Tetradrachm - Seleukos In the name of Philip III Arrhidaios, Babylon

These pieces were struck at Babylon under Seleukos I during his first tenure as satrap, issued in the name of Philip III Arrhidaios — Alexander's half-brother and nominal king — who was already dead or dying by the time many were minted. Philip was murdered in late 317 BC on the orders of Olympias, making coins bearing his name struck after that point a curious administrative fiction, continuing royal titulature for a king with no living king behind it. Seleukos lost Babylon to Antigonos in 315 BC, the precise terminal date for this issue, fleeing to Egypt before returning to reclaim the satrapy in 312 BC.