Chalkon - Antiochos III

Antiochos III spent much of his reign attempting to reassert Seleucid control over territories lost under his predecessors — campaigns that took him as far east as Bactria and India before his eventual defeat by Rome at Magnesia in 190 BC. Small bronzes like this chalkon circulated across an empire in near-constant military motion, passing through garrison towns, field markets, and the hands of mercenary soldiers whose loyalty was purchased in coin.