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Tetradrachm - Antiochos IV Epiphanes Antioch
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
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| Year | 175 BC - 164 BC |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed, diademed portrait bust of Antiochos IV Epiphanes facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic royal tradition with idealized, youthful features, wavy hair, and a fillet diadem tied at the nape. The effigy is depicted with a strong, clean profile showing a slightly upturned nose and full lips characteristic of Seleucid portraiture of the period. The neck is bare and truncated at the lower edge. The field is plain, and the coin border is a beaded circle partially visible at the periphery. |
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| Reverse description | Zeus Nikephoros seated left on a high-backed throne, his lower body draped in a himation, his torso bare. In his outstretched right hand he holds a small figure of Nike, and in his left hand a long lotus-tipped scepter resting against his shoulder. A monogram appears in the left field. The composition follows the canonical Seleucid reverse type derived from the Alexandrine tradition, with the deity rendered in a majestic, frontal posture. The Greek royal legend encircles the type in two lines around the periphery. |
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| Additional information |
Antiochos IV took the epithet "Epiphanes" — the God Manifest — and meant it literally. His reign saw the most aggressive Hellenization campaign in Seleucid history, culminating in the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple in 167 BC and the installation of a Zeus cult there, the event Jewish sources call the Abomination of Desolation and the direct trigger for the Maccabean Revolt. The Antioch mint was his primary production center, and the coinage actively participated in this ideological program.
SC 1400a is among the earlier Antioch issues of his reign, predating the more radical later types where he styled himself explicitly as Zeus incarnate. The series is relatively well-documented for die varieties, and specimens occasionally surface showing slight die axis inconsistencies attributable to the mint's high output during the Syrian wars.