Drachm - Demetrius I Soter

Demetrius I came to power not through inheritance but through audacity — he escaped from Rome, where he had been held as a political hostage since childhood, and seized the Seleucid throne by executing the regent Lysias and the child-king Antiochus V in 162 BC. His coinage was minted during a reign consumed by dynastic warfare, Maccabean revolt, and the slow hemorrhage of eastern territories to Parthia. The drachm series served the practical demands of a king perpetually on campaign.

He was ultimately killed in 150 BC by Alexander Balas, a pretender backed by Rome, Egypt, and Pergamon — rivals who found a weakened Seleucid throne more useful than a competent one.