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Tetradrachm - Seleukos II Kallinikos Antioch on the Orontes
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
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| Year | 244 BC - 226 BC |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Diademed head of Seleukos II Kallinikos facing right, his wavy hair rendered in bold, deeply cut locks swept back from the brow and secured by a royal diadem, the ends of which fall behind the neck. The portrait is youthful and idealized in the Hellenistic tradition, with finely modeled facial features. The field is plain, and the flan shows the characteristic irregular edge typical of hammered Seleucid coinage. No legend appears on the obverse. |
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| Mintage | ND (244 BC - 226 BC) |
| Additional information |
Seleukos II inherited a fractured empire in 246 BC and spent most of his reign losing it — first to Ptolemy III during the Third Syrian War, which saw Egyptian forces push deep into the Seleucid heartland and briefly occupy Antioch itself, then to his own brother Antiochos Hierax, who carved out an independent power base in Asia Minor and inflicted a decisive defeat on Seleukos near Ancyra around 241 BC. Coins struck at Antioch during this reign document a monarchy under sustained military and dynastic pressure.
The epithet Kallinikos — "gloriously victorious" — was applied retrospectively, a propagandistic correction to a reign defined more by territorial loss than conquest.