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Drachm - Antiochos IX Kyzikenos Tarsos
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 96 BC - 95 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.84 g |
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| Obverse description | Bare diademed head of Antiochos IX Kyzikenos facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic portrait style with wavy hair swept back from the forehead and bound by a royal diadem with flowing ties visible behind. The facial features are modeled with naturalistic precision, displaying a strong jawline and youthful profile. The field is plain and the flan is slightly irregular, as is characteristic of hammered Seleucid coinage of this period. |
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| Reverse description | The Cilician deity Sandan stands in profile to right atop a horned and winged lion-griffin, depicted wearing a tall polos crown and flowing robes, with a bow and quiver slung over his shoulder. In his raised left hand he holds a double axe (labrys), while his right hand is extended upward in a gesture of authority. Two monograms appear in the left field. The composition references the distinctive civic iconography of Tarsos, emphasizing the coin's mint attribution, and is framed by the royal Greek legend. |
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| Additional information |
Antiochos IX Kyzikenos — so named for his time spent at Kyzikos as a political hostage — seized the Seleucid throne in 114/3 BC by driving out his half-brother Antiochos VIII Gryphos, triggering a civil war that neither man would survive. The Tarsos mint struck for Kyzikenos during one of his final periods of control over Kilikia, shortly before Gryphos's son Seleukos VI cornered him at the Battle of the Orontes in 95 BC.
Kyzikenos died in that engagement, ending a reign defined almost entirely by fratricidal conflict. The 96–95 BC window at Tarsos is correspondingly brief.