 136–139) are all
coined from the same obverse die, which clearly shows progressive wear and damage as the issue proceeds. The entire series
has been assigned
to the years 280–278 B. C. on the basis of this wear. It may even have continued for another year, for we cannot know the
inherent strength of
this particular obverse die, or the number of coins it was actually called upon to produce. At Sidon and Ake, where there was a long and continuous production of dated
Alexandrine tetradrachms, obverse dies frequently lasted from two to three years74 before they became as worn as
is die A74 at its final appearance in No. 139. Two years seems therefore to represent a safe allowance for the coinage of
Series I. This being
the case, the issues of year 280–279 B. C. may be represented by the two tetradrachms (Nos. 136 and 137) with the monogram
beneath the throne, those of year 279–278 B. C. by the two tetradrachms (Nos. 138 and 139) with in that same position.
The style and fabric of Nos. 136 to 139 present a distinctly "eastern" flavor. But the definite basis for their attribution
to Seleucia lies partly in the apparent connection between the drachms Nos. 134 and 135 with previous issues of Seleucia,
and especially in the obviously close connection between Series I and the succeeding Series II of Antiochus I as revealed
by the continued presence on the latter's coins of the magistrates' monograms
and . The H of No. 137 may well represent the same official who signs himself
on the earliest issues of the succeeding Series (Nos. 140–150).
For the first two years of his reign, the movements of Antiochus were confined because of the very serious revolt which had broken out in Syria in 27975 and which was not mastered until 277 B. C. One might therefore have expected a heavier coinage in Seleucia at this time than that represented by the issue of Series I which, though bearing the signatures of several magistrates, yet appears to employ but one obverse die. Possibly the money coined there during the final years of Seleucus I, proved sufficient. Possibly, also, precious metals in sufficient quantities for a larger coinage were not immediately available to Antiochus during the extremely difficult years at the outset of his reign.
| 74 |
E. T. Newell, The Dated Alexander Coinage of Sidon and Ake
, New Haven, 1916. At Sidon we have a record of nine dies lasting two, one lasting three and one lasting four years, respectively. Similarly, at Ake
ten dies lasted two years and two dies lasted three years. The three-year dies show great wear.
|
140. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus I with comparatively youthful features, to r. Circle of dots around. The diadem-ends hang loosely, one falling downwards, the other turned upwards.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r. ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo, naked but for drapery over his r. thigh, seated to l. upon the omphalos. In
his outstretched r., the god holds two arrows; his l. hand rests upon his bow. Circle of dots. In the outer l.
field, ; in the outer r. field, .
α) London (Gardner No. 3, Pl. iii, 3), gr. 16.89; β) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 13, No. 12), gr. 16.90; γ) Cambridge (McClean Coll., No. 9255, Pl. 336, 3), gr. 16.93; δ) Sir H. Weber Coll. (Forrer No. 7848, Pl. 286), gr. 17.10. PLATE XIII, 7; ε) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 891, Pl. 31, gr. 17.18; f) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1943, Pl. 56, gr. 17.01; ζ) Newell (Homs 1934 Hoard), gr. 15.71; η) Newell (= Headlam Coll., Sotheby Sale, May 1916, No. 433, gr. 16.96. PLATE XIII, 8; θ) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 777, Pl. xix), gr. 16.87; ι) Bompois Coll. (Numismatische Zeitschrift XLVI, 1913, Pl. ii, 13), gr. 17.03; κ) Leningrad (J. i. n., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 136, No. 90), gr. 17.10.
141. Tetradrachm
Similar to the preceding, but the features slightly older.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same two monograms.
α) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 13, No. 11, Pl. lxiii, 24), gr. 16.76; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 846, Pl. 28 (= Rhousopoulos Coll., Hirsch Sale XIII, 1905, No. 4432, Pl. lv) gr. 17.06; γ) Schlessinger Sale 13, Feb. 1935, No. 1425, Pl. 50, gr. 17; δ) Newell, gr. 17.04, Plate XIII, 9; ε) London (Gardner, No. 5 = Numismatische Zeitschrift Vol XLVI, 1913, Pl. ii, 12), gr. 16.96.
142. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding, but with older features and of slightly different character.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same two monograms.
α) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2930, Pl. lxxxv, gr. 16.98. PLATE XIII, 10; β) Bement Coll., Naville Sale VII, June 1924, No. 1669, Pl. 57 (= Bunbury Coll., Sotheby Sale, Dec. 1896, No. 442, Pl. iii), gr. 17.02; γ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 845, Pl. 28 (= Benson Coll., Sotheby Sale, Feb. 1909, No. 756, Pl. xxv), gr. 17.16.
143. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding. The diadem-ends are sometimes arranged as on the preceding coins, sometimes they both hang loosely downwards.
Similar to the preceding, except that, hence-forth, Apollo holds only one arrow. The same two monograms as on Nos. 140–142.
α) Rhousopoulos Coll., Hirsch Sale XIII, May 1905, No. 4433, Pl. lv, gr. 17.08; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 847, Pl. 28, gr. 17.18; γ) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 760, Pl. 13, gr. 16.30; δ) Newell, gr. 16.69. PLATE XIII, 11.
144. Drachm.
Diademed youthful head of Antiochus I to r. Circle of dots.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same two monograms. The bow is here, exceptionally, of the composite type.
α) Egger Sale XLV, Nov. 1913, No. 646, Pl. xviii, gr. 4.16; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 872, Pl. 29, gr. 4.17; γ) Newell, gr. 3.63. PLATE XIII, 12.
145. Bronze Quadruple.
Laureate head of Apollo to r. Circle of dots.
Inscription as on the preceding coins. Helmeted Athena, armed with shield and spear,
in fighting attitude to r. In l. field, ; in r. field, 
.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 151, Pl. v, 1), gr. 15.65; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); γ) London (Gardner, No. 50, Pl. iv, 9); δ) Newell, gr. 12.90. PLATE XIII, 13; ε) Newell, gr. 15.14.
146. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) Berlin; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 152), gr. 6.70; γ) Newell, gr. 5.91; δ) Rome (Vatican Coll.). PLATE XIII, 14; ε–η) Seleucia on the Tigris, p. 9, No. 16 (a), gr. 6.62; 6.53; 5.62; 5.54; θ) Leningrad (Jour. int. d'arch. num. Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 136, No. 110), gr. 6.03; ι) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 15, No. 31), gr. 6.28; κ) Newell, gr. 5.26.
147. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
On r., BA; on l., AN. Same type and monograms as on the preceding.
α–β) Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 9, No. 16 (b), gr. 3.25; 2.80.
| 75 |
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, p. 701.
|
148. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r., similar to that found on Nos. 142–3. The diadem ends have the two positions described on No. 143.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo, holding a single arrow, seated l. on omphalos. In the exergue, ; in outer r. field, .
α) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., p. 13, No. 13), gr. 17.00; β) Hirsch Sale XIX, Nov. 1907, No. 595, Pl. xv, gr. 17.00; γ) Bunbury Coll., Sotheby Sale, Dec. 1896, No. 436, Pl. iii, gr. 17.04; δ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.095; ε) Newell (= Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 848, Pl. 29), gr. 17.04. PLATE XIV, 1.
149. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding, but both diadem ends always hang downwards.
Similar to the preceding, except that is in the outer l. field, in the outer
r. field.
α) London (Gardner, No. 6), gr. 17.10; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 17.095; γ) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 17.05; δ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 16.54; ε) Berlin (Fox Coll.), gr. 17.125; f) Newell, gr. 16.96; ζ) Newell, gr. 16.71; η) Newell (= Headlam Coll., Sotheby Sale, May 1906, No. 433), gr. 16.82; θ) Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge etc., Vol. I, Part II, Pl. xviii, No. 357), gr. 17.13; ι) Sotheby Sale, July 1910, No. 118, Pl. v, gr. 17.07; κ) Luneau Coll., Platt Sale, March 1922, No. 721, Pl. xv; λ) Naville Sale V, June 1923, No. 2786, Pl. lxxvii, gr. 17.13; μ) Bement Coll., Naville Sale VII, June 1924, No. 1668, Pl. 57, gr. 17.01; ν) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 849, Pl. 29 (= Hess, Lucerne Sale, Dec. 1933, No. 94, Pl. 4), gr. 17.11; ξ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 850, Pl. 29, gr. 17.02; o) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1944, Pl. 56, gr. 16.78; π) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 762, Pl. 13, gr. 16.75; ρ) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 761, Pl. 13, gr. 17.05; σ) Schlessinger Sale 13, Feb. 1935, No. 1426, Pl. 50, gr. 16.9; τ) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2931, Pl. lxxxv, gr. 17.04. PLATE XIV, 2; υ) Sir H. Weber Coll., Forrer, No. 7843, Pl. 286 (= Bunbury Coll., Sotheby Sale, Dec. 1896, No. 440, gr. 17.10; φ) Jenks Coll., Henry Chapman Sale, Dec. 1921, No. 148, Pl. 3; χ) Leningrad (Jour. int. num., XIII, 1911, p. 136, No. 91), gr. 16.85; ψ) Collignon Sale, 1919, No. 382.
150. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 4.10.
151. Bronze Double.
Similar to No. 146.
Similar to No. 146, except that to l. of Athena is , to
her r. is .
α) London . PLATE XIV, 3; β–γ) Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 9, No. 16 (b), gr. 2.65; 2.63. β–γ may represent units.
152. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 149.
Similar to No. 149. In outer l. field, ; in outer r. field, 
.
α) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 17.20; β) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.125; γ) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2933, Pl. lxxxv, gr. 17.14; δ) Cambridge (Leake Coll.). PLATE XIV, 4.
153. Bronze Unit.
Similar to No. 151.
Similar to No. 151. Only monogram visible, (= ?).
Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 9, No. 16 (b), gr. 2.05.
154. Tetradrachm.
Similar to Nos. 149 and 152. The diadem ends hang straight.
Similar to Nos. 149 and 152. In l. field (between Apollo and legend), ; in outer r. field, 
.
α) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 16.67. PLATE XIV, 5; β) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.22. PLATE XIV, 6.
155. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, ; in outer r. field, 
.
Type 1: the arrow held by Apollo breaks the inscription.
Type 2: The arrow is entirely to r. of the inscription, or only just touches it.
TYPE 1
α) Sambon Sale, Paris, March 1923, No. 529, Pl. viii (= Delbeke Coll., Sotheby Sale, April 1907, No. 216, Pl. vii = Walcher de Molthein Coll., 1895, No. 2873, Pl. xxiv), gr. 17.20; β) Naville Sale V, June 1923, No. 2787, Pl. lxxvii, gr. 17.07; γ) White-King Coll., Schulman Sale, Sept. 1904, No. 495, Pl. v; δ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 851, Pl. 29, gr. 17.03; ε) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 852, Pl. 29, gr. 17.00; f) Vogel Coll., Hess Sale, March 1929, No. 383, Pl. 10, gr. 16.98; ζ) Hess Sale 207, Dec. 1931, No. 642, Pl. 15, gr. 17.06; η) Hamburger Sale, June 1930, No. 839, Pl. 25, gr. 17.12; θ) Hamburger Sale 96, Oct. 1932, No. 167, Pl. 5, gr. 16.93; ι) Newell (Gejou), gr. 16.93; κ) Newell, gr. 16.89; λ) Newell, gr. 16.66; μ) Berlin (Dannenberg Coll.), gr. 17.11. PLATE XIV, 7; ν) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.12; ξ) de Nanteuil Coll., No. 488, Pl. xxx, gr. 17.17; o) Sir H. Weber Coll. (Forrer, No. 7844, Pl. 286), gr. 17.14.
TYPE 2
π) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2932, Pl. lxxxv, gr. 17.16; ρ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 853, Pl. 29, gr. 17.02; σ) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1945, Pl. 56 (= Locker-Lampson Coll., No. 344, Pl. xxvi), gr. 17.07; τ) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1946, Pl. 56, gr. 16.91; υ) Ciani Sale, June 1920, No. 131, Pl. iii (= Egger Sale XLV, Nov. 1913, No. 638, Pl. xviii), gr. 17.02; φ) Hirsch Sale XXXIV, May 1914, No. 501, Pl. xv, gr. 17.20; χ) Egger Sale, Jan. 1908, No. 568, Pl. xvii, gr. 16.4; ψ) Löbbecke Coll., Hess Sale, Jan. 1926, No. 412, Pl. vii, gr. 16.9; ω) London (Gardner, No. 7, Pl. iii, 4), gr. 17.18; αα) Newell (= Egger Sale XLVI, May 1914, No. 2439, Pl. xxxix), gr. 16.46; ββ) Newell, gr. 17.10; γγ) Newell (= Ordoñes Coll., Schulman Fixed Price Cat. LXII, No. 346, Pl. v), gr. 17.11. PLATE XIV, 8; δδ) Berlin, gr. 16.98; εε) Glendining Sale, 1931, No. 1144; ff) Jameson Coll., No. 1668, Pl. lxxxiii, gr. 17.11.
156. Bronze Unit.
Similar to No. 151.
Similar to No. 151. Athena's shield is sometimes in a horizontal position. To l. of
Athena, 
; to r. .
α—γ) Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 9, No. 16 (c), gr. 3.35; 2.95; 2.33; δ–f) Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 10, No. 18, (Pl. ii), gr. 2.41; 1.10; 0.90.
157. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 155.
Similar to No. 155, Type 1. In outer l. field, ; in outer r. field, 
.
α) Cambridge (McClean Coll., No. 9249, Pl. 335, 15), gr. 17.10; β) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1947, Pl. 56, gr. 17.07; γ) Schulman Sale, Dec. 1926, No. 198, Pl. ix (= Collignon Sale, Dec. 1919, No. 380), gr. 17.18; δ) Berlin (Knobelsdorf Coll.), gr. 17.175; ε) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); f) Newell, gr. 16.66. PLATE XIV, 9; ζ) Paris (Babelon, No. 118), gr. 17.05; η) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 16, Pl. lxiii, 25), gr. 17.04.
158. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same two monograms.
α) Löbbecke Coll., Hess Sale, Jan. 1926, No. 413, Pl. vii, gr. 4.1 = Cahn Sale 66, May 1930, No. 365, Pl. 11, gr. 4.13; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 873, Pl. 30, gr. 3.98; γ) Newell, gr. 3.38; δ) Newell, gr. 3.73. PLATE XIV, 10.
From this point forward, the several dies used at Seleucia have not been furnished with separate numbers as the issues are large, and little is to be gained by such a refinement of detail. To do so, would also have entailed the securing of hundreds of casts from the various private and public collections upon whose generosity an already too heavy burden has been laid by the present writer. In addition, the more the series is studied, the more it becomes evident that but a small proportion of the original dies is now known and that future finds will assuredly add very greatly to their number. It would therefore be mistaken zeal to increase the bulk of our catalogue by listing the individual dies, and a commensurate advantage seems to be lacking. Every known major variety, however, is given, but no claim is made to a complete assemblage of known specimens. Those recorded have been gathered, somewhat at random, from available catalogues possessing photographic reproductions of the coins in question. Sometimes specimens, of whose particular variety there can be no doubt, have been culled from the carefully compiled catalogues of certain well-known public collections; but as a rule such unillustrated pieces have been omitted.
The coin issues of Series II form a comprehensive whole, although for convenience' sake they have here been divided into three consecutive groups, lettered A, B, and C, respectively. Obviously, the entire Series comprises a very extensive coinage which must have required a number of years for its production. The somewhat arbitrary dates of c. 278 to 267 B. C. have been adopted for the series as a whole. No less arbitrary are the proposed dates 278–274, 274–270, 270–267 for the respective subdivisions A, B, and C. Evidence in support of these dates, however, will from time to time be adduced in the course of our discussion of the coins themselves. It is doubtful if absolute certainty in the matter of dating can be obtained without the assistance of hoards buried in the east during these particular years. Unfortunately, such hoards are still lacking.
It is to be noted that on the first three varieties of the tetradrachms of the new type (Nos. 140–142), Apollo holds two arrows in his right hand. Six, in his interesting study76 of certain Seleucid coins, has laid considerable stress on the instances in which Apollo is depicted as holding two, or even three, instead of the more usual single arrow. He proposed the theory that these arrows were a subtle means employed by the engravers to denote the number of scions of the Seleucid royal family living at a given time. Thus, two arrows typify the joint rule of Antiochus I and his younger son Antiochus (II) after 266 B. C.; while the three arrows indicate the birth (in 265 B. C. ?) of an heir to the latter. The present writer seriously doubts if the arrows held any such connotation to the ancients, especially as the dates assigned by Six to these particular coins are demonstrably erroneous. In the opening group of Series II Apollo does hold two arrows, which toward the close of the issue are reduced to one. It so happens that, according to dates proposed for Group A, this change would seem to have taken place about the year 276–275 B. C. Now, a cuneiform tablet (No. 92,688) in the British Museum shows that the court had removed to Sardes in 276 B. C.77 and there, the tablet further states, Antiochus soon after "left his court, his wife and the crown prince (Seleucus) in Sipardu (Sardes) to keep a strong guard." It is probably but a curious coincidence upon which it would be most unwise to lay any weight, that the single arrow replaces the two arrows at just about the time the crown prince left Seleucia for Sardes. We do not know if he ever returned to Babylonia, but the fact remains that, henceforth, only one arrow is ever found in Apollo's hand on the issues of Seleucia.
The first group (A) of Series II is signed by the two officials and , whose
monograms have already been seen on the coins of Series I. The two series are thus inseparably linked together, and Group
A is established
as the opening one of Series II. The tetradrachm No. 140 (PLATE XIII, 7–8) is in style obviously the earliest
of the group. This observation is further supported by the fact that its portrait is certainly the youngest in appearance
of any that we
possess of Antiochus I. Its contours and character agree well with the fact that Antiochus was a man of forty-five when he succeeded to his father's throne in 280 B. C.
Stylistically and according to the sequence of monograms, Group A must come at the head of the long series of similar coins
(PLATES
XIII–XVI) which for the next thirty-odd years emanated from the mint at Seleucia. Nowhere else in this extensive
series can it be made to fit. This fact must dispose, once and for all, of the attempt to recognize in the comparatively youthful
features
of the head on No. 140 a portrait of Antiochus II.78 As
we have seen, the coins can only be those of Antiochus I for the early years of his reign, and the portrait must
consequently be his. Furthermore, the features bear no resemblance whatsoever to those of Antiochus II, whose true physiognomy has now been definitely established by Sir George Macdonald.79
After the temporary use on No. 141 (PLATE XIII, 9) of a modified portrait, we find a distinctly older head appearing on Nos. 142 and 143 (PLATE XIII, 10–11). This type is more in accord with what has been generally recognized and accepted as the true portrait of Antiochus I. But after deepening the wrinkles, it only continues and accentuates the deep-set eye, the beetling brow and the long upper lip so characteristic of the younger head on No. 140. On all of these coins the diadem-ends assume a special position, the nearest one hanging straight down, while the furthest, after hanging down for a short distance, then turns upwards again at a sharp angle.
The introduction of the seated Apollo type on the reverse inaugurates this as the standard reverse design of the Seleucid silver coinage. With only one major and one minor interval, it continued to be used until the middle of the reign of Antiochus IV, over a hundred years later. Even then it reappeared, although intermittently, in the reigns of Antiochus V, Demetrius I; and actively, once more, under Alexander I (on the drachms), in the first reign of Demetrius II, and on the drachms of Antiochus VI. Although Apollo's head had appeared from time to time on the bronze coinages of Seleucus I, it was Antiochus I who definitely and consistently proclaimed the divine origin of the dynasty by means of the far-travelling silver tetradrachm.
In close connection with the tetradrachms Nos. 140–43, and signed by the same two magistrates, a prolific issue of bronze pieces (Nos. 145–7, PLATE XIII, 13–14), in three denominations as usual, now appeared at Seleucia. The flans of this new issue of bronze coins are not quite so obviously bevelled as had been those of Series II under Seleucus I, although there is a definite tendency in this direction. The choice of Apollo's head for the obverse type also serves to associate these coins with the accompanying silver. This head, as well as the fighting Athena of the reverse, carries on a tradition already established on earlier issues of Seleucus.80 This particular variety of bronze coin turned up in considerable numbers in the excavations at Seleucia. Dr. McDowell has listed sixteen specimens81 of various denominations. This fact definitely establishes their assignment to the Seleucian mint; and with them, that of the accompanying silver which bears the same monograms. That the tetradrachms and drachm Nos. 140–44, originated in Babylonia was first clearly recognized by Six,82 while the present writer had long assigned these coins to Seleucia on the basis of style, usual provenance and because, by elimination, no other mint is possible for them.
That the new coinage was prolific is not surprising. After the change in design from the old fashioned Alexander type to one more personal to Antiochus and his dynasty, it would have been politically desirable to establish thoroughly the new coin. Very possibly the earlier issues were now melted down to provide the necessary bullion, thus accounting for their great rarity today. In any event, we know that throughout the year 278–277, Antiochus was waging a desperate struggle in Syria to suppress the dangerous rebellion which had broken out there. Babylonia doubtless constituted his principal base of supplies. Hardly had the revolt been suppressed when the Egyptian army burst into Coele-Syria and recaptured Damascus. The resources of Antiochus were now strained to the uttermost, and we know, with unusual certainty, that at this juncture he drew heavily on Babylon and Seleucia. It is definitely stated (lines 11–13),83 in the tablet mentioned above, that "In Adar on the 24th the governor of Akkad despatched a great quantity of silver, cloth stuffs, furniture and gear from Babylon and Seleucia, the royal city, and 20 elephants which the governor of Bactria had sent to the king, to Ebir-nari to the king."
Dearth settled on Babylonia and it is further stated (line 14) that "In that year they paid current prices in Babylon and the cities in copper coins of Greece." In the following year it was even worse, for the tablet continues (lines 20–21) "There was famine in Akkad. The people hired their children for silver. The people died of hunger. In that year (the 37th) there was much scabies in the country. They paid current prices in Babylon and the cities in copper coins of Greece." Smith's explanatory statement84 that "The introduction of a copper coinage was always considered a hardship" hardly applies in this instance. If the copper coinage, by hard necessity, was actually being issued in place of silver, this might well be considered a hardship. But this was not the case here, for not only did the coinage of this very period consist of both silver and copper pieces, but the silver was evidently being struck in large quantities. What the passage must mean, in the light of our present knowledge, is that the times were so bad in the 36th and 37th years of the Seleucid era (between Nisan 277 and Nisan 275 B. C.) that silver had practically vanished85 from circulation and only copper remained. This state of affairs had probably resulted because large quantities, if not all, of the silver actually being minted was forwarded to Antiochus for the use of his army in Syria 86 and, furthermore, because of the economic strain with its concomitant famine and pestilence, and the denudation of the country for military purposes, what silver remained was being taken out of circulation and hoarded—a usual phenomenon accompanying such a situation. Consequently, the populace was thrown back, willy-nilly, upon the use of copper money. This constituted a hardship, particularly to the Babylonians who had grown accustomed to the almost exclusive use of silver as the principal circulating medium. The Achaemenid kings had never coined copper for use in Babylonia.87 The present writer knows of no copper coins having been issued in Babylonia between the arrival of Alexander and their first introduction under Seleucus, as described above.88 The term used twice on our tablet, "copper coins of Greece," evidently does not mean—as suggested by Smith—that recourse was had to actual copper coins of Greece, or that, as a corollary, no coins were struck by Antiochus in Babylonia until after 276 B. C. It does mean that, to the Babylonians, copper coinage was essentially a Greek practice and had first been introduced by them into the country. By the natives, therefore, all copper coins would be dubbed "Greek."
| 76 |
Numismatic Chronicle, Third Series, Vol. XVIII, 1898, pp. 228ff.
|
| 77 |
Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, pp. 152ff.
|
| 78 |
Bunbury, Num. Chron., 3rd Ser., Vol. III, 1883, pp. 76–7; Six, loc. cit. pp. 227–8. They are followed by Babelon, Introd., pp.
lxii–lxiii; Imhoof-Blumer, Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol.
XLVI, 1913, p. 181; Hill, Greek Coins and their Parent Cities, p. 125, No. 777; Grose,
McClean Collection, Vol. III, No. 9255; and by many sales catalogues.
|
| 79 |
Early Seleucid Portraits, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXIII, 1903, pp. 108ff.
|
| 80 | |
| 81 |
Loc. cit., p. 9, No. 16.
|
| 82 |
Loc. cit., pp. 219–228.
|
| 83 |
Sidney Smith, loc. cit., p. 156.
|
| 84 |
Loc. cit., p. 158, Note 14.
|
| 85 |
There must have been at least some silver still circulating, for in line 20 it is said that "The people hired
their children for silver," if the passage is to be taken literally.
|
| 86 |
As clearly stated in lines 11–13 of the tablet.
|
| 87 |
In Persian contract tablets from Babylonia it is seldom or never that payment in anything but gold, silver or
"in kind" is mentioned.
|
| 88 |
Pp. 18–19.
|
The coins of Group B continue the types of the tetradrachm No. 143 and of the bronze coins Nos. 145–7. Throughout the group
the chief
magistrate is , whose monogram had already appeared in Series I. At first (Nos. 148–51), his subordinate is
the who had assisted in signing all the coins of Series II, Group A. Towards the close of the present issue
he is replaced by , Nos. 152–3, PLATE XIV, 4.
The type of portraiture employed is very much the same as that found on No. 143. We also find a continuation of the two fashions there used to depict the diadem-ends. Thus, by means of artist's mannerisms, style, fabric and the carrying over of certain monograms from previous issues, we can be assured that Nos. 148–153 belong to the same mint as Nos. 134–147, i. e., Seleucia. The fact that specimens of the accompanying bronze coins were also found at Seleucia, establishes the correctness of the attribution.
The silver coins of Group C continue to be supervised by the of the preceding groups. Two new subordinates
make their appearance on the silver, and . The portraiture continues a
development that at times threatens to become slightly stereotyped, as seen in the over-accentuation of the heavy, straight
line of the
brow and a somewhat pathetic expression in the deep-set eye.89 This pathos of expression is in conformity with
a growing tendency in this direction exhibited by contemporary Hellenistic art and taste. Some fine and impressive portraits,
however,
still frequently occur, which present a most striking characterization of Antiochus as an elderly man, his face now grown fuller but with deepening lines of care about his cheek, mouth and chin. On the
final tetradrachm, No. 157 (PLATE XIV, 9), the portrait has become somewhat less convincing and more
stereotyped. Throughout the issue the diadem-ends hang stiffly behind, in an almost straight line.
The coinage must have been very large, especially in the case of No. 155, whose reverses offer two different but contemporary schemes of design. In type 1 (PLATE XIV, 7), the established formula is followed, with its comparatively large Apollo figure whose arrow and outstretched r. hand cut clean across the king's name, dividing it between the tau and the iota. In type 2 (PLATE XIV, 8), the figure is smaller, the right arm slightly more bent, while the arrow is entirely inside the line of the inscription, or just barely breaking it with the tip only. Type 2 occurs solely on specimens of No. 155, and is never again found at Seleucia.
The bronze coin No. 156, continues the types to which we have become accustomed. It is signed not by the chief magistrate
himself but by
the subordinate , who is here accompanied by an assistant whose monogram now appears for the
first, and last, time.
Once more, examples of all the bronze coins described appeared in the excavations at Seleucia, which fact, combined with the style, fabric and continuance of certain magistrates' monograms on the silver, assures the attribution of this entire group to the mint of Seleucia.
| 89 |
Compare especially the specimens γ, δ ζ, o, of No. 155.
|
159. Tetradrachm.
Elderly head of Antiochus I, diademed, to r. Circle of dots. The diadem-ends hang stiffly downwards.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo, naked but for drapery over r. thigh, seated to l. on the omphalos. He holds
an arrow in his outstretched r., and rests l. upon his bow. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, 
. Circle of dots.
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 865, Pl. 30, gr. 16.90; β) Ratto Sale, June 1929, No. 503, Pl. xxiii, gr. 16.90; γ) Ratto Sale, Oct. 1934, No. 232, Pl. vii, gr. 16.60; δ) London (Gardner, No. 10), gr. 17.12; ε) Paris (Babelon, No. 129), gr. 17.; f) Paris (Babelon, No. 130, Pl. iv, 13), gr. 16.95; ζ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.018; η) Berlin (countermarked for Byzantium. Macdonald in Zeitschrift für Numismatik, Vol. XXIX, 1912, p. 92, No. 8, Pl. iv, 8), gr. 16.65; θ) Newell, gr. 17.06. PLATE XIV, 11; ι) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. Ill, p. 14, No. 18), gr. 17.05; κ) Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge, Pl. xviii, No. 355), gr. 16.99; γ) American Numismatic Society, gr. 16.94.
160. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding. Circle of dots.
Same inscription and types as on the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
London (Gardner, p. 9, No. 11), gr. 16.82. PLATE XIV, 12.
161. Bronze Unit.
Laureate head of Apollo with long hair, three-quarters facing to r. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Winged and draped figure of Nike advancing r., and with outstretched arms touching a trophy
of arms erected
on a tree stump. In outer l. field, 
. The monogram in the outer r. field is off flan. Circle of dots.
α) Newell, gr. 2.82. PLATE XIV, 13; β) Walcher de Molthein Coll., No. 2889, Pl. xxiv.
162. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 160. The portrait at times becomes almost a caricature. The diademends hang straight.
Similar to No. 160. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, .
α) Bement Coll., Naville Sale VII, June 1924, No. 1670, Pl. 57 (= O'Hagan Coll., Sotheby 1908, No. 643), gr. 17.17; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 856, Pl. 29, gr. 17.08 γ) Schlessinger Sale 13, Feb. 1935, No. 1428, Pl. 50, gr. 17.1; δ) Hamburger Sale, June 1930, No. 414, Pl. 13, gr. 17.12; ε) Walcher de Molthein Coll., No. 2876, Pl. xxiv, gr. 16.95; f) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); ζ) Paris (Babelon, No. 114), gr. 17.; η) Newell, gr. 17.07. PLATE XV, 1; θ) Leningrad (Jour. Int. Num. XIII, 1911, p. 135, No. 87), gr. 16.95.
163. Bronze Double.
Similar to No. 161.
Similar to No. 161. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field,
Berlin, gr. 8.90.
164. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α–β) Seleucia, pp. 10–11, No. 20, gr. 3.25, 3.04. Two further specimens of the Seleucia finds may belong here; but as only the r. hand monogram remains, the coins might also be No. 168.
165. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.).
166. Tetradrachm
Diademed elderly head of Antiochus I to r. Circle of dots. Both style and portrait are greatly improved over those of Nos. 159 and 162, although the relief is lower. The diadem-ends are always depicted as fluttering.
Similar to No. 162. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, . Circle of
dots.
α) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1949, Pl. 56, gr. 17.12; β) Helbing Sale, Oct. 1927, No. 3122, Pl. 59, gr. 17.; γ) Helbing Sale, Nov. 1928, No. 4058, Pl. 73, gr. 17.1. PLATE XV, 2; δ) Cahn Sale 65, Oct. 1929, No. 253, Pl. 8, gr. 17.25; ε) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 857, Pl. 29, gr. 16.68; f) Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, Nov. 1912, No. 642, Pl. xvii, gr. 16.66; ζ) Platt Sale, June 1925, No. 156, Pl. iii, gr. 16.35; η) Basel Sale 4, Oct. 1935, No. 868, Pl. 30, gr. 17.09; θ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 17.135; ι) Paris (Babelon, No. 113, Pl. iv, 9), gr. 17.
167. Bronze Double.
Similar to No. 163.
Similar to No. 163. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 177, Pl. v, 10), gr. 7.65. PLATE XV, 3; β) Paris (Mission en Susiane, 1934, Vol. XXV, p. 108, No. 26, Pl. viii), gr. 6.5875. PLATE XV, 4; γ) Newell (from Baghdad), gr. 7.41.
168. Bronze Unit.
Similar to No. 164.
Similar to No. 164, and with the same two monograms as on the preceding.
α–β) Seleucia, pp. 10–11, No. 20, gr. 3.46, 3.34; γ) Paris (Babelon, No. 179), gr. 2.10; δ) Newell (= Philipsen Coll., Hirsch Sale, XXV, Nov. 1909, No. 2867), gr. 3.93; ε) Newell, gr. 3.40. PLATE XV, 5; f) Paris (Babelon, No. 178, Pl. v, 11), gr. 2.90; ζ) Paris, from Susa.
169. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 180), gr. 1.50. PLATE XV, 6; β) Paris, from Susa. PLATE XV, 7.
170. Tetradrachm.
Head of Antiochus I to r. as on No. 166. Fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots.
Similar to No. 166. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field,
α) Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2438, Pl. lxi, gr. 16.93; β) London (Gardner, No. 17), gr. 17.04; γ) Paris (Babelon, No. 115), gr. 16.80. PLATE XV, 8; δ) Leningrad (Jour. int. num. Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 136, No. 89), gr. 16.8.
171. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding coin.
Similar to the preceding coin, and with the same two monograms.
α) Berlin (very poor); β) Paris (Babelon, No. 116, Pl. iv, 10), gr. 4.18. PLATE XV, 9.
172. Bronze Double.
Similar to No. 167.
Similar to No. 167. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, 
London (Gardner, No. 51. The left-hand monogram is erroneously reproduced in the catalogue), gr. 8.85. PLATE XV, 10.
173. Bronze Unit.
Similar to No. 168.
Similar to No. 168 and with the same monograms as the preceding.
α) London (Gardner, No. 53, Pl. iv, 10), gr. 3.82. PLATE XV, 11; β) London (Gardner, No. 54); γ–f) Seleucia, pp. 10-11, No. 20, gr. 3.85, 3.83, 3.46, 3.34.
174. Bronze Double.
Head of Athena to r., wearing a crested Corinthian helmet. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo standing to l., holds arrow in outstretched r., rests l. upon bow. In outer l. field,
In outer r. field, .
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 6.68. PLATE XV, 12.
175. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding type.
Similar to the preceding type and with the same monograms.
α–β) Seleucia, p. 12, No. 24, gr. 4.21, 3.91; γ) Newell, gr. 4.00. PLATE XV, 13.
176. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding type.
Similar to the preceding type and probably with the same monograms.
α–γ) Seleucia, p. 12, No. 24, gr. 1.58, 1.37, 1.00; δ) Paris (Babelon, No. 188, Pl. v, 16), gr. 1.70. PLATE XV, 14.
177. Tetradrachm.
Head of Antiochus I to r., as on No. 170. Fluttering diadem-ends.
Similar to No. 170. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 854, Pl. 29, gr. 16.93; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 855, Pl. 29, gr. 17.08; γ) Naville Sale XIII, June 1928, No. 914, Pl. 27, gr. 17.09; δ) Hamburger Sale, June 1930, No. 413, Pl. 13, gr. 17.; ε) London (Gardner, No. 15), gr. 16.93; f) Paris (Babelon, No. 117), gr. 16.90; ζ) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 15.90; η-θ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.),gr. 17.095 and 17.14; ι) Newell, gr. 16.63. PLATE XV, 15; κ) Commerce; λ) Leningrad (Jour. int. num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 135, No. 88), gr. 16.55; μ) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 19, Pl. lxiv, 1), gr. 16.96; ν) Butler Coll., Sotheby 1911, No. 243.
A new series of issues now commences at Seleucia which, so far as the silver pieces are concerned, at first continues the same types, fabric and general style of the final issues of Series II. In the first group (A), however, two new magistrates make their appearance. The elderly head of Antiochus presents very much the same physiognomy as in the immediately preceding issue, but the diadem-ends now tend to hang even more stiffly than they have hitherto.
Accompanying these silver coins is a new issue of bronze units90 whose obverses bear a three-quarters facing head of Apollo (PLATE XIV, 13). The reverse type of the Nike and trophy is new for the issues of Antiochus I, although it is obviously inspired by the Persepolitan silver issues (PLATE XXXII) of Seleucus I. The most suitable occasion for the introduction of such a type would seem to have been after the peace of 272 B. C.91 By it, Antiochus had finally emerged with some success from the many rebellions, Gallic raids and foreign invasions which had made the first eight years of his reign so troubled. To move Series III, Group A, containing this victory type, back from the date assigned to it here, would mean not only to compress too greatly the numerous and prolific issues of Series I and II, but also thereby to cause the remaining Seleucian issues of the reign to be spread rather too thinly over the years from 272 to 261 B. C. After 272 B. C., and until we reach the year 263, our ancient sources tell us practically nothing concerning the history of Antiochus and his empire. Either there had occurred, in or around 268–267 B. C., some event92 which Antiochus deemed worthy of record on his issues at Seleucia, or the authorities there felt that the old types employed on the bronze coinage had now lasted long enough (actually, over ten years). In the latter case, the new types may have borne a general, rather than some specific, implication. As we have been led to assign Group A of Series III to about 267–265 B. C., it is possible that new types were inaugurated on the bronze coins at the time (266 B. C.) Antiochus I associated his second son, Antiochus, in the government with himself. Probably the latter now took up his residence in Seleucia as viceroy of the east, exactly as Antiochus I had done when associated in the government by his father, Seleucus I. Victory types of happy augury might well have been introduced on such an auspicious occasion.
| 90 |
Probably the "double" and the "half" also once existed, although no examples of these denominations bearing the monograms
of Group A
have as yet been published. All three denominations occur in the succeeding Group B.
|
| 91 |
Beloch, IV, 1, p. 586;
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, p. 704.
|
| 92 |
Possibly some victory in the east. The spectacular victory over the Gauls, in consequence of which Antiochus received the proud title of Soter from his grateful subjects,
might also come under consideration because its actual date has not been transmitted to us. Tarn (
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII, p. 702) assigns it to the year 275 B.
C., as does also Bouché-Leclercq, p. 64. Beloch (IV, 1, pp. 591–2, footnote 2) gives
reasons for believing that the victory could not have taken place previous to the First Syrian War or after 266 B. C. If the
latter date
be the correct one, then the sudden appearance of the Victory type in our Series III, Group A, would be amply explained.
|
The tetradrachms of this group continue the style of those immediately preceding, but the head of Antiochus is now so stereotyped that at times it degenerates into caricature.93 Not only are these tetradrachms associated with those of Group A by the general style of their portraits, but
they are also connected with the silver coins Nos. 157–8 of Series II, Group C, by the reappearance of the magistrate's monogram
—showing that we still have to do with the issues of a single mint.
The accompanying bronze coins Nos. 163–5, in the customary three denominations, continue the types introduced in Group A. Several specimens turned up in the excavations at Seleucia.
Although signed by the same two officials as the coins of Group B, the present tetradrachm No. 166 (PLATE XV, 2) introduces a new type of portrait. Obviously the features are still those of Antiochus I. On the other hand, they are no longer caricatures but are ably and carefully executed. They are life-like and convincing, and in quality and general excellence closely approach some of the finest products of Series II, Group C. In relief, however, they are slightly lower, and the diadem-ends flutter out behind in undulating lines. This new manner of depicting the diadem-ends continues not only throughout the use of the type until the end of Antiochus II's reign, but, only slightly modified, is found even thereafter at Seleucia under Seleucus II, Seleucus III and Antiochus III.
Accompanying bronze coins (Nos. 167–9, PLATE XV, 3–7), bearing the same types as under Groups A and B, continue to be issued
in three
denominations. They are all signed by the supervisor , accompanied by the monogram of his assistant.
Altogether, thirteen specimens of the victory type have come to us from the excavations at Seleucia, but because
of their generally poor condition their monograms are now more or less obscure94 and it is, consequently, not
always possible to assign the several examples to their proper places in Groups A, B and C.
| 93 |
Cf. PLATE XV, 1 and also the specimens β, γ, and δ of No. 162.
|
| 94 |
Because of their corroded state, the monograms, as given by Dr. McDowell in his description of the coins found
at Seleucia, do not always agree with the monograms as found on better preserved specimens. The one he renders
as
 is almost certainly  ; is and  is .
|
The tetradrachms of Group D are obviously the successors of No. 166 of Group C, and are somewhat less fine in style. They
are signed by the
same supervisor, , as in Group C, accompanied now by two further assistants. The second of these, , may well be the same person as , but using a slightly changed monogram.95 The first, , had previously been active in Series II, Group C, where he signed
Nos. 154–6.
After an initial coinage (Nos. 172–3, PLATE XV, 10–11) of the old type, a further issue of bronze (Nos. 174–6, PLATE XV, 12–14)
is brought
out, with new types and in the usual three denominations. On the obverse we now find a helmeted head of Athena, copied from the gold staters of Alexandrine type coined at Seleucia
under Seleucus I. The reverse type is the standing Apollo, with an arrow in his
outstretched right and his left placed upon a bow, the other end of which rests upon the ground. This is the first time at
the mint of
Seleucia that we meet with the type of the standing Apollo, a type that at her sister mints is destined to
become very popular indeed under Seleucus II, Antiochus III and Alexander I, as well as under later kings. The officials signing
this copper issue are the who
appears as on the silver, Nos. 170–1, and the who had functioned on the
bronze coins Nos. 172–3.
As a résumé of Series III, we repeat that it is obviously the successor of Series II. It continues the types and fabric of the latter, and develops the style as first found at the close of Series II. For these reasons, and because among its officiating magistrates are found several individuals who had also placed their monograms on both Series I and II, there can be no doubt that we are dealing with the issues of the same mint. As stated before, the definite proof that this mint is Seleucia on the Tigris resides in the fact that specimens of the accompanying bronze coins were found in large numbers in the excavations of that city.
The final years of Antiochus I's reign were darkened by the unlucky war with Eumenes of Pergamum, ending in the disastrous defeat inflicted by him upon Antiochus beneath the walls of Sardes. Antiochus I died shortly afterwards, leaving his empire to his second son Antiochus II, surnamed Theos.
When Antiochus II, on the death of his father, succeeded to the Seleucid throne, events in the west apparently completely engrossed his attention. War with Ptolemy for the recovery of the coasts of Asia Minor, campaigns in Thrace, and other affairs left Antiochus little leisure to devote himself,96 as did his father, to the welfare of the eastern portion of his empire. The historical results we see in the defection of Bactria and the revolt of Parthia.
The ensuing coinage from the mint at Seleucia may perhaps also be taken as evidence of the policy (whether premeditated, or forced upon him by events, history must decide) which tended towards allowing the east to look after itself as best it might. Whatever the cause, the silver coinage inaugurated by Antiochus I was continued practically unchanged throughout the entire reign of his son. Nothing but the slowly deteriorating style, the changing magistrates' monograms, and the accompanying bronze coinage with its varying types, serve to suggest that the empire was now being ruled by another person than he whose rugged portrait the tetradrachms still continue to bear.
| 95 |
Both forms appear to resolve themselves most easily into the letters ΔΩP.
|
| 96 |
Beloch IV, 1, p. 669.
|
178. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus I to r. within a circle of dots. The diadem-ends flutter out behind, as on No. 166.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo, naked but for drapery on r. thigh, seated to l. on the omphalos. He rests his l.
hand on the bow, while in his outstretched r. he holds an arrow. In the outer l. field, . In the outer r. field,
. Circle of dots.
α) Rhousopoulos Coll., Hirsch Sale XIII, May 1905, No. 4435, Pl. lv, gr. 17.06; β) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2935, Pl. lxxxv, gr. 16.94; γ) Naville Sale XII, Oct. 1926, No. 1948, Pl. 56, gr. 17.05; δ) Cahn Sale 80, Feb. 1933, No. 383, Pl. 13, gr. 15.79; ε) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 756, Pl. 13, gr. 16.95; f) London (Gardner, No. 14), gr. 16.78; ζ) Paris (Babelon, No. 127), gr. 17.; η) Berlin (Fox Coll.); δ) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 776, Pl. xix), gr. 17.05; ι) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 21), gr. 16.87; κ) Newell (Homs 1934 Hoard); λ) Newell, gr. 16.91. PLATE XV, 16; μ) Egger Sale, Jan. 1908, No. 569, Pl. xvii, gr. 17.; ν) Bourgey Sale, 1911, No. 163, Pl. iv.
179. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α Cahn Sale 60, July 1928, No. 1035, Pl. 16 (= Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 863, Pl. 29), gr. 16.98; β) Newell (from the same obverse and reverse die as the preceding), gr. 16.87; γ) London (Gardner, No. 13), gr. 16.94; δ) Aberdeen (Newnham-Davis Coll., Sylloge, Vol. I, Part II, Pl. xviii, No. 356), gr. 16.37; ε) Paris (Babelon, No. 128, Pl. iv, 12), gr. 17.10; f) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 17.08; ζ) Newell, gr. 16.07; η) Newell, gr. 17.03. PLATE XV, 17.
180. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α) Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 759, Pl. 13, gr. 16.05; β) Grabow Sale, July 1930, No. 547, Pl. viii, gr. 17.01; γ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 862, Pl. 29, gr. 16.97; δ) London (Gardner, No 12), gr. 17.08; ε) Paris (Babelon, No. 126), gr. 17.10; f) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 20), gr. 16.76; ζ) Newell, gr. 16.69; η) Newell, gr. 16.47. PLATE XVI. 1.
181. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 864, Pl. 29 (= Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, Apr. 1921, No. 2934, Pl. lxxxv = Glendining Sale, March 1931, No. 1145), gr. 17.04. PLATE XVI, 2; β) Cahn Sale 61, Dec. 1928, No. 161, Pl. v, gr. 17.05; γ) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); δ) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 22), gr. 16.76; ε) Newell, gr. 15.98.
182. Bronze Quadruple.
Laureate bust of Apollo three-quarters facing to l. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo nude, standing to l., holds arrow in outstretched r. and rests l. upon bow. In outer
r. field, .
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 16.85. PLATE XVI, 3.
183. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
London (Gardner, p. 12, No. 55, Pl. iv, 11), gr. 8.10. PLATE XVI, 4.
184. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) Leningrad (Jour. int. num., Vol. XII, 1911, p. 138, No. 132), gr. 4.33; β–η) Seleucia, p. 12, No. 25, gr. 2.65; 2.51; 2.46; 2.25; 2.19; 1.86; 1.49; δ) London, gr. 2.47. PLATE XVI, 5; ι–κ) Paris (Mission en Susiane, 1928, Vol. XX, p. 23, No. 7). PLATE XVI, 6.
185. Bronze Unit.
Laureate head of Apollo to r.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l, as on the silver coins. In outer r. field, .
α–η) Seleucia, pp. 13–14, No. 28, gr. 3.10; 2.93; 2.90; 2.65; 2.65; 2.61; 2.09; 2.01.
186. Tetradrachm.
Laureate head of Antiochus I to r., as on Nos. 178–81.
Inscription and type as on Nos. 178–81. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, .
α) London (Gardner, No. 9), gr. 17.03; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 122), gr. 16.60; γ) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 24), gr. 17.04; δ) Newell, gr. 15.53; ε) Newell, gr. 16.98. PLATE XVI, 7.
187. Gold Stater.
Diademed head of Antiochus I to r., as on the preceding coin.
Types and inscription as on the preceding coin. In outer l. field, 
.
Istanbul (Harvard Excavations at Samaria, 1908–1910, p. 258, No. 1, Pl. 62, 82), gr. 8.54. PLATE XVI, 8.
188. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 858, Pl. 29, gr. 16.92; β) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 859, Pl. 29, gr. 16.96; γ) Paris (Babelon, No. 123), gr. 17.10; δ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 16.797; ε) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 23), gr. 17.06; f) Newell, gr. 16.46. PLATE XVI, 9.
189. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 860, Pl. 29, gr. 17.04; β) Cahn Sale 71, Oct. 1931, No. 518, Pl. 16 (= Cahn Sale 66, May 1930, No. 364, Pl. 11), gr. 17.13; γ) Cahn Sale 84, Nov. 1933, No. 405, Pl. 14, gr. 16.89; δ) Schlessinger Sale 11, Feb. 1934, No. 329, Pl. 10, gr. 16.; ε) Berlin Duplicates, Riechmann Sale 30, Dec. 1924, No. 757, Pl. xxx, gr. 17.06; f) Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, Nov. 1912, No. 644, Pl. xvii, gr. 17.04; ζ) London (Gardner, No. 18), gr. 16.96; η) Paris (Babelon, No. 124), gr. 16.90; δ) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.); ι) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 14, No. 25), gr. 16.98; κ) Newell, gr. 17.07; λ) Newell, gr. 17.14. PLATE XVI, 10.
190. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 861, Pl. 29, gr. 16.94; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 125), gr. 16.95; γ) Leningrad (Jour. int. num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 136, No. 92), gr. 16.85; δ) Newell, gr. 16.35; ε) Newell, gr. 16.92. PLATE XVI, 11.
191. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus I to r., as on No. 190.
Inscription and type similar to No. 190. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
Berlin, gr. 16.86. PLATE XVI, 12.
192. Bronze Double.
Laureate head of Apollo to r. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Helmeted and draped figure of Athena standing to l.,
her r. hand rests on her spear, her l. upon her hip. Her shield leans against the r. leg. In outer l. field, . In inner r. field, 
.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 156, Pl. v, 3), gr. 7.65; β) Berlin, gr. 6.925; γ) Berlin, gr. 7.60. PLATE XVI, 13; δ) Seleucia, p. 10, No. 19, gr. 7.90; ε) London, gr. 6.84. PLATE XVI, 14; f) London, gr. 6.22. PLATE XVI, 15.
193. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α) Berlin, gr. 3.49; β) Berlin, gr. 2.77; γ) London. PLATE XVI, 16.
194. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
Seleucia, p. 10, No. 19, gr. 1.75.
195. Bronze Double.
Draped bust of Athena, wearing triple-crested helmet, three-quarters facing l. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated, half facing, on omphalos to r. He holds a lyre with his l. Sometimes
his r. is dropped at his side, sometimes it is resting on his lap. Behind him is a tall tripod. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) London (Gardner, p. 13, No. 56, Pl. iv, 12); β) Paris (Babelon, No. 186, Pl. v, 15), gr. 6.90; γ) Berlin; δ) Newell, gr. 8.85. PLATE XVI, 17.
196. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 187), gr. 3.65; β) Berlin; γ–δ) Seleucia, p. 11, No. 22, gr. 4.30; 3.41; ε) Newell, gr. 3.80. PLATE XVI, 18.
197. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α–β) Seleucia, p. 11, No. 22, gr. 1.02; 0.58.
198. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding but Athena faces three-quarters r.
Similar to the preceding. Monograms obscure.
α–δ) Seleucia, p. 12, No. 23, gr. 4.25; 3.66; 3.62; 3.57; 3.37; 3.16; 3.14; 2.30; 1.89.
It is very doubtful if this final variety actually exists. On corroded specimens (as those from Seleucia) the obverse type could equally well be a facing Artemis head. In that case, these coins are identical with No. 246 and should be transferred to the reign of Antiochus III.
199. Bronze Unit.
Laureate head of Apollo facing three-quarters to r. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Tripod with pendant fillets. In inner r. field, 
(?). Circle of dots.
? Some of the specimens from Seleucia, p. 11, No. 21 ?; α) Paris, from Susa. PLATE XVI, 19.
200. Bronze Half.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with an anchor beneath the tripod.
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 183), gr. 1.; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 182, Pl. v, 13), gr. 0.90. PLATE XVI, 20.
The selection of the point at which the silver issues of Antiochus I break off, and those of his son begin, is admittedly arbitrary. By no definite outward sign do the coins themselves indicate the point of division. The types and inscriptions, the fabric and, in general, the style remain exactly the same; the monograms alone change. Therefore, we can merely indicate the most likely place in the series at which the change in rulers occurred. Some, if not all, of the coins here catalogued under Series I may actually have been coined while Antiochus I was still alive. On the other hand, the coins of Group D, Series III assigned to the latter, may well have been struck under Antiochus II. The proposed arrangement, however, appears to the writer to divide the entire series between the two kings in what seems to be the most logical manner. The types of the bronze coins accompanying Group D, Series III of Antiochus I (helmeted Athena head and standing Apollo) are probably more suitable for the reign of the first Antiochus,97 than for that of his son. On the other hand, the style and two of the types (Nos. 192–4, 199–200) of the bronze coins accompanying the silver (assigned here to Antiochus II) seem more appropriate to the issues of the latter.
On what appear, then, to be the first silver issues of Antiochus II at Seleucia, we meet with a new chief magistrate's monogram, . Associated with this are
the monograms of four assistants, one of which () had already appeared on the tetradrachm No. 177 of Group D,
Series III, in the previous reign. The accompanying bronze coins are of two types, but all appear, when legible, to bear the
same monogram
() as the silver. Of the first type (Nos. 182–4, PLATE XVI, 3–6), we possess three denominations of good
workmanship and attractive style. Here, we again find a three-quarters facing bust of Apollo, but this time turned slightly
to the l. Dr. McDowell has already had occasion98 to call attention to the remarkable popularity
of the frontality technique as applied to the bronze issues of Seleucia on the Tigris under the Seleucid kings. This technique,
however, does not appear first under Seleucus I, as Dr. McDowell was led to believe by following the too early darings proposed
by his
predecessors for the coins in question. Instead, it occurs first under Antiochus I (our Nos. 161, 163–5, 167–9,
172–3) but, again, not to the extent supposed by Dr. McDowell.99 It is not until the
reign of Antiochus II that frontality really becomes common on the Seleucian bronze coins, and was thereafter frequently copied on the rather imitative
issues of Susa—as
we shall see in Chapter III.
About half-way in the course of the silver coinages here assigned to Antiochus II,
the chief magistrate was changed and takes the place of honor on the left of the reverse die. His assistant,
however, remains the same as on the final tetradrachm, No. 181, of Series I. It was stated above, that the style of these
silver
tetradrachms continued with little change from the issues considered the final ones of Antiochus I. Nevertheless
(though possibly only in the present writer's imagination), there does seem gradually to creep into the rendering of the portrait
on the
coins of Series II and III a certain hardness and lack of life and artistic interest, which would suggest that henceforth
the
die-cutters confined themselves merely to copying the work of their predecessors. Obviously, since Antiochus I
was now dead, the artists at Seleucia were unable to infuse new life into the old king's portrait which still
continued to appear on the issues of his son.
The remaining Seleucian silver issues of Antiochus II (Series III) are signed by a
new supervisor, , associated with the monograms of four assistants. The first of these, , has already functioned at the close of Series I and throughout Series II. Another, , has likewise already appeared, on the tetradrachm No. 180 of Series I. The remaining two assistants are new. The second
of these,
, continues, together with his chief, to sign the earliest of the silver coins in the succeeding
reign—that of Seleucus II, son of Antiochus II. It is this
important fact which first definitely proves that many of the coins bearing the portrait of Antiochus I cannot
possibly have been struck in his own life-time, but must actually represent a posthumous issue coined during his son's reign.
This would
explain, then, that curious hardness of style and lack of originality and life to which we have called attention above, and
which has been
creeping into the rendering of the portraits ever since the appearance of Series II.
Series III is made notable by the presence of a splendid gold stater, the first that we have met with at Seleucia since the reign of Seleucus I. The evidence for a recoinage of gold at our mint may be illusory. It is possible that there had been a continuous coinage in this metal under Antiochus I and II, but that no specimens have chanced to survive. But, in the light of what our museums and private collections now possess,100 the coinage of gold during these two reigns would seem to have been extremely scanty except at the Bactrian mint. Even of this mint, examples were very rare until the now famous Oxus Treasure101 immeasurably en riched our trays with the eastern gold coins of the earlier Seleucid kings. Because of the unprecedented accretion which the past thirty years have brought to our numismatic material as a whole, the continued great rarity of westerly-minted gold coins of Antiochus I and II would seem fairly to reflect the true situation in antiquity. Therefore, the sudden recurrence of gold at Seleucia may be not without its significance. As this particular coin appears among the issues here assigned to the latter half of Antiochus II's reign, its raison d'être may be sought in the fact that after Bactria had successfully fallen away, Seleucia was called upon to replace the gold coinage formerly produced so prolifically in a mint now forever lost to the Seleucidae.
Accompanying the silver of Series III were also numerous issues in bronze. We have two groups (a and b, Nos. 192–8, PLATE
XVI, 13–18) in
this metal, each comprising the usual three denominations. Both issues, although of different types, are signed by the two
magistrates
and . The first of these monograms appears on all of the accompanying
silver and gold coins of Series III, and surely denotes the chief magistrate. Further, both monograms continue to appear on
early bronze
issues of the succeeding reign of Seleucus II (Nos. 202–3). This fact assures us that the present coins must have
been coined towards the end of Antiochus II's life, and not under his father, as all
previous scholars had assumed. The first of these groups (Nos. 192–4, PLATE XVI, 13–16) bears a laureate, profile head of
Apollo to right
on the obverse; while the reverse shows a fine representation of the standing Athena,
very reminiscent of the same goddess as she appears on the beautiful gold stater of western mintage in Paris.102 The second group of coins (Nos. 195–198, PLATE XVI, 17–18),
distinguished by their fine and attractive style, reverses the order in which the two deities appear on its dies. Now it is
Athena who holds the obverse with an interesting three-quarters facing and helmeted bust;
while Apollo is depicted on the reverse. The god, in long robes and holding the lyre on his left knee, is seated to right
upon the omphalos, while his tall tripod can be seen in the background. Sometimes his right hand, probably holding the plectrum, rests in his lap; sometimes he allows the arm to hang limply downwards. Apollo's head is turned towards the
spectator, as if pausing to await the applause which is sure to follow his divine playing. Nos. 195–8 represent some of the
most attractive
copper coins ever minted by Seleucid kings.
The bronze coins collected under Group c (Nos. 199–200, PLATE XVI, 19–20), constitute a group whose exact position is far
from certain.
Their style has some affinities with that of the preceding coins; and as the types (head of Apollo, tripod above anchor) present
a
combination found on certain western issues (except for the Apollo head which, on the latter, is in profile) usually assigned
by
numismatists103 to Antiochus II, it is likely that
our Nos. 199–200 were also coined by that king. Unfortunately, the monograms on the known specimens are practically illegible
or off flan.
Probably Group c preceded Groups a and b. It could hardly have come after them, for the two monograms and
, which characterize Groups a and b are likewise found on the first issue (Nos. 202–203) of the succeeding
reign. It is unlikely that other magistrates had functioned between.
| 97 |
A very similar Athena head occurs on coins which were certainly issued by Antiochus I, cf. Babelon, loc. cit., Pl. iv, 2, 5, 6. The
standing Apollo appears on other eastern bronze coins of this same reign, cf. PLATE XXXVIII, 16, and XXXIX, 1–4.
|
| 98 |
Loc. cit., pp. 47–8.
|
| 99 |
Ibid., p. 48.
|
| 100 |
For instance, from mints to the west of Iran
there was no gold at all in the British Museum, for the two reigns in question, until, comparatively recently, an Alexandrine
stater of Antiochus I was acquired. In Paris, there were
only two gold of Antiochus I (Babelon, Nos. 102 and 103) and one of Antiochus II (Babelon, No. 193); in Glasgow, an Alexandrine stater of Antiochus I (No. 2); in Berlin, two possibly western staters of Antiochus I. Outside of Bactrian
staters, there were none in the published catalogues of the Sir Herman Weber, McClean, Leake, Jameson, de
Nanteuil, Turin, Hedervar, Schottenstift, etc. Nor does the writer recollect having seen any in the Vienna, Brussels, Dresden, Hague, Naples or Vatican collections.
|
| 101 |
Noe, Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards, No. 778.
|
We have now reached the end of the long series of tetradrachms bearing the types of Antiochus I struck at Seleucia on the Tigris. That they must once have been coined in great quantities is certain from the very large numbers of specimens that have come down to us. Although we chance to possess no hoards of these coins, buried during the years when they were actually being coined, later hoards do contain them, and in no inconsiderable numbers. Thereby is attested not only their continued popularity, but also their wide-spread use. Two hoards from the main-land of Greece, Sophikon 104 and Sparta,105 each contained a single specimen. Three specimens were in the Sardes "basis hoard"106 and one in a hoard from Rhodes.107 The moment that we reach Syria and Mesopotamia, our coins commence to appear in greater numbers, clear indication that we are approaching their original place of mintage. There were at least five, and probably more, in a hoard said to have been found near Homs in 1927;108 eight in the Homs 1934 Hoard;109 and at least eight (and possibly many more) in the Urfa Hoard, found about 1923.110 In the Tell Halaf Hoard,111 there were seven; in Gejou's Mesopotamian Hoard,112 at least five; in Dunne's Mesopotamian Hoard,113 thirteen and, finally, two (Nos. 166 and 189) in a portion of a hoard of late date (Alexander I, 152–144 B. C.) received from Baghdad in 1925. But as none of these hoards antedate Seleucus II, while most of them are as late as the reign of Antiochus III, they furnish little or no help to us in our attempt to date more closely the many varieties of the tetradrachms from Seleucia which bear the portrait of Antiochus I.
| 102 |
Loc. cit., Pl. vi, 1.
|
| 103 |
Gardner, loc. cit., p. 15, Nos. 11–17, Pl. V, 8–9; Babelon,
loc. cit., Nos. 219–238, Pl. vi, 14–16.
|
The death of Antiochus II in 246 B. C. brought great changes to the Seleucid empire by reason of the immediately ensuing Laodicean War and the whirlwind campaign of Ptolemy III. The latter even penetrated as far as Babylonia during the spring and summer of 245 B. C.,114 and there received the submission of the Seleucid satraps of the Upper Provinces. But Ptolemy soon departed again, called back by native uprisings in Egypt. Before leaving, however, he appointed Xanthippus as his viceroy over the conquered provinces stretching from the Syrian seaboard to inner Asia. Even though Babylonia was now for a short time a dependency of Egypt, no coins in the name of Ptolemy III from the mint at Seleucia are known to exist. Possibly, and even probably, none were ever struck there.
In the meanwhile, Seleucus II, the elder son and legitimate heir of Antiochus II, had assembled his forces in Asia Minor. He crossed the Taurus Mountains at the earliest possible moment115 and struck back at Ptolemy. In a surprisingly brief space, he had recovered practically all that had been lost, except certain seaports which the powerful fleet of Ptolemy was able to retain. So striking was the success of the young king, that he was henceforth known as Callinicus (the victorious). Seleucia on the Tigris was again Seleucid, and her mint recommenced coining.
| 104 | |
| 105 | |
| 106 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 925. Buried in the reign of Eumenes II, 197–159 B. C., the hoard contained examples of No. 157, 162 or 166, and
178.
|
| 107 | |
| 108 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 487. Rubbings of some of the coins from
this hoard were sent to the writer by the late Roupen Ezadjian of Beyrouth. Among these were two examples of No. 162, and one each of Nos. 155, 159 and 178. The
hoard contained at least one coin of Attalus I, and so must have been buried after
241 B. C.
|
| 109 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 488. The hoard was purchased intact,
together with the vase in which it was found. It contained one specimen each of Nos. 140, 155 and 178; two of No. 162 and
four of No.
189. The hoard had been buried late in the reign of Antiochus III.
|
| 110 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 1147. This hoard was scattered far and
wide. Among the coins certainly from this deposit, the writer saw three examples of No. 162, and one each of Nos. 149, 155,
159, 188 and
190. The hoard was buried in the reign of Antiochus III.
|
| 111 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 1086. Contained one specimen each of
Nos. 149, 155, 157, 180, 189, and two of 190. The hoard was buried in reign of Antiochus III.
|
| 112 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 680. Only the more desirable coins from
this deposit appear to have reached M. Gejou. They did contain, however, two examples of No. 155 and one each
of Nos. 140, 157 and 189. The latest coins in the hoard are of Seleucus II.
|
| 113 |
Noe, loc. cit., No. 681. A hoard first shown at the British
Museum about 1924, later sold at Glendinings in August, 1933. For the details of this hoard, the writer owes his most grateful
thanks to
Mr. E. S. G. Robinson. The find contained five examples of No. 155, one each of Nos. 152, 157, 162 (?),
178, 188, 190 and two of No. 189. The latest datable coins in the hoard belonged to Eumenes II (197–159 B. C.) and Antiochus III (222–187 B. C.).
|
| 114 |
Beloch IV, 1, p. 676.
|
201. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Seleucus II to r. The diadem-ends flutter out behind.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Apollo, completely nude, standing to l., holding an arrow in his outstretched r. and leaning
his l. elbow upon
a tall tripod behind him. In inner l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) London (Gardner, p. 16, No. 3), gr. 17.07; β) Leningrad (Jour. int. num. Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 141, No. 169), gr. 16.45; γ) Leningrad (loc. cit., No. 171), gr. 16.80; δ) Newell, gr. 16.43. PLATE XVII, 1.
202. Bronze Double.
Diademed, horned, draped bust of Seleucus, with head three-quarters facing to l. Circle of dots. Bevelled edges.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, ΣEΛEYKOY below, Seleucus, head facing, mounted on a horned, prancing horse to r. With his upraised
r., he is about to hurl a javelin at a foe prostrate beneath his horse's hoofs. In field r., . In field l.,
.
α) London (Gardner, p. 107, No. 58α, Pl. xxviii, 1), gr. 7.45; β) London (Gardner, p. 107, No. 58β), gr. 7.18; γ) Seleucia, pp. 6–7, No. 10, gr. 7.45; δ) Newell, gr. 7.76. PLATE XVII, 2; ε) Berlin.
203. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α–ε) Seleucia, pp. 6–7, No. 10, gr. 4.04, 3.99, 3.73, 3.28, 3.18; f) Paris (Babelon, No. 63, Pl. ii, 17), gr. 4.30; ζ) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 3.15.
Even though no Ptolemaic coins are known for Seleucia, the break in the coinage which probably ensued between the death of Antiochus II and the arrival of Seleucus II, had had its effect. No more tetradrachms in the name and with the portrait of Antiochus I were ever again coined at Seleucia. Those now issued (No. 201, PLATE XVI, 1), bear the well-known features of Seleucus II. On their reverses, the usual seated Apollo gives place to the type which is always more closely associated with the second Seleucus, namely Apollo standing beside his tripod. The coins bear the signatures of the same two magistrates who had functioned on the final issue of tetradrachms (No. 191) at the end of Antiochus II's rule, thus closely uniting the coinages of the two reigns.
Similarly, the accompanying bronze coins (Nos. 202–3) bear the same two monograms that had marked Antiochus II's final bronze coinage (Nos. 192–8) at Seleucia. The types, however, have been changed. As befitted so gloriously victorious a scion of the Seleucid House, now come into his heritage again, the horned portrait-bust of the founder of the line, Seleucus I, is depicted116 upon the obverses, while on the reverses we see a mounted horseman to r., striking down at his enemy prostrate beneath the horse's hoofs. These appropriate types obviously commemorate the recent success over Ptolemy's forces, and form one of the handsomest series of copper coins produced at Seleucia.
| 115 |
In the spring of 244, according to Beloch IV, 1, p. 677.
|
204. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Seleucus II to r. The diadem-ends flutter out behind.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Apollo standing beside his tripod as on No. 201. In l. field, . In outer r.
field, 
.
Newell, gr. 16.66. PLATE XVII, 3.
205. Bronze Quadruple.
Laureate, draped bust of Apollo, three-quarters facing l. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, ΣEΛEYKOY below, Zebu advancing to r. On l., . On r., .
α) London, gr. 12.23. PLATE XVII, 4; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 51, Pl. ii, 5), gr. 10.50.
206. Bronze Double.
Laureate, draped bust of Apollo three-quarters facing l. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Head and neck of bull to r., the head depicted en face. Above, . Below, .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 52, Pl. ii, 6), gr. 6.; β) Seleucia, p. 5, No. 7, gr. 5.46; γ–δ) Newell, gr. 6.84, 6.19. PLATE XVII, 5; ε) Leningrad (Jour. int. num., Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 133, No. 42), gr. 5.9; f) London (Gardner, p. 107, No. 71α; ζ) Paris (from Susa).
| 116 |
Or so the bust has been described by all recent numismatists. None of them, however, appreciated the fact that these coins
had actually
been struck, not by Nicator but by his great-grandson, Callinicus. That being the
case, the portrait may have been intended to represent Seleucus II. The coin's small
scale and the fact that we do not possess any en face portrait of Callinicus, prevent
real certainty. By analogy, however, the presence of the horns would favor Seleucus
I, who on many of his coins actually bears these oriental emblems of power and majesty. They never appear on portraits of
the
second Seleucus.
|
207. Bronze Double.
Laureate head of Apollo to r. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, ΣEΛEYKOY below, Bull's head facing, adorned with fillets. On l., 
. On r., .
α) Seleucia, p. 6, No. 8, Pl. ii, gr. 5.83; β) London (Gardner, p. 18, No. 31, Pl. vi, 13), gr. 6.43. PLATE XVII, 6.
208. Bronze Double.
Similar to the Nos. 205–6, but Apollo has a lyre above his l. shoulder. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l. Nike to l. places, with her outstretched r., a wreath on Seleucus standing facing
in armor, and resting r. hand on spear. Above, 
. Below, .
α) Paris (Babelon, No. 53, Pl. ii, 7), gr. 5.90; β) Newell, gr. 3.37 (piece broken out); γ) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 5.76. PLATE XVII, 7; δ) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 4.42; ε) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 5.27. PLATE XVII, 8; f) London, gr. 5.31.
209. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α) London (Gardner, p. 6, No. 58, Pl. ii, 12), gr. 2.81. PLATE XVII, 9; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 2. 19; γ) London, gr. 2.32. PLATE XVII, 10.
210. Bronze Half.
Head of Apollo, laureate and three-quarters facing l.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Tripod. Monograms obscure.
α) Paris (Susa. Mission, etc., Vol. XXV, p. 20, No. 4), gr. 1.50; β–γ) Seleucia, p. 8, No. 14, gr. 1.55, 1.34. It is quite possible that these coins should be given, instead, to Seleucus IV. See below, p. 81.
The next issues of Seleucus II at our mint comprise but one tetradrachm (No. 204) and several groups of bronze
coins of varied types. As this tetradrachm is known today in one specimen only, it may well be that future finds will bring
us yet other
examples to accompany the bronze coins as listed in our catalogue. In any case, the silver issues of this king at Seleucia,
to judge by what have survived, were comparatively scanty. The same is true of the other eastern mints. Apparently,
under Seleucus II, Antioch became the foremost mint
of the empire for silver, and its issues are in consequence abundantly represented in our cabinets. The present tetradrachm
continues to
bear the monogram of the official who had supervised the issues during the final years of Antiochus II. Associated with this now appears a new monogram, representing his assistant, .
Bearing these same two monograms comes an issue of bronze coins, in two denominations (PLATE XVII, 4–5), with the now usual three-quarters facing head of Apollo, a design obviously very popular at Seleucia. The reverse of the larger coin displays a bull advancing to r.; the reverse of the smaller coin, the head and neck of a bull, types not previously found on Seleucid coins but harking back, doubtless, to the butting bull so frequently seen on the coins of Seleucus II's namesake, Seleucus Nicator.
The succeeding issue of bronze (Group B) continues to be signed by , together with a new assistant. Apollo's
head is now in profile, and the reverse type is that of a filleted bull's head directly facing the observer (PLATE
XVI, 6).
Later (Group C), there appeared the two denominations, Nos. 208–209, PLATE XVII, 7–10. As no examples of these particular pieces turned up in the excavations of Seleucia, and as their monograms are not precisely like any we have yet met on the issues of our mint, their proposed assignment to Seleucia cannot be regarded as absolutely certain. On the other hand, their style and the form of their flans are the usual ones for Seleucia while their second monogram appears again under Seleucus III. The three-quarters facing Apollo head is also peculiarly typical of preceding Seleucian issues, although on at least some of the specimens the unusual detail of a lyre can be discerned above the god's left shoulder. The reverse type, depicting Nike crowning the standing figure of Seleucus, may allude to successes of the latter portion (circa 235 B.C.?) of his reign in a campaign to recover the upper provinces from the invading Parthians.117 The fact that here we have the rather unusual design of Victory crowning the king himself, may not be without pointed significance. For we know that the Parthians, under their king Tiridates, having defeated the Seleucid commanders in the east and slain Andragoras, governor of Parthyene, had secured not only that province but also the neighboring Hyrcania. But the arrival of Seleucus changed the situation completely. Tiridates and his armies were swept out of their conquests and sought refuge in the wild steppes about the Caspian Sea. The die-cutters of Seleucia appropriately enough depict Nike placing a crown of victory on the head of Seleucus in person. However, the victory type may have yet another explanation. While Callinicus was still absent in Parthia, his aunt Stratonice engineered a revolt at Antioch and actually managed to secure the city. In conjunction with her attempt, Seleucus' brother, Antiochus Hierax, now118 invaded Mesopotamia and fought with varying success against the Seleucid comanders, Andromachus and Achaeus. But when Seleucus, himself, returned in haste from the east, Antiochus was unable to make headway against his brother and retreated into Cappadocia. Seleucus also recovered Antioch, and these successes might well have been commemorated on the contemporary bronze issues of Seleucia.
There were found at Seleucia two bronze coins (our No. 210) bearing the usual three-quarters facing head of Apollo on the obverse; and on the reverse, a tripod flanked by the name of Seleucus. The similarity of their types to Nos. 199–200 of Antiochus II suggests that these coins belong to the reign of the second Seleucus. But as the monograms chance to be obscure on these the only known specimens, their exact location in the series must remain uncertain until better examples become available.119 It is also possible that the coins should be assigned to the reign of Seleucus IV, as is certainly the case with a somewhat similar coin in the author's collection.
| 117 |
Beloch IV, 1, p. 683. Bevan, Vol. I, pp. 288–9.
|
| 118 |
Beloch IV, 1, pp. 684–6.
|
211. Bronze Triple (?).
Diademed head of Seleucus II to r., with fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Apollo standing to l., holds arrow in out-stretched r. and rests l. upon bow. In outer l. field,
. In outer r. field, . Circle of dots.
London (Gardner, p. 16, No. 12), gr. 10.41.
212. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
London (Gardner, p. 16, No. 13, Pl. vi, 3), gr. 4.54. PLATE XVII, 11.
213. Bronze Triple (?).
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 25, No. 9, Pl. lxiv, 22), gr. 11.70; β) London (Edgar Rogers Coll.), gr. 9.36. PLATE XVII, 12; γ–μ) Seleucia, pp. 14–15, No. 31, gr. 10.60; 9.46; 9.41; 8.94; 8.89; 8.84; 8.49; 8.34; 8.13; 7.22; 7.18 (one of these illustrated, ibid., Pl. ii); ν) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 7.50.
214. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α–ζ) Seleucia, pp. 14–15, No. 31, gr. 4.90; 4.45; 4.79; 4.42; 4.26; 4.14; 3.56; η) Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 4.35; θ) Newell, gr. 4.92. PLATE XVII, 13; ι) London. PLATE XVII, 14.
Before the end of Seleucus II's reign, the types of the bronze coins were again changed at Seleucia. Henceforth (PLATE XVII, 11–14), we find a diademed portrait of the king in profile to the right, an innovation for the bronze issues of this mint. On the reverse is the usual, undraped Apollo standing to left, holding an arrow in his right hand and resting his left upon his bow. No less than eighteen specimens of Nos. 213 and 214 were found at Seleucia, definitely assuring us of the mint which once issued these pieces. As most of these pieces are in a very damaged or corroded condition, it is quite possible that among them may exist examples of Nos. 211 and 212, varying only in minute differences of their monograms, not easily distinguishable on corroded specimens.
| 119 |
The single bronze coin, bearing a fine head of Seleucus II on the obverse and a victory on the reverse, found
at Seleucia (loc. cit. p. 14, No. 30, Pl. ii) was probably not coined there. For
instance, the diadem-ends are depicted as hanging straight, and not fluttering out behind as is their invariable position
on the coins
of Seleucia, from the last issues of Antiochus I through those of Antiochus III. The monograms, too, are not known at Seleucia,
although one of them is of constant
occurrence on coins of the Antioch mint.
|
Seleucus II died suddenly about 226–225 B. C., and was succeeded by his eldest son Alexander, who at once assumed the name of Seleucus. He undertook a war in Asia Minor against Attalus of Pergamum, but with poor success. To finance his campaigns, prolific issues of silver tetradrachms were brought out at Antioch and Seleucia. The issues of the latter mint are as follows:
215. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Seleucus III to r., with fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on l. Apollo seated to l. on omphalos holding an arrow in his outstretched r. In outer l.
field, 
. In outer r. field, .
α) O'Hagan Coll., Sotheby Sale, May 1908, No. 651, Pl. xi (= Montague Coll., Sotheby Sale, March 1897, No. 334), gr. 17.04; β) Helbing Sale, Nov. 1928, No. 4062, Pl. 73, gr. 17.; γ) Cahn Sale 71, Oct. 1931, No. 524, Pl. 17 (? = Cahn Sale 65, Oct. 1929, No. 254, Pl. 8, gr. 16.03, sic!), gr. 17.10; δ) Berlin, gr. 15.96. PLATE XVII, 15; δ) Glendining Sale, March 1931, No. 1146.
216. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Monogram on l. is 
on r., .
α) Cambridge (McClean Coll., Vol. III, No. 9261, Pl. 336, 11), gr. 16.54; β) Newell, gr. 16.32; γ) Newell, gr. 15.98. PLATE XVII, 16.
217. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same two monograms. In the exergue, 
.
α) London (Dunne's Mesopotamian Hoard), gr. 16.89. PLATE XVII, 17; β) Specimen in the possession of a Baghdad dealer.
218. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ΣEΛEYKOY on the l. Apollo, in long robes, standing three-quarters facing r. He holds lyre in l. and plectrum in lowered r. hand. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, .
White-King Coll., Schulman Sale, Sept. 1904, No. 520, Pl. vii. PLATE XVII, 18.
219. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 4.06. PLATE XVII, 19.
The first issue of tetradrachms (No. 215) bears in the r. field the monogram , in the exact form it had in
Series III of Antiochus II, as well as on all the silver and most of the bronze of
Seleucus II. If this were not enough to assure us that we are still dealing with the issues of a single mint,
their style is also directly carried over. In particular should be noted the fluttering diadem-ends, which have become almost
exclusively
characteristic of the coinages of Seleucia on the Tigris. On the succeeding issues (Nos. 216 and 217, as well as
on the accompanying bronze coins, PLATE XVII, 16—19), the forms of the monograms have been slightly changed. In the left hand
monogram the
upper, curved cross-piece has been omitted; in the right hand monogram the rho element is, henceforth, missing. But
the general forms remain so closely identical that we cannot doubt that these monograms must represent the same individuals
who had
previously been active.
The king's youthful portrait graces the obverses of the bronze coinage, while on the reverses there appears a representation of Apollo Citharoedus. The god stands facing, draped in a long robe, holding a lyre in his left arm and a plectrum in his lowered right hand. These bronze coins of Seleucus III are apparently rather rare, and no specimens have as yet been recorded as found at Seleucia. The identical type, however, was reproduced on the first bronze issues of Antiochus III (Nos. 223–224, PLATE XVIII, 4–5) and of these, two examples occurred in the Seleucia finds.
In the course of his campaign in Asia Minor, Seleucus III was assassinated. His younger brother, Antiochus, now a youth of about twenty years of age, was at that time residing in Seleucia 120 as viceroy over the eastern portion of the empire. When the news of the assassination reached Antioch, Antiochus III was immediately proclaimed king in his brother's place. Shortly afterwards he left Seleucia,121 to take up the reins of government in the Syrian capital.
As shown by style and monograms, the mint at Seleucia continued to operate without a break after Seleucus III's death and to coin money in the new king's name.
220. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus III to r., with fluttering diadem-ends.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l. on omphalos. In outer l. field, . In
outer r. field, . Circle of dots.
α) Newell (Homs 1934 Hoard), gr. 15.45; β) Newell, gr. 15.22. PLATE XVIII, l.
221. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, 
( = 
?). In outer r. field, .
London. PLATE XVIII, 2.
222. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, . In the
exergue, 
α) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 31, No. 4), gr. 16.93; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 16.87. PLATE XVIII, 3.
223. Bronze Double.
Similar head to r. Bevelled edges.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo, in long robes, stands three-quarters facing to r. He holds a lyre in l. and plectrum in lowered r. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, .
α) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 7.13. PLATE XVIII, 4; β–γ) Seleucia, pp. 15–16, No. 33, Pl. ii (the monogram on l. is here given as, perhaps it should be
), gr. 5.43; 5.25 (the coins are broken and corroded, hence their light weight); δ) Newell (brought back from Babylonia by Prof. Haynes), gr. 7.76. PLATE XVIII, 5;ε) London, gr. 6.51; f) Paris (from the excavations at Susa).
224. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
Berlin (Morel Coll.).
Both silver and bronze coins of the first issue of Antiochus III at Seleucia are thus seen
to constitute a direct continuation, as to types, style and monograms, of the last issue of his brother. Only the features
and name have been
altered, to conform to those of the empire's new master. The old mint official, (sometimes written ), is still in charge. His former assistant, , also appears on the earliest tetradrachm,
No. 220, but soon gives place to . On No. 222, a third official's monogram is added in the exergue, as had also
been the case under Seleucus III in the coining of No. 217. Similar monograms appear on the accompanying bronze
coins, where in one case, No. 223, the chief's monogram is placed in a circle—as is also the same monogram on
Nos. 213–214 under Seleucus II. These bronze coins of Antiochus III, Dr. McDowell has rightly discerned,122 must precede the revolt of Molon who
continued their reverse type (slightly modified) on his own copper issues. This being granted, it follows that the accompanying
silver must
also come at the very outset of Antiochus III's reign, as already surmised from their style and monograms.
It could not have been long after Antiochus had left the east and taken up his residence at Antioch, that rebellion broke out in Iran. Molon, satrap of Media, raised the standard of revolt and induced his brother Alexander, satrap of Persis, and Artabazanes, prince of Atropatene, to join his banner. A royal army under Xenon and Theodotus sent against the rebels was driven back, and Molon secured the left bank of the Tigris. He even took up his winter quarters 222–221 B.C., at Ctesiphon just across the river from Seleucia, where he proclaimed himself king. In the spring of 221 B.C., a new royal army under Xenoetas was sent to Babylonia. There was some fighting along the Tigris, and Xenoetas eventually forced the passage of the river. Molon withdrew toward Media, but returning during the night, fell upon the unsuspecting force at dawn and utterly routed it. The successful usurper then crossed the Tigris and made a triumphant entry into Seleucia. All Babylonia submitted.
Antiochus and his advisers were now thoroughly alarmed. Hastily breaking off a campaign against the Ptolemaic possessions in Coele-Syria, the young king and his army proceeded eastwards. But the season was late and the worst part of the winter of 221–220 B. C. had perforce to be spent at Nisibis in northern Mesopotamia.123 As early as possible in the spring of 220 B. C., the royal army broke camp, marched eastward across the Tigris and then advanced southward along the east bank of the river, seriously threatening Molon's communications with Media. The usurper hastily evacuated Seleucia and attempted to reach his own province. But Antiochus had, in the meanwhile, succeeded in seizing the highroad from Babylonia to Ecbatana, and Molon was thus forced to fight his battle on ground chosen by his foe. Half his army deserted him at the first onslaught, and he committed suicide. The same escape was adopted by his brothers, Alexander and Neolaus; and all the upper provinces hastened to return to their Seleucid allegiance. Molon's rule over Seleucia had thus lasted some seven or eight months at most—ample time to issue there the following coins.
225. Bronze Double.
Laureate head of Zeus to r. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., MOΛΩNOΣ on l. Apollo Citharoedus, in long robes, holding lyre in l. and plectrum in lowered r.,
advancing to r. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
Dr. T. O. Mabbott. PLATE XVIII, 6.
226. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
Berlin (Prokesch-Osten Coll.), gr. 7.50. PLATE XVIII, 7.
227. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer r. field, 
. No monogram visible on 1.
α) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 7.13. PLATE XVIII, 8; β) Paris (Babelon, No. 457, Pl. xi, 8), gr. 10.45. PLATE XVIII, 9.
228. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, (?).
α) London (Gardner, p. 30, No. l, Pl. x, l. Suspected of being a cast), gr. 7.60; β) Berlin, gr. 8.53. PLATE XVIII, 10; γ) Athens.
No silver coins of Molon are as yet known, although it is highly probable that such must have been struck. The Seleucid authorities would be at pains to withdraw them from circulation, as soon as they had triumphed over the usurper. Their aim seems to have been realized, but some stray specimen is bound to turn up, sooner or later. The more humble and less valuable bronze coins managed to escape the proscription to a certain extent; though even in their case comparatively few have actually survived.124 None was found at Seleucia.
While Molon temporarily held the mint at Seleucia, immediately after his victory over
Xenoetas, he brought out there the series of bronze coins already described. These are signed by men who had
been active in the mint under the rightful kings: namely, , who had thus signed bronze coins of Seleucus II (Nos. 213–214) and of Antiochus III (No. 223); ,
who may be the same as the or 
of the preceding No. 222 and of the following
Nos. 230 and 231, while had signed (as , ,
, ) many coins both before and after the usurpation of Molon. The Apollo Citharoedus type of Nos. 225–228 is but slightly modified
from the similar type found on the immediately
preceding bronze issues of Seleucus III and Antiochus III.
| 123 |
Beloch IV, 1, pp. 689–90. Bevan, I, p. 307.
|
229. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus III to r., with fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated on omphalos to l. In outer r. field, 
;
in outer l. field, 
. Circle of dots.
Munich, gr. 16.85. PLATE XVIII, 11.
230. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus III to r., with fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, . In the exergue, .
Newell, gr. 17.03. PLATE XVIII, 12.
231. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
. In the
exergue, .
α) Turin (Museo Archeologico, Fabretti Catalogue, p. 330, No. 4598, gr. 16.88; β) Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2443, Pl. lxi, gr. 15.42; γ) Newell (Mesopotamian 1925 Hoard), gr. 15.98; δ) Newell (Mesopotamian 1925 Hoard), gr. 16.29. PLATE XVIII, 13; ε–f) Two specimens (probably from the same hoard as γ and δ) in possession of a Baghdad dealer, gr. 16.34 and 16.10.
232. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but the monogram in the exergue is 
, and the monogram in outer r. field is
.
London (Gardner, p. 25, No. 8), gr. 16.85. PLATE XVIII, 14.
233.125 Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but the monogram in the exergue is 
.
α) Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge, Vol. I, Part II, Pl. xix, No. 368), gr. 17.03;
β) Paris (Babelon, No. 351), gr. 17.05; γ) London (Gardner, p. 21, No. 12), gr. 17.11;
δ) Newell (Urfa Hoard), gr. 16.80. PLATE XIX, l.
234. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, above 
. In outer r. field,
. In the exergue, .
α) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 31, No. 5, Pl. lxv, 8), gr. 17.06; β) London. PLATE XIX, 2.
235. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, . In the
exergue, 
.
Cambridge (McClean Coll., Vol. III, No. 9264, Pl. 336, 12), gr. 16.9. PLATE XIX, 3.
236. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
. In the
exergue, ( = 
?).
Paris (Babelon, No. 350. The reference to the plate is erroneous), gr. 16.75.
237. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on the r., ANTIOXOY on l. Nike standing to l., holding a long palm branch in her r. hand. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 6.85; β) London (Gardner, p. 21, No. 17, Pl. vii, 5), gr. 7.60. PLATE XVIII, 15.
238. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same monograms.
α) London (Rogers Coll.), gr. 3.18. PLATE XVIII, 16; β–ε) Seleucia, p. 15, No. 32, gr. 3.67; 2.78 (broken); 2.09; 1.35.
239. Bronze Double.
Similar to the preceding. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Coiled serpent to r. In outer l. field, (?). In the exergue, Σ.
Newell (from Baghdad), gr. 7.32. PLATE LVI, 19.
239A. Bronze Double.
Laureate head of Apollo to r., hair done in a knot. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Nike to l., holds palm branch in l. and with her outstretched r. places a wreath over the king's
name. In
outer r. field, . In outer l. field, obscure monogram.
α–β) Seleucia, p. 16, No. 34, Pl. ii, gr. 8.21; 7.84.
After the recovery of Babylonia and the upper provinces, Antiochus was called back to the west by the revolt of his cousin, Achaeus, in Asia Minor. He became at once deeply involved in a disastrous war with Egypt, followed by a more successful campaign to suppress Achaeus. Babylonia, therefore, did not see Antiochus again for several years.
His coinages at Seleucia continued where they had left off when the city was seized by Molon. Likewise, the same die-cutters
continued to produce the dies, with the result that it would be well-nigh impossible to
distinguish the tetradrachms struck before the interlude of Molon from those struck after, were it not for their
accompanying bronze coins. Obviously, the first bronze issue after the recovery of Seleucia is represented by
Nos. 237 and 238 (PLATE XVIII, 15–16) which bears the appropriate reverse type of a standing victory. The
monograms on these particular coins are identical with the two principal monograms in the field of the tetradrachms Nos.
229
to 234, thus dating those coins exactly.126 The old chief magistrate, , (or
), has now definitely and finally disappeared, after having been in office for some thirty-six years, or
ever since about the middle of Antiochus II's reign. His last appearance was on the
coinage of Molon. Possibly he was then retired because of age; possibly he had become implicated in the revolt
and, in consequence, was among the leading citizens of Seleucia who, Polybius tells us,
paid the supreme penalty or were banished for their disloyalty. His place is now taken by .
The Nike is temporarily replaced on the succeeding No. 239 (PLATE LVI, 19) by Apollo's coiled serpent—a very
rare type in Seleucid numismatics. But soon the Nike again reappears on the coinage (No. 239A), while an Apollo
head takes the place of the King's portrait on the obverse. Although two specimens of this coin were found at Seleucia, its
assignment to that mint is still questionable. A coin with similar types, but of obviously Antiochene style and
fabric, was published by Dr. Rogers in the Numismatic Chronicle, 5th Ser., Vol. I, 1921,
Pl. II, 3. If the obscure monogram in the outer left field of the Seleucian coins is really 
(as it appears
to be, to judge by the reproduction), then they too must be assigned to Antioch where that particular monogram is of common occurrence at this period.
Dr. McDowell, however, describes127 their edges as 'slightly bevelled,' which form is characteristic at this time for the issues of Seleucia, but not for those of Antioch.
| 124 |
A very similar state of affairs exists with regard to the almost contemporaneous issues in Asia Minor of the usurper, Achaeus.
His bronze coins are scarce, but not
by any means rare. Of his gold staters and silver tetradrachms, but one example of each denomination exists today, in the
collections at
Munich and of M. Jameson, respectively.
|
| 125 |
The gold octodrachms in the Fenerly Bey Coll. (Egger Sale XLI, No. 655) and the
Berlin collection appear to the writer highly dubious. They are probably
comparatively modern casts. The same remark may also be true of the piece in the Hague cabinet described by Six, Num. Chron., 3rd Series, Vol. XVII, 1897, p.
211, No. 1, and also by Imhoof-Blumer, Zeitschrift für
Numismatik, Vol. III, 1876, p. 345. Six, ibid. p. 212, clearly recognizes that,
if genuine, the coin must have been struck long before the years 209–205 B. C., to which Babelon, loc. cit. Introd. p. lxxxi, would assign them because he associates the issue of these gold octodrachms with the
spoliation of the temple of Anaïtis at Ecbatana in 209 B. C. The present writer has
not studied this specimen in The Hague and, therefore, hesitates to condemn it.
With regard to the Berlin specimen, his notes distinctly query the authenticity of
the coin. Such an extraordinary issue of large gold pieces, so early in the reign, at Seleucia is perhaps
conceivable (in celebration of the recent victory over Molon ?) but, seems hardly likely.
|
| 120 |
Eusebius, I, 253. St. Jerome, in Dan. 11, 10.
|
| 121 | |
| 122 |
Loc. cit., pp. 34–5.
|
240. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus III, wearing side whiskers, to r. The diadem-ends flutter out behind. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l. on omphalos as on previous issues. In outer l. field, 
or 
. In outer r. field, 
. In the exergue, . Circle of dots.
α) Newell, gr. 16.98; β) Newell, gr. 17.03. PLATE XIX, 5; γ) Newell, gr. 17.02. PLATE XIX, 6.
241. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but the monogram in the exergue has the form, 
.
α) Bunbury Coll. (Num. Chron. 3rd. Series, Vol. III, 1883, Pl. v. 2. The coin has been double-struck); β) Seaby Sale 2, July 1929, No. 468, Pl. xvi.
242. Stater.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r. The diadem-ends hang straight. Circle of dots.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, .
α) Newell (Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 948, Pl. 34 = Cons. Weber Coll., Hirsch Sale XXI, Nov. 1908, No. 4050, Pl. lii), gr. 8.49; β) London (Gardner, p. 25, No. 3, Pl. viii, 3), gr. 8.50. PLATE XIX, 4.
243. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding, but the diademends flutter out behind as on previous issues. The features of the king tend to grow more mature during this issue.
Similar to No. 242, and with the same two monograms.
α) Newell (Urfa Hoard), gr. 16.61. PLATE XIX, 7; β) Newell, gr. 15.72; γ) Newell, gr. 16.91. PLATE XIX, 8; δ) Dr. E. P. Robinson Coll., gr. 16.92.
244. Bronze Unit.
Bust of Artemis to r., the hair done in a knot and bound with a diadem or fillet. Behind the shoulder, protrude the bow and quiver. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription. Apollo nude, standing r., holds in both hands a lyre. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field,
.
α–ι) Seleucia, p. 16, No. 35, gr. 3.12; 2.53; 2.27; 2.06; 1.99; 1.76; 1.69; 1.67; 1.64; 1.41; κ–σ) Paris (Susa. Mission, etc., Vol. XXV, p. 4, No. 6 and p. 21, Nos. 6–7), gr. 2.60; 2.15; 1.60. PLATE XIX, 9–10.
245. Bronze Unit.
Head of Apollo three-quarters facing to r. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription. Athena Promachos to r., brandishing spear in her upraised r. and
holding shield in her outstretched l. In inner l. field, .
α–β) Paris (from Susa). PLATE XIX, 11. Possibly similar to these is the coin from Seleucia, p. 9, No. 17, gr. 2.34, although there the head is described as facing three-quarters l.
246. Bronze Double (?).
Head of Artemis (or Demeter?) three-quarters facing to r. A lighted torch is placed against her l. shoulder. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription. Apollo, nude, seated to r. on omphalos, holding lyre in l.; his r. hand is lowered. Behind him, tripod. Monograms obscure.
α) Newell (from Baghdad), gr. 2.07. PLATE XIX, 13; β–γ) Paris (from Susa). PLATE XIX, 12. Probably of this type are the coins described in Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris , p. 12, No. 23, where the facing head is described as Athena, not Artemis. See above, p. 72, No. 198.
247. Bronze Unit.
Head of Apollo, three-quarters facing to r., as on the preceding. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Tyche in long robes and wearing kalathos standing to l., holds cornucopiae in her l.,
and patera in her outstretched r. In outer l. field, uncertain monogram (
?). Circle of
dots.
α–λ) Seleucia, p. 20, No. 46, Pl. iii, gr. 3.15; 2.85; 2.52 (three); 2.51; 2.46; .27; 2.18; 2.06; 2.01; 1.87; μ) Glasgow (Hunter, Vol. III, p. 17, No. 42, Pl. lxiv, 6), gr. 2.49, PLATE XIX, 14; ν–ζ) Paris (two specimens found at Susa).
248. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription. A quiver. Monograms obscure.
α–β) Seleucia, p. 13, No. 26, gr. 3.02; 2.54.
Series III at first continues on its tetradrachms (Nos. 240–241, PLATE XIX, 5–6), a youthful portrait and the local style which we have now grown accustomed to find at Seleucia. The series, however, is under the supervision of new magistrates. Gradually the king's portrait grows older and his profile more rugged (PLATE XIX, 7, 8), while traces of incipient baldness appear above the forehead, and the bony structure of the face and head becomes more evident. The series is further made notable by the recurrence of the gold stater (No. 242, PLATE XIX, 4). This denomination in Seleucid numismatics always connotes something unusual, and may be associated with the preparations at Seleucia for Antiochus III's great expedition into the east.
It may be noted that the diadem-ends on the stater are depicted as hanging stiffly. Not since the issues of Series III, Group B, under Antiochus I, has this been the case at Seleucia. Because of this, and because the existence of the accompanying tetradrachm, No. 243, was as yet unknown to him, the writer formerly as signed the stater in question to the mint at Antioch.128 This attribution was revealed as an error, the moment specimens of No. 243 put in an appearance. They bear the identical monograms found on the stater; their style and fabric are entirely characteristic of Seleucia on the Tigris, and the diadem-ends are in the fluttering position which we have come to associate with this mint since the final issues of Antiochus I. With the appearance of the stater, a temporary change in the arrangement of the diadem-ends seems to have taken place at our mint. It will be seen that they also hang more or less stiffly downwards on the immediately succeeding tetradrachm issues of Series IV (PLATE XIX, 15) and Series V (PLATE XX, 1), only to revert once more to the fluttering type in Series VI (PLATE XX, 4–8). This observation would suggest that the stater No. 242 was actually coined towards the close of Series III, and may therefore be associated (as suggested above) with Antiochus' eastern expedition. For we know that it was in 210 B. C. that Antiochus and his army descended the Euphrates129 to begin his reconquest of the east.
Accompanying this series of staters and tetradrachms, are several variant types of bronze coins. The Artemis bust on No. 244 (PLATE XIX, 9–10), is an innovation for the Seleucian series, although it had previously appeared on some common coins of Seleucus III struck at Antioch.130 The accompanying reverse type of Apollo with his lyre is a slight modification of a similar design adopted at Seleucia by Seleucus III (PLATE XVII, 18–19) and copied by Antiochus III (PLATE XVIII, 4–5) and Molon (PLATE XVIII, 6–10). That these pieces were coined at Seleucia is shown by the fact that no less than ten specimens turned up in the excavations of the city, while the presence on them of monograms characteristic of the gold and silver coins Nos. 240–243 establishes their general date. As noted in the catalogue, nine further specimens were found at Susa, but these formed part of a large hoard130a and so need not necessarily have been coined in that city. In point of fact, none of this type appears among the coins found singly over the Susian mounds.
Having brought out this issue, our mint then turned to still earlier days for further inspiration. It now proceeded to re-introduce those partially-facing heads which had formed so marked a characteristic of the Seleucian bronze coinages in the middle years of the third century B. C. For the obverse of No. 245 (PLATE XIX, 11), we find a three-quarters facing head of Apollo inclined slightly to the right, as on certain issues of Antiochus I (PLATE XIV, 13; XV, 3–7 and 10–11). The accompanying reverse type is the Athena Promachus of a yet earlier issue of the same king (PLATE XIII, 13–14; XIV, 3). The apparently larger denomination represented by No. 246 (PLATE XIX, 12–13) presents a similar head of Artemis (or is it Demeter?) on the obverse, while its reverse type is a copy of the seated Apollo with lyre and tripod first occurring on bronze coins of Antiochus II (PLATE XVI, 17–18). Unfortunately, the monograms on the known specimens are illegible, but by style and fabric the coins belong to the present period, rather than earlier.
Of character and style exactly similar to the preceding is the facing Apollo head on No. 247 (PLATE XIX, 14), and
this suggests its placement in the present series. For its reverse type, we find a Tyche standing to left, holding patera
and cornucopiae,
very much as each of the two goddesses who face one another across a tripod on some rather common autonomous coins of Seleucia
on the Tigris.131 This suggestive similarity and the fact that so many examples of our piece
were found at Seleucia, definitely establishes their original mint. The monogram , as
read by Dr. McDowell, is not found on the known tetradrachms of Antiochus III for Seleucia, but it does occur on some tetradrachms
of this mint coined under Seleucus IV and Antiochus IV.132 Stylistic
affinities, however, would seem to make an assignment of No. 247 to Antiochus III preferable.
It also remains doubtful as to just where No. 248 should be placed, because its monograms are illegible. For want of a better location it has been tentatively catalogued at this point, but with little real conviction on the author's part. Only further examples, well enough preserved to render their monograms legible and to reveal their style more clearly, can decide.
| 130a |
Cf. Noe, No. 1024.
|
| 126 |
Six, Num. Chron., 3rd Series, Vol. XVII, 1897, pp. 211–213, has long ago recognized that
these particular silver and bronze coins must belong together. He, furthermore, correctly dates them: pas peut-être de
beaucoup postérieur à 220.
|
| 127 |
Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris
, p. 16, No. 34.
|
| 128 |
The Seleucid Mint of Antioch,
American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. LI, 1917, p. 8, No. 19.
|
| 129 |
Bevan, Vol. II, p. 17.
|
| 130 |
Babelon, Nos. 314–24, pi. viii, 16.
|
| 131 |
Brit. Museum Cat.,
Arabia, etc., p. cxv, No. 1, Pl. lii, 1; Imhoof-Blumer, Monnaies grecques, p. 451, No. 60; McDowell, Coins from Seleucia
, p. 100, No. 132, Pl. vi.
|
| 132 |
Dr. Philip Lederer, Zeitschrift für Numismatik, Vol. XXXV, 1925, Pl. ix, Nos. 9–10. For
those of Antiochus IV, see Naville Sale X, Pl. 37, Nos.
1026–7.
|
249. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r. The broad diadem-ends hang nearly straight. Fillet border.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l. on omphalos. In outer l. field,
above a rose.
Berlin, gr. 16.84. PLATE XIX, 15.
250. Bronze Unit.
Laureate head of Apollo three-quarters facing to r. Circle of dots. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription, similarly placed. Tall tripod with holmos. In outer l. field, .
α–ν) Seleucia, p. 11, No. 21, gr. 4.17; 3.26; 3.17. PLATE XIX, 16; 3.00; 2.95; 2.51; 2.46; 2.44; 2.39; 2.21; 1.91; 1.87; 1.85; 1.73. Some of these specimens may really belong to No. 199; ξ) Paris (Babelon, No. 181, Pl. v, 12), gr. 2.65; o) Berlin, gr. 2.31; π) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 2.65. PLATE XIX, 17; ρ) Newell, gr. 2.34; σ) Wilson Coll., Azerbaijan, gr. 2.41.
251. Bronze Unit (or Double ?).
Bearded head of Zeus three-quarters facing to r., with long sceptre against r. shoulder. Bevelled edge.
Same inscription, similarly placed. Apollo nude, standing to r., holding arrow, bow, or phiale over a tripod. In l.
field, .
α-δ) Seleucia, p. 13, No. 27, Pl. ii, gr. 4.84; 3.10; 3.01; 2.90. PLATE XIX, 18, 19.
In general character, the king's head on the tetradrachm (PLATE XIX, 15) of this series has close stylistic affinities with the head on the stater No. 242 (PLATE XIX, 4) which, in turn, is associated by its monograms with the preceding Series III. On the other hand, for the first time at Seleucia, the obverse type is surrounded by a fillet, instead of the customary circle of dots. In this detail it resembles the more or less contemporaneous silver issues of the capital, Antioch.133 Another innovation lies in the fact that the coin bears a single monogram accompanied by a symbol. Unlike the majority of preceding tetradrachm issues, the reverse lacks the encircling band of dots. Thus, several minor features distinguish this series from its predecessor, but the general style134 and fabric remain too similar for us even to consider any other city as a possible mint for these coins. The tetradrachm No. 249 could only have been coined at Seleucia on the Tigris—as is definitely proved by the accompanying bronze coins.
The latter comprise two types, but both bear the same magistrate's monogram as the tetradrachm. The facing Apollo head of No. 250 (PLATE XIX, 16–17) is practically identical with the similar heads which had appeared on the preceding bronze issues, Nos. 245 and 247 (PLATE XIX, 11 and 14), thus assuring us that Series IV is the immediate successor to Series III. The presence of Nos. 250 and 251 in considerable numbers in the Seleucia excavations establishes their mint beyond question. The types of No. 250 (i. e. facing Apollo head and tripod), we have met before in Nos. 199 and 200 (PLATE XVI, 19–20) under Antiochus II, but the evident variation in style, coupled with the more strongly bevelled edges and irregular flans of No. 250 prove their later date. Furthermore, a comparison of their respective reverse types reveals notable differences. The tripod of No. 250 is taller and narrower than the rather squat object depicted on Nos. 199–200, while its legs slope inwards in comparison to the more perpendicular legs of the earlier tripods. The lebes or bowl of our tripod is also provided with a cover while, on the other hand, the tripod of No. 199 is adorned with a fillet, and that of No. 200 is accompanied by an anchor.
The curious variety No. 251 was first published by Dr. McDowell.135 He hesitatingly recognized in the obverse type a head of Zeus, but failed to note the long sceptre136 which so definitely assures the identity of this head. Perhaps misled by his belief that the coins in question constitute an issue of Antiochus I, Dr. McDowell suggests a possible assimilation here of Seleucus I to Zeus. But both monogram and style place the coins not only in the reign of Antiochus III, but more definitely at the period when that king was engaged in his great expedition into the east. Appropriate to that occasion is the reverse type, unusual in Seleucid numismatics. Here we see what is obviously a statue of Apollo, facing to the r. and holding some object above his sacred tripod. If it be a phiale, then the god is in the act of pouring a libation to himself. In the recognized language of Greek symbolism this suggests either a formal propitiation of the god for the success of Antiochus on the eve of his departure for the east, or a thanksgiving for victories already achieved. In our present state of knowledge, we cannot be certain that No. 251 was struck early in Series IV (upon the departure of Antiochus), or later when the good tidings of his various "successes" over Parthians, Bactrians or Indians had reached Seleucia. Unfortunately, the extant specimens of the coin are so damaged by corrosion that we cannot be certain that it is actually the phiale which Apollo is holding. The reproductions suggest that it might also be the bow which is in his hand. In that case, the entire conception is remarkably like a statue of Apollo which appears on certain imperial coins of Alexandria Troas.137 Here, indeed, the god is draped, but aside from that detail the general scheme, including the tripod placed before the god, is exactly as on our coins of Antiochus III. On these coins, the statue holds both phiale and bow. What connection, if any, there exists between the two representations is not yet clear, beyond the rather obvious one that both may be based on some well-known statue.
| 133 |
Newell, The Seleucid Mint of Antioch, loc. cit., Pl. II, Nos. 20–24.
|
| 134 |
Compare, for instance, the Apollo figure on PLATE XIX, 15 with that on PLATE XIX, 7.
|
252. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r., with straight diadem-ends.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Indian elephant walking to l. In the exergue, .
Newell, gr. 16.70. PLATE XX, 1.
253. Bronze Unit.
Laureate head of Apollo to r., with hair done in a knot at the back, and long locks hanging down. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, ANTIOXOY below an Indian elephant walking to r. Behind, .
α–θ) Seleucia, p. 17, No. 38, Pl. iii, gr. 4.94; 4.07; 4.04; 3.86; 3.65; 3.63; 3.26; 3.18; 3.08; ι-ξ) Paris (Mission en Susiane, Vol. XX, p. 25, Nos. 16–18 and others from the same site). PLATE XX, 2–3.
In the spring of 205 B. C.,138 Antiochus returned in triumph from his widely-heralded successes in Parthia, Bactria, and what is modern Afghanistan. The Greek world resounded with his praises, and he was henceforth known as the "great." With him, he brought untold treasure and a large number of the coveted war-elephants, secured from the rulers of Bactria and India. No wonder that in many of his mints, especially the eastern ones, a series of commemorative coins were now struck, bearing for their reverse type a massive Indian elephant.
The date of Series V is thus more or less established by the reverse type of its silver and bronze, themselves further united
by the presence
on all specimens of the same magistrate's monogram, . Their coinage may have begun when the news of the
ratification of peace and the acquisition of many elephants first reached Seleucia. On the other hand, the coins may
not have appeared until Antiochus had actually returned to Seleucia, and he, himself, had commanded these victory coins to be produced in celebration of the
"conquest" of the east—just as
his ancestor, Seleucus I, had done many years before. In any case, the indefiniteness of
the actual date of coinage cannot extend more than a year or so either way. Numerous specimens of the bronze coins turned
up at Seleucia; fewer have been found at Susa. Their mint can have been the former city only, as
style and the sequence of the silver issues and their accompanying bronze coins proclaim.
| 135 |
Loc. cit., pp. 13 and 32ff.
|
| 136 |
Plainly visible on PLATE XIX, 19, as well as on another of the specimens found at Seleucia.
|
| 137 |
British Museum Catalogue, Troas, etc., Pl. V, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 18; Pl. VI, 1, 9, 10.
|
254. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r., with fluttering diadem-ends. Circle of dots.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Apollo seated to l. on omphalos, as before. In the exergue, .
α) Berlin, gr. 17.1. PLATE XX, 4; β) Berlin (Löbbecke Coll.), gr. 17.04. PLATE XX, 5; γ) Newell (from Persia), gr. 16.99. PLATE XX, 6; δ) Yale University.
255. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, .
α) Naville Sale XV, July 1930, No. 1069, Pl. 37 (= Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 808, Pl. 14), gr. 16.97; β) From the same obverse die as α. Newell (H. de Morgan Coll., Serrure Sale, March 1914, No. 117), gr. 16.99. PLATE XX, 7; γ) Naville Sale XVII, Oct. 1934, No. 596, Pl. 18 (= Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 978, Pl. 35 = Egger Sale, Jan. 1908, No. 578, Pl. xvii), gr. 17.12.
256. Tetradrachm.
Similar head to r.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, . In outer r. field, 
.
α) London (Gardner, p. 25, No. 4), gr. 16.85; β) Newell, gr. 16.81. PLATE XX, 8; γ) Glasgow (Hunter Coll., Vol. III, p. 32, No. 19), gr. 16.98. These coins are all from the same obverse die.
257. Bronze Unit or Double (?).
Male head, wearing petasus, three-quarters facing to r. Bevelled edge.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ on r., ANTIOXOY on l. Robed male figure, wearing causia standing to r. In outer l. field, . Circle of dots.
α–β) Seleucia, p. 18, No. 40, Pl. iii, gr. 3.89; 2.59. PLATE XX, 10 (reverse). PLATE XX, 9 (obverse).
258. Bronze Unit.
Male bust, three-quarters facing to r., wearing petasus. Bevelled edges.
BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, ANTIOXOY below elephant standing to r. In l. field, .
α–ε) Seleucia, pp. 17–18, No. 39, Pl. iii, gr. 2.88; 2.88; 2.55; 2.18; 2.14; f) Paris (from Susa); ζ) Berlin, gr. 2.01; η) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll.), gr. 2.025. PLATE XX, 12.
259. Tetradrachm.
Diademed head of Antiochus to r., as on Nos. 254–6. Circle of dots.
Inscription and type as on Nos. 254–6. In outer l. field, 
.
In commerce. PLATE XX, 11.
260. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In outer l. field, 
. In outer r. field, 
.
London. PLATE XX, 13.
Under the same official who had supervised the series commemorating the royal triumph, the coinage of Seleucia proceeds. The relief has suddenly become much more pronounced, the features of the king elderly and rugged. The diademends now revert once more to the fluttering manner of previous years, but they are no longer of stringy thickness, but broad and flat as on the stater No. 242 and on the coins of Series IV.
The bronze coins, Nos. 257 and 258 (PLATE XX, 9, 10, 12), accompany this issue of tetradrachms, as is shown by their monograms. That the coinage is still that of Seleucia is proved by the discovery of several examples in the excavations of this city. The obverse type of the facing Hermes,139 with his broad, flat petasus so characteristic of the god in Greek art, appears here for the first time on Seleucian coins. Just what the implication is, can perhaps be surmised. The reverse type of the standing elephant harks back, of course, to the recent commemorative issue and the king's successes in the east. Possibly the unaccustomed presence of Hermes on the issue of this city commemorates the restoration of commerce (a result which the inhabitants of Seleucia, especially, would be vitally interested in), brought about through the recovery of Seleucid power and prestige in the eastern provinces and the recent establishment of permanent peace with the Bactrian kingdom. Thus were removed the barriers which, since the revolts of Parthia and Bactria, had necessarily impeded the former steady flow of commerce between Seleucia on the one hand and Central Asia and India on the other. Furthermore, the expedition which Antiochus III led against the Arabian trading centres of Gerrha and Tylos (Bahrein), almost immediately after his return from India, may have been intended as much to weaken any strangle-hold their peoples may have secured on the trade routes through and along the Persian Gulf, as for mere conquest or the acquisition of booty. On returning once more to Babylonia, Antiochus, significantly enough, rebuilt and gave his own name to the Alexandria which, lying at the mouth of the Tigris, had been destroyed by the inundations of this and of the Eulaeus rivers. His reasons must have been largely economic, i. e. to insure the flow of trade along the Persian Gulf to and from Seleucia. He was amply justified, for the city grew rapidly in importance and later became the famous Spasinou Charax, capital of Characene and a very great centre of trade and commerce. All of this must have resulted at first to the advantage of Seleucia. No more appropriate type than that of Hermes, god of commerce, could have been chosen to celebrate the renewal of prosperous times which now appeared to be dawning for Seleucia on the Tigris. The reverse type of No. 257 may represent Antiochus himself, as the head-dress appears to be a causia rather than a petasus.
The final issues (Nos. 259–260, PLATE XX, 11, 13), continue the now accustomed style, but under new magistrates. Both style and the presence of one of these magistrates on the succeeding issues of Seleucus IV, PLATE XX, 14, show that No. 260 of Antiochus III is probably the last issue of his reign at Seleucia.
The coinage within the period comprised by Series VI appears scanty, in view of the seventeen years which it is supposed to cover. Either many more varieties remain to be discovered140 or our mint had no occasion to coin more prolifically, as peace now reigned in the east and Antiochus' attention was completely absorbed in his conquest of Phoenicia and Palestine, his invasion of Asia Minor and Greece, and the ensuing disastrous war with Rome.
According to our plan, the study of the Seleucid issues at Seleucia on the Tigris here comes to a close. The coinage continued under Seleucus IV 141 and down to the reign of Demetrius II, when the Parthians finally overran Babylonia and put an end to Greek dominion in the Land of the Two Rivers.
Our discussion of the early Seleucid coinages in Babylonia would not be complete without mention of a curious phenomenon definitely connected with these particular issues. We refer to the numerous terra cotta copies of coins which reach the west from Irak. Many were found in the excavations of Seleucia, and these have been described and published by Dr. McDowell,142 on one of whose plates several have been illustrated. Nearly all of the types commonly current in Babylonia during the first century of Seleucid rule, are represented. Dr. McDowell lists many tetradrachms of the Alexander type,143 both those with the name of Alexander as well as the later ones with the name of Seleucus I. The next succeeding type (Head of Zeus and elephant quadriga) does not chance to have been among the varieties found at Seleucia during the campaigns of 1927/28 and 1931/32, but is represented in the author's collection by a specimen (PLATE LVI, 15) which was purchased some thirty years ago from a well-known dealer in Babylonian antiquities. This clay object appears to have been cast from a tetradrachm such as we see on PLATE XI, Nos. 1–2.
Some of the best preserved specimens from the Seleucia excavations144 are moulded from tetradrachms of Antiochus II (with types of Antiochus I), obviously of the Seleucia mint, one being from a coin such as seen on our PLATE XV, 16. The other specimens, listed and partially illustrated by Dr. McDowell, are too badly preserved, or too faintly impressed originally into the clay, to allow of more than a general assignment to kings such as Antiochus I or II, Seleucus II and Antiochus III. The clay impression illustrated by Dr. McDowell on his Plate VI, No. 114 is certainly not from a coin of Demetrius, as he suggests, but from a typical tetradrachm of Seleucus IV from the mint at Seleucia.145 Thus, it seems safe to say that the majority of these clay objects, still well enough preserved to permit a judgment, were once fashioned from coins actually struck in the mint at Seleucia. The precise origin of Dr. McDowell's clay specimens reciprocally supports our assignment of the original coins to that particular mint.
Concerning the true purpose of these clay "coins," nothing can be added at present to Dr. McDowell's clear and logical discussion. In view of the long period of time covered by their numerous and varied types, it does seem unlikely that they constituted an issue of token money, or "necessity pieces," brought out in times of stress to replace a coinage of more valuable metal. They are more probably tokens (tickets, tesserae, counters ?) once in general use among the teeming population of the great metropolis.
| 142 |
Stamped and Inscribed Objects from Seleucia on the Tigris
, University of Michigan Press, 1935, p. 241ff, Pl. VI.
|
| 143 |
Ibid., p. 243–4.
|
| 144 |
Ibid., Plate VI, 107–9.
|
| 145 |
Cf. Lederer, loc. cit., Pl. IX, Nos. 6–10.
|
| 138 |
Bouché-Leclercq, Vol. I, p. 165.
|
| 139 |
Dr. McDowell (loc. cit. p. 37) recognizes a causia in the
head-dress of the bust on these coins, and believes the portrait to be that of Antiochus, himself. He associates the type with the king's sojourn in Bactria and India. We now see that the actual dates of these coins are not inimical to such a theory, but the bronze
coin No. 753 (PLATE LV, 18) tends to refute this. There, an exactly similar bust carries a caduceus above the r. shoulder, and so must be a Hermes.
|
| 140 |
A supposition not supported by the finds at Seleucia.
|
| 141 |
For the continuation under Seleucus IV, see Dr. P. Lederer,
Zeitschrift für Numismatik, Vol. XXXV, 1925, p. 224ff. Our Plate XX, 14, reproduces a typical example of the
tetradrachms of Seleucus IV struck at Seleucia on the Tigris.
A comparison with the immediately preceding tetradrachms of Antiochus III on the same plate clearly shows close
affinities.
|
| 2a |
The reasons for the greatness of Seleucia are succinctly stated by Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India
, pp. 60–62.
|
| 1 |
R. H. McDowell, Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris
. Ann Arbor, 1935.
|
| 2 |
Winckler, Altorient. Forsch., 2te Reihe, iii, 1901, p. 509; Waterman, Preliminary Report upon the Excavations at Tel Umar, Iraq, 1931, p. 1 ff.; Strabo XVI, 1, 9.
|
| 3 |
Griechische Geschichte, 2nd ed., Vol. IV, 1, p. 136, note 2.
|
| 4 |
Geschichte des Hellenistischen Zeitalters, Vol. II, 1, pp. 73–4.
|
| 5 |
Histoire des Séleucides, p. 524. See also the opinion of Stähelin in Pauly-Wissowa, II, 2, p.
1216.
|
| 6 |
Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, pp. 6–7.
|
| 7 |
American Journal of Numismatics, 1911 and 1912, Reattribution of Certain Tetradrachms of Alexander the Great; Numismatic Notes and Monographs No. 19,
Alexander Hoards II—Demanhur, pp. 57–64, 140–43.
|
| 8 | |
| 9 |
Numismatic Chronicle, 3rd Series, Vol. XVIII, 1898, pp. 219–22.
|
| 10 |
Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, pp. 2–9.
|
| 11 |
Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum,
Arabia
, etc., pp. 181–91.
|
| 12 |
Numismatic Notes and Monographs No. 19, p. 143.
|
When Seleucus erected his new capital at Seleucia on the Tigris, sixty miles to the north-east of Babylon, and removed thither his own residence, the machinery of government and a large number of people, the old capital was not abandoned immediately. In fact, that vast complex of palaces and temples, public buildings and the homes of hundreds of thousands of human beings could not have vanished suddenly. But the removal to another site of the mainsprings of its corporate existence (i. e. the government offices and a great bureaucracy of officials, the Greek inhabitants and, especially, the larger merchants and "big business" interests) soon began to sap the vitality of ancient Babylon. Once the brains and most of the heart of the colossus had been removed, the life-blood flowed from the stricken giant in an ever quickening stream. Even as late as the first few years of the succeeding reign, the colossus still breathed and showed at least a semblance of its former life. The now well-known tablet in the British Museum reveals1 the native population still clinging to its beloved ancestral habitation, as well as a powerful priesthood that continued to function in and around the vast peribolos and ziggurat of Etemenanki and the temenos of E·sagila. Antiochus might order the transference of the remainder of the lay population to Seleucia, but he did not dare lay profane hands upon the sacred temple and the priesthood of the god. These, he wisely left to time.
Thus, we learn that Babylon continued throughout the reign of Seleucus to exist as a human agglomeration. It is to be supposed that it still required certain appurtenances of civilization such, for instance, as a circulating medium. Early in the first chapter, it was stated that Seleucus removed the mint from Babylon to Seleucia. It might have been more accurate to say that he erected in the latter place a new mint, to produce the necessary currency for circulation throughout his empire—money bearing the widely accepted types of Alexander. But Babylon still continued to require its own peculiar currency, the so-called "lion staters," adjusted to the Persian monetary system to which the native Babylonians apparently still clung with oriental obstinacy. From the days of the governorship of Mazaeus in Babylon, 331–328 B. C., these lion staters had been coined for the use of the population, alongside of the royal Alexandrine coinage issued for a more world-wide circulation.2 From their very inception, until the founding of Seleucia, these lion staters present many points of contact (i. e. style and the initials, monograms or symbols of certain magistrates) with the contemporary Alexandrine issues. And then, suddenly, these points of contact practically cease, and the two series continue their several ways along divergent paths. The obvious corollary is that there are now two completely separate mints—the new one at Seleucia producing only coins of the Alexander type,3 the old establishment at Babylon proceeding for a time with its accustomed issue of lion staters only.
Comprehensive lists of these staters have been drawn up by Six,4 Imhoof-Blumer 5 and Sir George Hill.6 In order to complete our picture of the coinages of Seleucus I for the province of Babylonia, we give here the following catalogue, comprising only those staters which were coined at Babylon after Seleucus had officially assumed the kingly title.
261. Lion Stater.
Ba'al seated l. on diphros, with two rungs; he is bearded, and nude to waist. His r. leg is drawn back; his r. hand rests on sceptre, l. on seat. Circle of dots.
Lion walking l., his tail is curled between his legs. Above, . On the lion's haunch, anchor. Circle of dots.
Newell (Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 650, Pl. 11), gr. 16.35. PLATE XXI, 1.
262. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but with no letter above the lion. On haunch, anchor.
Newell, gr. 15.09. PLATE XXI, 2.
263. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor.
α) London (Hill, p. 188, No. 43, Pl. xxii, 6), gr. 16.83; β) London (loc. cit. p 188, No. 44), gr. 16.49; γ) London (loc. cit. p. 189, No. 45), gr. 15.73; δ) London (loc. cit. p. 189, No. 46), gr. 15.65; ε) London (loc. cit. p. 189, No. 47), gr. 15.34; f) London (loc. cit. p. 189, No. 47 bis.), gr. 14.11; ζ) Paris (Babelon, Traité, Vol. II, p. 487, No. 774, Pl. cxv, 13), gr. 15.80; η) Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll., Num. Zeitschr. Vol. XXVII, 1895, p. 9, No. 20), gr. 17.; θ) Hague (Coll. Six), gr. 16.40; ι) Sir Herman Weber Coll., No. 8202, Pl. 302, gr. 16.07; κ) New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ward Coll., No. 820, Pl. xxi), gr. 16.05; λ) Löbbecke Coll., Hess Sale, Jan. 1926, No. 395, Pl. vi), gr. 16.95; μ) Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2699, Pl. lxvii, gr. 16.88; ν) Philipsen Coll., Hirsch Sale XXV, Nov. 1909, No. 2776, Pl. xxxi, gr. 15.83; ξ) Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2700, Pl. lxvii, gr. 15.71; o) Egger Sale XXXIX, Jan. 1912, No. 347, Pl. xi, gr. 15.50; π) Fenerly Bey Coll., Egger Sale XLI, Nov. 1912, No. 782, Pl. xxi, gr. 15.47; ρ) Helbing Sale, Nov. 1928, No. 4106, Pl. 75, gr. 13.7; σ) De Nanteuil Coll., No. 484 (Ciani Sale, June 1920, No. 146, Pl. iv), Pl. xxx, gr. 15.92; τ) Pozzi Coll., Naville Sale I, April 1921, No. 2870, Pl. lxxxiii, gr. 16.08; υ) Naville Sale V, June 1923, No. 2743, Pl. lxxv, gr. 16.90; φ) Bement Coll., Naville Sale VII, June 1924, No. 1638, Pl. 56, gr. 16.47; χ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 747, Pl. 25, gr. 16.09; ψ) Newell, gr. 15.85;
264. Lion Drachm.
Similar to the preceding. Sometimes only one rung to diphros.
Similar to the preceding, but the lion reverts its head to gaze at the anchor symbol.
α) London (Hill, loc. cit., p. 189, No. 48, Pl. xxii, 7. This coin has four pellets beneath the exergual line on the reverse), gr. 3.75; β) Turin (Imhoof-Blumer, Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, Pl. 1, 23), gr. 3.75; γ) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 748, Pl. 25, gr. 3.62; δ) Newell, gr. 2.49; ε) Newell, gr. 3.25. PLATE XXI, 6; f) Newell (one rung to seat—Dr. Haynes, from Babylonia), gr. 3.75. PLATE XXI, 7.
265. Lion Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) London (Hill, loc. cit., p. 189, No. 49, Pl. xxii, 8), gr. 1.98; β) Paris (Babelon, Traité, II2, p. 490, No. 783, Pl. cxv, 17), gr. 1.75; γ) Newell (brought back from Babylonia by Dr. Haynes), gr. 1.56. PLATE XXI, 8.
266. Lion Hemidrachm.
Similar to preceding, but only one rung to seat.
Similar to preceding, but the lion is advancing to r.
London (Hill, loc. cit., p. 189, No. 50, Pl. xxii, 9), gr. 1.76. PLATE XXI, 9.
| 3 |
Later to be changed, as we saw, to the elephant quadriga type.
|
| 4 |
Num. Chron., 3rd Series, Vol. IV, 1884, pp. 132–133 and Vol. XVIII, 1898, pp. 219–222.
|
| 5 |
Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, pp. 1–9.
|
| 6 |
Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia
, Introd. pp. cxli–cxlviii, pp. 180–191. ω) Newell
(Dr. Rouvier's Coll.), gr. 16.50; αα) Newell, gr. 15.82; ββ) Newell, gr. 15.62; γγ) Newell, gr. 15.65; δδ) Newell (Dr. Rouvier's
Coll.), gr. 16.28. PLATE XXI, 3; εε) Newell (Brought back
from Babylonia by Dr. Haynes), gr. 16.19. PLATE XXI, 4; ff)
Newell, gr. 15.20. PLATE XXI, 5; ζζ–νν) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, Nos. 9567–9574, Pl.
355, Nos. 13–15, grs. 15.75, 15.31, 15.97, 15.60, 15.70, 15.71, 15.58, 15.88.
|
267. Lion Stater.
Similar to No. 263, but with an uncertain symbol (club, leaf, or fish ?) in field to l.
Exactly similar to No. 263.
Newell, gr. 15.27. PLATE XXI, 10.
268. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding, but with pellet beneath the seat, and no symbol in the field.
Similar to the preceding, but with crab in the exergue.
Newell (Allotte de la Fuÿe Coll., Ciani Sale, Feb. 1925, No. 666), gr. 15.85. PLATE XXI, 11.
269. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding, but of slightly finer style. Beneath seat, M. The circle of dots is very delicately rendered. Only one rung to the seat.
Similar to the preceding, but with pentalpha in the exergue. The circle of dots is very delicately rendered.
Newell, gr. 16.67. PLATE XXI, 12.
270. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding, but with no letter beneath the seat. Henceforth, only one rung to seat.
Similar to Nos. 261–263 and Nos. 267–268 and, like them, of coarser style. Above lion, anchor. In the exergue,
.
α) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, No. 9565, Pl. 355, 11, gr. 16.70; β) Newell (Hill, loc. cit. p. cxlviii, No. 18, Pl. li), gr. 15.25. PLATE XXI, 13; γ) Imhoof-Blumer, Monnaies grecques, p. 378, No. 41, gr. 15.70.
271. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and II. In the exergue, 
and 
.
Newell, gr. 16.68. PLATE XXI, 14.
272. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and II. In the exergue, 
and crescent.
α) Paris (Babelon, Traité II2, p. 487, No. 776, Pl. cxv, 15), gr. 16.70; β) London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 190, No. 55, Pl. xxii, 14), gr. 16.83. PLATE XXI, 15.
273. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and Π. In the exergue, and star.
London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 190, No. 56, Pl. xxii, 15), gr. 16.73. PLATE XXI, 16.
274. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and Π. In the exergue, IVY LEAF and .
α) London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 190, No. 57), gr. 16.56; β) Cambridge, McClean Coll., Vol. III, No. 9566, Pl. 355, 12, gr. 16.20.
275. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and II. In the exergue, α and laurel leaf.
α–β) London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 191, Nos. 58 and 59, Pl. xxii, 16 and Numismatische Zeitschrift Vol. XXVII, 1895, Pl. i, 21. No. 58 is from the Sir Herman Weber Coll., No. 8204, Pl. 302), gr. 16.36 and 15.16; γ) Newell (Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2702, Pl. lxvii = Berl. Münsblätter, N. F., 1919, Pl. 85, 7), gr. 15.19. PLATE XXI, 17.
276. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and II. In the exergue, and ivy leaf.
α) London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 191, No. 60, Pl. xxii, 17 = Sir Herman Weber Coll., Vol. III2, No. 8205, Pl. 302), gr. 15.28; β) Newell (Ratto Sale, April 1927, No. 2701, Pl. lxvii), gr. 13.18 (this piece may be fourrée). PLATE XXI, 18.
277. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor and II. In the exergue, and star.
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer Coll., Monnaies grecques, p. 378, No. 43. Cf. Dr. Lederer, Berl. Münzblätter, N. F., 1919, Pl. 85, 7a), gr. 15.60.
278. Lion Stater.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, horned horse's head to r. Two rungs to seat.
Similar to the preceding. Above lion, anchor. In the exergue, 
.
Newell (Hill, loc. cit. cxlviii, No. 17, Pl. li), gr. 16.89. PLATE XXI, 19.
279. Lion Didrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding.
α) Cahn Sale 60, July 1928, No. 1180, Pl. 18, gr. 6.5; β) Newell, gr. 6.70. PLATE XXI, 20; γ–δ) London (Hill, loc. cit. p. 190, Nos. 52 and 53, Pl. xxii, 12 and 13. No. 12 is from the Sir Herman Weber Coll., Vol. III, 2, No. 8203, Pl. 302), gr. 6.30, 6.25. PLATE XXI, 21.
280. Lion Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. The monogram has the form 
.
α) Paris (Babelon, Traité II2, p. 490, No. 779, Pl. cxv, 16), gr. 3.30; β) Newell, gr. 3.18. PLATE XXI, 22.
281. Lion Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding, but without symbol in the field.
Lion standing to l., with head reverted and tail raised. In the exergue, .
Newell, gr. 1.81. PLATE XXI, 23.
282. Lion Stater.
Similar to Nos. 278–280, with same symbol in the field, but of very different style.
Lion walking to l. Above, anchor. In the exergue, Γ or M (?).
Berlin (Imhoof-Blumer, Monnaies grecques, p. 378, No. 46 and Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. XXVII, 1895, Pl. i, 22), gr. 16.32.
Like the issues of Seleucia and all but the very earliest of the Alexandrine coinages of Babylon itself, these lion staters and their fractions are struck from loose dies. No. 261 (PLATE XXI, 1), bearing the letter zeta above the lion, appears to form the connection between the present series and the preceding issues which are characterized by the presence of a changing letter, monogram or symbol above the lion. The anchor, distinctly visible upon the lion's haunch on both Nos. 261 and 262, proclaims the fact that we have now reached the staters certainly coined under Seleucus. Commencing with Group B, a large anchor henceforth always fills the space above the lion. Group B must represent an enormous issue, to judge by the great number of examples which survive to our day.
Groups C to H follow, invariably marked with the anchor above the lion, but now possessing accompanying letters, symbols or monograms, at times all three, placed either on the obverse or in the exergue of the reverse. With but two exceptions (i. e. Nos. 269 and 282), the style exhibited by these coins is so strikingly identical with that of the immediately preceding Nos. 261 to 267, that all must obviously have emanated from a single mint and surely represent a continuous and uninterrupted coinage covering many years. The only ones concerning which there might exist doubts as to their having once formed a part of these issues, are the above-mentioned Nos. 269 and 282. The former displays a more delicate, the latter a more barbarized, style than is found on the remainder of our coins. But the anchor symbol appearing on both pieces, accompanied by the horned horse's head on No. 282, would seem to connect both coins with the issues now being studied. The hemidrachm No. 281 (PLATE XXI, 23), has also been included, somewhat doubtfully, as it does not possess the anchor above the lion. But the style and fabric of the little coin is the same as that of the others, while the monogram in the exergue appears to be merely a simplification of the complicated monogram in the exergues of Nos. 278–279 and is identical with the monogram on No. 280.
In passing, it may be noted that some vague relationship may exist between these lion staters and the ordinary and contemporaneous
regal
issues of Seleucia. The letter pi is placed beneath the anchor symbol on Nos. 271–277, and
the same letter also occurs at Seleucia, either above or to the r. of the anchor on Nos. 31–33 (c. 299–298 B. C). Further, the monogram which marks the lion staters Nos. 276—277,
likewise appears at Seleucia on Nos. 47–51A (c. 295–294 B. C.) and 92–98 (c. 287–286 B. C). These similarities between certain control marks used in the two series may be pure coincidence,
and the writer is reluctant to lay much stress on them. Certainly there would seem to be no connection between the pentalpha on the lion stater No. 269 and the similar symbol on the Seleucian coins, Nos. 100–106. A similar puzzling but probably
superficial connection can be pointed out between our lion staters of Groups E–G and a certain series of Alexander coins, Müller Nos. 1503–1507 and similar pieces not known to
him. These 'Alexanders' all bear on their reverses the symbol, anchor, while the letter pi
may be seen beneath the throne. At the same time certain monograms, such as , , and the symbol , are common to these particular 'Alexanders' and to the lion
staters of Groups E–G. But the Alexander coins are too closely connected with
preceding issues of Aradus in Phoenicia to suppose that they could have been coined in any of the Babylonian
mints. Nor would their style and fabric allow us to assign these lion staters to Aradus.
At what date the Babylonian series terminated is not certain. The very lowest possible limit must be the year 275 B. C., the thirty-seventh year of the Seleucid era in Babylonia, when Antiochus decreed the final removal of the civilian population of Babylon to Seleucia.7 It is probable, however, that the coinage of lion staters had ceased before this—possibly about the time that Susa replaced its own lion staters with a new issue bearing as types the head of Zeus and the elephant.8 Or they may have lasted throughout the reign of Seleucus I, their mint being finally closed down in the troublous times which almost immediately followed. Probably all the available precious metals were at that time used in the production of Antiochus' standard coinage (Nos. 140–144), of which 'a great quantity' had to be sent to supply the army in Syria.9
The weights of these lion staters are very erratic, even between specimens equally well preserved. When first coined under Mazaeus, their weights were evidently based on the Attic standard, but very soon they fall so consistently below the norm that most scholars are agreed that they were now probably intended to circulate as three Persian sigli.10 This view should be accepted with some reserve. Regling11 has shown that the normal weight of the Persian siglus is 5.60 grammes, the average 5.38 grammes, while a table of frequency places the mass of the coins between 5.26 and 5.60 grammes. Of the thirty-eight12 specimens of the lion stater (coined after the time of Mazaeus) now in the British Museum, no less than ten, or over 26.37%, weigh 16.80 grammes or more. Of the fifty-six specimens of the lion stater coined under Seleucus, catalogued above, seven, or 12.5%, also weigh over 16.80 grammes. These figures represent a surprisingly high proportion of coins brought out above the supposed norm. On the other hand, no less surprising is the very large number of staters, in an apparently fine state of preservation, which fall a great way below the supposed norm, even below 16.00 grammes. Either the weighing and adjusting of the blanks was done with extreme carelessness, or the coins were largely used as bullion, to be weighed in bulk at each larger transaction. In support of this suggestion, is the fact that the contemporary Alexandrine and elephant-quadriga issues of Seleucus were much more carefully adjusted to their norm.13 These coins were surely intended for wide circulation throughout the eastern Greek world, while the area of circulation of the lion staters was apparently confined to Babylonia and parts of Iran, where they are almost invariably found.
In view of the fact that the lion staters were certainly at first coined by Mazaeus on the Attic weight system, and because they are always divided, according to the western Greek practice, into halves, quarters, eighths and twenty-fourths (i. e. tetradrachms, didrachms, drachms, hemidrachms and obols) and not into thirds, sixths and twelfths according to the Persic system, it seems to the writer that the intent remained to issue the staters on the Attic system. Considerable latitude, however, was gradually allowed the mint officials because the coins were not a royal issue intended for a "world wide" circulation, but largely to supply a local demand.14
| 7 |
Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, pp. 153–6.
|
| 8 |
See below, pp. 118 and 122–3.
|
| 9 |
As we learn from the British Museum tablet, Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts,
p. 156. Cf., also, p. 61.
|
| 10 |
Hill, loc. cit., p. xlvi.
|
| 11 |
Klio, XIV, 1915, pp. 91ff.
|
| 12 |
Not counting the pieces which are probably fourrée.
|
| 13 |
At first glance, the weights of the elephant-quadriga coins do not support this statement. But the fact is, that over 36%
of the extant
specimens come from Gejou's Mesopotamian and Prof. Haynes' Babylonian Hoards. The
coins in both deposits were corroded to an unusual extent, and their subsequent cleaning has necessarily reduced their original
weights
by as much as ten per cent.
|
| 14 |
The somewhat daring thought occurs to the writer that these lion staters may possibly have had some connection with the great
temple of
Babylon and its vast hierarchy of priests. Could they, by any chance, have represented some sort of temple
money, in which case any over-careful adjusting of their weights may not have been so necessary? It is curious—or is it a
mere
coincidence?—that the Jewish shekels of the First Revolt, whose coinage must also have been more or less connected with the
hierarchy at
Jerusalem, should three and a half centuries later so greatly resemble these
lion staters in general form and fabric. The great quantity and long continued issue of the lion staters and their fractions
is indeed
an anomaly, especially when we remember that the royal mint at Babylon was at the same time coining truly vast
amounts of "standard" coin which, being carefully adjusted and in wide demand, one would have thought would soon have supplanted
in
popular usage the more carelessly adjusted lion staters. If the latter are really temple or "sacred" money, then one would
have to
explain the issue of similar pieces brought out from time to time at the mints of Susa and Ecbatana. However, any large circulation
of coin at Babylon, the metropolis of the east, would
inevitably cause a certain "drift" of such coin into the adjoining provinces and possibly there create a demand for a local
coinage of
that particular type. On the other hand, Tarn points out in his The Greeks in Bactria and India
, p. 29, that the great temple of Artemis-Nanaia at Susa enjoyed 'financial
autonomy' and that (p. 464) 'it was a little temple-state with its own treasury, a state within a state.' He expressly likens
it, among
other such shrines, to the great temple at Babylon. In an accompanying footnote he draws attention to 'the
temple of Anaïtis mentioned by Aelian where tame lions lived in the precinct.' If the temple at Babylon could issue 'temple
money,' so too, presumably, could the hardly less important and famous temples of
Artemis-Nanaia at Susa and of Aene at Ecbatana. The temple money (if such it be) of these latter then also took the form of
'lion staters,' described
below in Chapters III and V. Demanding explanation also, is the fact that for many years double and (more rarely) single gold
darics of
Achaemenid type were coined alongside the lion staters. These gold coins seem, almost invariably, to turn
up in eastern Iran and Bactria, and not in Babylonia. But as most of our specimens, of which we possess any record at all, have come from the
single great
"Treasure of the Oxus." this seeming fact may be illusory. That both double darics and lion staters were mostly coined at
Babylon is certain. The term "temple money" is here put forward as a pure suggestion—a subject for discussion
rather than because of any conviction on the writer's part that the supposition is at present demonstrable.
|
| 1 |
Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, pp. 150–9.
|
| 2 |
Susa was the capital and chief city of the Province of Susiana which, in the main, corresponded with the ancient country of Elam, the later Elymais. The city lay near the head of a fertile plain watered by the rivers Kerkha (the classical Choaspes) and Karun (the classical Eulaeus), a plain which stretched to the east of the Tigris river and was ever culturally, economically and historically allied with, and itself similar to, the land of Babylonia. This rich and populous land, the earliest portion of Persia to become civilized, and its royal city of Susa, had a long and glorious history centuries before the coming of the Persians. Strabo tells1 us that Cyrus placed the capital of his empire at Susa because of its situation and the importance of the city. Darius built a splendid palace there which, however, was later destroyed by fire, only to be yet more magnificently rebuilt by Artaxerxes Mnemon. P. M. Sykes, in his History of Persia , grows quite lyrical over the city's site and says:2 "To the traveller crossing the level plains, the mounds of Susa appear to rise to a great height, and it is not difficult to imagine how imposing they must have been crowned with splendid edifices and probably set in palm-groves amid a sea of waving corn, the whole picture being backed by range after range of grim mountains rising in sombre majesty to snow-capped peaks." Familiarly known to us as "Shushan the Palace" of the Book of Esther, it was a favorite residence of the Achaemenid kings. No wonder that the Greeks looked upon Susa as the capital of the Great King; it was there that Aeschylus laid the scene of the Persae. Immediately after the fall of Babylon, Alexander marched upon Susa and secured it. The city lost little of its importance when the great Macedonian had finally taken over the Persian empire from the feeble hands of Darius Codomannus.
Not long after the death of Alexander, a mint was opened at Susa, and numerous coins, modelled on the contemporaneous issues of Babylon, were produced there over a period of many years. Soon after 312–311 B. C., Seleucus was able to add the provinces of Media and Susiana to his satrapy, and Susa was renamed Seleucia ad Eulaeum 3 by the conqueror. More or less contemporaneously with the founding of Seleucia on the Tigris and the opening of a mint there, the old mint at Susa proceeded to strike the following coins.
283. Tetradrachm.
Head of young Heracles to r. wearing lion's skin. Circle of dots.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r. Zeus, naked to waist, seated to l. on a high-backed throne. He rests
l. on a sceptre and holds an eagle in his outstretched r. In l. field, wreath above anchor above bull's head. Beneath throne, ΔI above, beneath the rung.
London. PLATE XXII, 1.
284. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but the legs of Zeus are crossed and BAΣIΛEΩΣ is visible in
the exergue. In l. field, wreath above horned horse's head to l. Beneath throne, ΔI
above, below the rung.
London. PLATE XXII, 2.
285. Stater.
Head of Athena to r., wearing a triple-crested Corinthian helmet adorned with a running sphinx.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. Winged Nike standing to l., holding a wreath in her outstretched r. Beneath her hand, EB above horned horse's head above T I.
London. PLATE XXII, 3.
286. Tetradrachm.
Similar to Nos. 283–284.
Similar to No. 284. In l. field, wreath and boeotian shield above horned horse's head l. Beneath throne, B E.
α) London. PLATE XXII, 4; β) Newell, gr. 16.95. PLATE XXII, 5. Both coins are struck from the same obverse die.
287. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, but henceforth Zeus' legs are in the parallel position. In l. field, wreath and boeotian shield above horse's head l. Beneath throne, BE above, TI beneath the rung.
London (Num. Chronicle, 5th Ser., Vol. XVII, 1937, p. 238, No. 7, Pl. xxxi), gr. 16.90.
288. Drachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding, and with the same symbols and letters.
Newell, gr. 4.15. PLATE XXII, 6.
289. Hemidrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, wreath above horned horse's head to l. Beneath throne, BE above, TI beneath the rung.
α) Newell, gr. 1.40; β) Newell, gr. 1.36. PLATE XXII, 7; γ) Newell, gr. 1.37. PLATE XXII, 8.
290. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 286.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. Zeus, with legs placed parallel, seated to
l., as above. In l. field, anchor. Beneath throne, 
.
Newell (from Persia), gr. 16.39. PLATE XXII, 9.
291. Bronze Unit.
Head of Alexander to r., wearing elephant's skin.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r. Anchor, flukes below. Apparently no monogram or symbol is present.
α) Newell (from Persia), gr. 3.09. PLATE XXII, 10; β) Newell, gr. 4.49. PLATE XXII, 11; γ) London (Babelon, loc. cit. Introd. p. v, fig. 5. This specimen originally came from Persia. Cf. Num. Chron., New Series, Vol. I, 1861, pp. 137–9), gr. 4.22.
292. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 290.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. In l. field, anchor above 
. Beneath
throne, Σ above, AP beneath the rung.
α) Munich; β) Berlin; γ) London (from Persia). PLATE XXII, 12.
β and γ are from the same obverse and reverse dies.
293. Tetradrachm.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, anchor. Beneath throne, Σ above, A P beneath the rung.
George Bauer Coll. ↖, gr. 17.09. PLATE XXII, 13.
294. Bronze Unit.
Head of Alexander to r., as on No. 291.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r. Winged victory standing to l.; holds wreath in her outstretched r. In l. field, inverted anchor.
α) Susa, Mission en Susiane, Vol. XXV, p. 4, No. 9, gr. 3.80; β) Berlin (Friedlaender in Numismatische Zeitschrift, Vol. III, p. 76, Pl. viii, 4. Babelon, loc. cit., Introd., p. v, fig. 4); γ) London, gr. 3.86; δ) Newell (from Urumia), gr. 4.83; ε) Newell (from Urumia), gr. 4.39; f) Newell, gr. 4.41. PLATE XXII (the obverses of Nos. 14 and 17 have become interchanged on the plate), 14; ζ) Newell, gr. 3.89. PLATE XXII, 15; η) London, gr. 4.01. PLATE XXII, 16; θ) London (from the same obverse die as the preceding), gr. 5.88; ι) London, gr. 4.50; κ) London, gr. 4.00; λ) London, gr. 4.06; μ) London, gr. 3.96; ν) London, gr. 4.81; ξ) London, gr. 3.83.
295. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, anchor. In r. field, Σ.
α) Newell (Philipsen Coll., Hirsch Sale XXV, Nov. 1909, No. 3165), gr. 3.71. PLATE XXII, 17; β) London, gr. 3.96. PLATE XXII, 18.
296. Bronze Unit.
Similar to the preceding, but of slightly divergent style.
Similar to the preceding. In l. field, anchor above 
.
α) Newell (from Urumia), gr. 3.85; β) London, gr. 4.15. PLATE XXII, 19.
297. Bronze Half.
Of the same style as the preceding.
AΛEΞANΔPOY on r. Inverted Anchor. In outer r. field, horned horse's head to r. above AP.
Seleucia, p. 4, No. 2, Pl. ii, gr. 2.37. PLATE XXII, 20.
298. Stater.
Head of Athena to r. wearing a triple-crested Corinthian helmet, adorned with winged sphinx seated to r.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ on l. Victory standing l. holding wreath. In l. field, helios bust. In r. inner field,
AP. In the exergue, 
.
London. PLATE XXIII, 1.
299. Tetradrachm.
Similar to No. 293.
ΣEΛEYKOY on r., BAΣIΛEΩΣ in the exergue. Zeus seated to l. as on No. 293. In l. field,
helios bust above . Beneath throne, M above AP.
α) Naville Sale X, June 1925, No. 756, Pl. 26, gr. 17.08. PLATE XXIII, 5; β) Newell, gr. 17.07. PLATE XXIII, 3; β) Newell, gr. 17.13. PLATE XXIII, 2; δ) London (Gardner, No. 8), gr. 16.37; f) Aberdeen (Newnham Davis Coll., Sylloge, Vol. I, Part II, No. 345, Pl. xviii), gr. 17.06. PLATE XXIII, 4. The obverses are apparently all from the same die, but exhibiting various stages of fracture.
The first tetradrachms here tentatively assigned to Susa under the rule of Seleucus,
are united by their common symbol wreath, as well as by the magistrates' initials ΔI and found beneath the throne on both examples. In addition, No. 283 (PLATE XXII, 1) bears
an anchor and bull's head, No. 284 (PLATE XXII, 2) the head of a horned horse—all being insignia peculiar to
Seleucus. No. 283 probably once also possessed the royal title in the exergue (just as does its companion
piece, No. 284), but the title chances to be off flan on the single specimen which has come down to us.
In details of style, though not in fabric, these two coins represent somewhat of a break between the preceding issues of Susa 4 and those catalogued under the succeeding Group B. In both style and fabric, the latter connect directly with the earlier Susian issues. Hence Nos. 283 and 284 are only tentatively incorporated here. On the other hand, their symbol wreath (to say nothing of the horned horse's head on No. 284) is characteristic of Group B, whose Susian origin is certain. It is possible that when Seleucus seized Susa, the operations of its mint were temporarily so disorganized that interim die-cutters (distinguishable by the inferior quality of their work) had to be found to produce at once the necessary money. Later, the former die-cutters were re-employed and the mint continued to function as before.
Although the symbols point definitely to Seleucus, the coins are still struck in the name of Alexander. Perhaps the name of the new ruler of Iran was not yet well enough known and respected by the more primitive peoples of the interior, or of the sea coasts of southern Persia and of Arabia, with whom Susa enjoyed commercial relations, to render advisable the employment on this coinage of the name of Seleucus. The name of the great Alexander still more than sufficed to guarantee the quality and wide acceptability of the coins. How resistant to even insignificant monetary innovations primitive peoples can be, is illustrated by the anachronistic Maria Theresa thaler still current in Abyssinia and other parts of Africa and Arabia. To be acceptable, it must bear only the date 1780 and the mint-master's initials S. F.5 Even the pearls in the Empress' diadem are scrutinized (there must not be less than five, or more than eight, while seven are preferable); and nine pearls must show in the fibula on her shoulder!
This Group is both larger and more varied than A, for it comprises not only tetradrachms but gold staters, silver drachms and hemidrachms as well. The connecting links with the preceding group are the wreath (on the silver only) and the horned horse's head. Nos. 286 to 288 have, in addition, a Boeotian shield—an object not often found on eastern coinages but which, none-the-less, we shall find appearing again a few years later on Susian issues. On one tetradrachm of Group B (No. 286, PLATE XXII, 4–5), Zeus is depicted with his right foot drawn back behind his left. The same is true of the immediately preceding tetradrachm No. 284. But on all the other silver coins of Groups A and B his legs are placed in the earlier parallel position. The name of Alexander is retained until we reach Group E.
| 4 |
Cf. Müller Nos. 1562–5, and many accompanying pieces not known to him.
|
| 5 |
Howland Wood in The Coin Collector's Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, April, 1936, p. 14.
|
These two groups appear to have comprised tetradrachms and bronze pieces only. In style the tetradrachms are identical with the preceding specimens. Henceforth, Zeus always displays the parallel position of the legs, giving
