Cleopatra Thea's sole reign lasted barely two years before her son Antiochus VIII forced her to drink the poisoned cup she had prepared for him — one of antiquity's more pointed reversals of fortune. These tetradrachms were struck at Ptolemais-Ake, the sole mint operating under her authority during this period, making the issue geographically constrained and mintage relatively limited by Seleucid standards.
She had previously appeared as a consort figure on the coinage of three successive husbands. Coins bearing her name alone, without a male co-ruler, mark an explicit assertion of autonomous dynastic power unprecedented among Seleucid queens.
Cleopatra Thea's sole reign lasted barely two years before her son Antiochus VIII forced her to drink the poisoned cup she had prepared for him — one of antiquity's more pointed reversals of fortune. These tetradrachms were struck at Ptolemais-Ake, the sole mint operating under her authority during this period, making the issue geographically constrained and mintage relatively limited by Seleucid standards.
She had previously appeared as a consort figure on the coinage of three successive husbands. Coins bearing her name alone, without a male co-ruler, mark an explicit assertion of autonomous dynastic power unprecedented among Seleucid queens.