Lot 20 - Numismatic Auction 17

Syrie - Alexandre Ier Balas (152-145)
Tétradrachme - Séleucie de Piérie (166 = 147-146)
Rarissime et d’un style exceptionnel.
Exemplaire de la vente Leu 22 du 8 mai 1979, N°164 et de la collection N. B. Hunt vente Sotheby’s (New-York) du 19 juin 1990, N°114 et de la collection Abecassis vente Leu 81 du 16 mai 2001, N°339 et de la vente Nomos 6 du 8 février 2012, N°108
16.12g - Houghton, JPGMJ 10, F (cet exemplaire) SC 1798 (cet exemplaire) - Wealth of the Ancient World 112 (cet exemplaire)
Superbe - AU

Soon after the strike of this coin in 166 of the Seleucid Era (i.e. 147-146 BC), Alexander I Balas was deposed by the forces of Demetrios II Nicator (146-140 and 129-126/125 BC), and he was later murdered by his own officers in 145 BC. The style of this Pheidian-influenced head of Zeus is archaizing, in the style of the coins of the early 5th century BC, a deliberate choice that evokes the issues of his pretended father Antiochos IV ho Epiphanḗs (175-164). The reverse is unusual too, as the thunderbolt – which relates to the cult of Zeus Kasios in Seleukeia (a Hellenisation of Ba’al Zaphon, locally venerated as a storm god renowned for his battle against the sea monster Typhon) – is directly related to the city in which the coin was struck (Appian Syr. 58), and is reminiscent of coins struck under Seleucus I (305-281 BC).