225, Lot: 279. Estimate $500. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch (or possibly elsewhere). Mark Antony and Cleopatra. 36 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24mm, 13.82 g, 12h). Diademed and draped bust of Cleopatra right / Bare head of Mark Antony right. McAlee 174; Prieur 27; RPC I 4094. Fair, some porosity. Rare.

These tetradrachms, struck after the separation of Antony and Octavia, herald the political alliance between the triumvir and the Egyptian queen. Lacking any more certain alternative, this issue has been assigned to Antioch. During this time, Antony was continually moving throughout the eastern provinces, as well as against Parthia. Consequently, these coins could have been struck anywhere in order to facilitate an ad hoc payment for his soldiers. R. McAlee, in his book on Roman Antioch, points out that the letter forms – C for Σ and ω for Ω – are inconsistent with those on contemporary Antiochene issues. Those issues with a horse-head control mark to the left of Antony’s head may hint at a possible mint further east, connecting it with Antony’s Armenian intervention in 34 BC, or, more attractively, the invasion of Parthia in 36 BC (cf. Shore 92 for Parthian bronze issues with a very similar horse-head design), events commemorated in an elaborate political display in Alexandria later in 34 BC. Such posturing clearly demonstrated Antony’s political ambition to separate the eastern Roman provinces, combine them with the Ptolemaic kingdom, and create a new empire of his own.