Coin with Zeus, Nike and thunderbolt  

Description

Reverse: Seated Zeus holding a scepter in his left hand and a winged Nike in his extended right hand. Above him is a fulmen (thunderbolt). Inscription to the left and right.

Obverse: Head of Antiochus wearing a diadem.

Extracted text

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ

Basileos Antiokhou Epiphanos, (=of King Antiochus Epiphanos) ΡΕΑ.

Additional Information

Antiochus VIII Epiphanes was known to his subjects as ‘Grypus’ (hook nose) as his portrait demonstrates. He ruled the Seleucid kingdom from 125-96 BCE.

Antiochus was portrayed on his coins as fat and with no military iconography, and his reign was surrounded by stories of a lavish and extravagant lifestyle. This was actually propaganda rather than fact, as food, wine, and leisure were the attributes of ‘the good life’ and signified prosperity. The Seleucid Empire was at this point racked by civil war and struggled to keep its treasury stocked with sufficient funds. The image of prosperity that Antiochus advertised with his coins to some degree attempted to disguise the kingdom’s decline from his subjects.

The obverse is a fantastic example of realistic portraiture, begun by Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt at the beginning of the third century BCE when he abandoned the generic attractive portraits employed for the gods and his images of Alexander, and instead placed his own realistic and not particularly pleasant portrait on his coins. The hook nose that earned Antiochus his nickname lends his portrait a more personable quality. His hairstyle is among the characteristics chosen to portray a carefree image. His slightly longer and freer curls create a far less serious image than the cropped hairstyles with which many kings chose to portray themselves.

The reverse reproduces the seated Zeus of the 'Alexanders' but instead of holding an eagle in his extended right hand, Zeus bears a winged Nike, the goddess of victory. What first appears as a pattern is in fact an inscription, made up of particularly thick letters using large dots as serifs. (University of Canterbury, Christchurch)