BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Antimachos I Theos. Circa 180-170 BC. AR Tetradrachm (31mm, 17.05 g, 12h). Diademed and draped bust right, wearing kausia /
[∫]Å%5¬EW% QEoU to right,
Å@t5;ÅcoU to left, Poseidon, laureate, standing facing, holding trident in right hand and cradling filleted palm in left arm;
K to inner right. Bopearachchi 1D; Bopearachchi & Rahman 176–8; SNG ANS 276-7; MIG Type 124b; HGC 12, 106. Toned. EF.
To the obscure Baktrian King Antimachos I Theos (“the God”) belongs the honor of striking one of the most distinctive of all Hellenistic portraits. Of the man himself, or how he came to power, we know next to nothing. Despite the grandiosity of his title, he wears the humble Macedonian felt sun hat, or kausia, which serves to humanize him. There is also something kindly and fatherly in his slight smile and in the fleshy contours of his face, rendered with astonishing skill by die engravers more than 1,500 miles removed from the Greek homeland.
