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Tetradrachm - Diodotos II
| Issuer | Kings of Baktria |
|---|---|
| Year | 235 BC - 225 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 16.44 g |
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| Reverse description | Zeus advancing vigorously to the left in full stride, his muscular figure depicted in the dynamic Hellenistic manner. His upraised right arm hurls a thunderbolt, while his outstretched left arm bears the aegis draped over the forearm. A small eagle stands to the left, before Zeus's left foot, facing left — an attribute reinforcing the deity's sovereignty. The royal Greek legend encircles the design in two lines, reading ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΟΔΟΤΟΥ, identifying the issuer as King Diodotos. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Diodotos II succeeded his father — the satrap-turned-king Diodotos I — in consolidating Baktria's independence from the Seleucid Empire, a breakaway that Antiochus II had been too distracted by western wars to suppress. His reign was cut short when Euthydemos of Magnesia overthrew him, likely around 225 BC, founding a dynasty that would outlast the Diodotid line entirely. The political instability of the transition means coins attributable specifically to Diodotos II, rather than his father, remain genuinely difficult to distinguish and are scarcer in documented form.