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Tetradrachm - Antiochos III Megas Damaskos
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 192 BC - 187 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Diademed head of Antiochos III Megas facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic portrait style with curling hair swept back from the brow and secured by a royal diadem, the ends of which fall behind the neck. The youthful, clean-shaven effigy displays strongly modeled facial features characteristic of late Seleucid portraiture. The field is plain and unlettered, with a broad flat rim surrounding the portrait. |
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| Reverse description | Apollo Delphios seated left on an omphalos, his body semi-nude with drapery over the lower limbs, holding a long scepter or bow in his right hand and resting his left hand on the omphalos decorated with a net pattern. The figure is rendered in the classical Seleucid Apollo type. The Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ to the right and ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ to the left flank the central type, with the mint control monogram ΔΙ in the lower field. The whole design is enclosed within a dotted border. |
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Antiochos III earned his epithet "Megas" — the Great — through three decades of relentless campaigning that temporarily restored the Seleucid Empire to something approaching its Alexandrine extent. The Damascus mint struck this issue during the final years of his reign, a period defined by catastrophic overreach: his invitation into Greece by the Aetolian League provoked Rome, and the defeat at Thermopylae in 191 BC followed by the crushing loss at Magnesia in 190 BC ended Seleucid ambitions in the west permanently. The Peace of Apamea in 188 BC stripped him of his fleet and imposed crippling indemnities.
He was killed in 187 BC raiding a temple treasury in Elymais — the irony being that he needed the funds to pay Rome.