Chalkon - Antiochos IV Ptolemais-Ake

Antiochos IV struck coinage at Ptolemais-Ake — the Phoenician port city he renamed Antiocheia Ptolemais — during the years bracketing his catastrophic Egyptian campaigns. His twice-attempted conquest of Egypt ended only when the Roman legate Gaius Popillius Laenas drew a circle in the sand and demanded he choose between withdrawal and war with Rome. He withdrew. The humiliation is historically inseparable from his subsequent plundering of the Jerusalem Temple, an act that directly triggered the Maccabean Revolt.

Ptolemais-Ake was one of several western mints activated during this politically turbulent stretch of his reign.