Octodrachm - Antiochos III Megas

Antiochos III earned the epithet "Megas" — the Great — partly on the strength of his eastern *anabasis*, a decade-long campaign through Bactria, Parthia, and India that deliberately echoed Alexander. The gold octodrachm issues of his later reign coincide with his most ambitious western moves: the crossing into Thrace and Greece, which brought him into direct collision with Rome. That confrontation ended at Thermopylae in 191 BC and catastrophically at Magnesia in 190 BC, after which the Peace of Apamea stripped him of his war elephants, his fleet, and most of Asia Minor.

Gold issues of this type are rare survivals — the Seleucid economy ran predominantly on silver — making the SC 1040 octodrachm one of the more consequential denominational rarities in the Hellenistic series.