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Tetradrachm - Antiochos VIII Grypos Ake-Ptolemais
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 125 BC - 96 BC |
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| Reference(s) | HGC 9#1197, SC2#2336, SCO#1.2336 |
| Obverse description | Diademed head of Antiochos VIII Grypos facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic portrait tradition with finely detailed, voluminous curling hair swept back from the forehead. The royal diadem is tied at the nape, with the ends falling behind. The portrait exhibits strong, individualized facial features characteristic of late Seleucid coinage, with a prominent nose and well-defined chin. The field is plain, with no legend on the obverse. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Antiochos VIII earned the epithet "Grypos" — hook-nosed — from his contemporaries, a rare instance of a reigning monarch being openly mocked by nickname during his own lifetime. His reign was consumed by a protracted civil war against his half-brother Antiochos IX Kyzikenos, fought intermittently from around 113 BC until Grypos was assassinated in 96 BC, reportedly poisoned by his own minister Herakleon. Ake-Ptolemais, the Phoenician coastal mint that produced this issue, had passed through Ptolemaic and then Seleucid hands and retained commercial importance precisely because of its Mediterranean port access.
SC2 2336 places this emission within a well-documented sequence from that mint, distinguishable by control marks from other Grypos tetradrachm issues struck at Antioch or Damascus during the same fractured reign.