Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 361. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Seleukos I, as Satrap. 1st Satrapy, 320-315 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.14 gm). Uncertain mint 6A (Opis?) in Babylonia. Struck in the name of Philip III of Macedon. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion's skin headdress / Zeus seated left, holding eagle and sceptre; monogram in left field. SC Ad39.5a; Price P225. Nice VF, light obverse die rust. ($200)

Seleukos Nikator, founder of the Seleukid dynasty, was one of Alexander the Great's Macedonian ‘Companions.' Athough he was never one of the conqueror's principal generals, he accompanied Alexander to Asia and commanded the royal bodyguard during the Indian campaign against King Porus. In the division of the empire following Alexander's death in 323 BC Seleukos did not receive a satrapy, but instead served under the regent Perdikkas until the latter's murder in 321/320. Seleukos was then appointed satrap of Babylonia but five years later the increasing power of Antigonos the One-eyed forced him to flee to his friend Ptolemy in Egypt. Finally, in 312 BC, Seleukos regained control of his satrapy, the date of his return to Babylon (7 October) marking the commencent of the Seleucid Era. In 305, along with several other of the ‘Successors,’ Seleukos took the title of King and then, following in the footsteps of Alexander, embarked on an eastern campaign during which he acquired 500 Indian war elephants. In 301, in alliance with King Lysimachos of Thrace, he defeated Antigonos at the battle of Ipsos, thereby gaining control of northern Syria which was to become the heartland of the Seleukid kingdom. Two decades later, at the age of 77, Seleukos added Asia Minor to his dominions by defeating his old ally Lysimachos at Corupedium. In the following year (280 BC), though, Seleukos, the longest surviving of the Diadochi (‘Successors’) of Alexander, was assassinated by Ptolemy Keraunos, the renegade son of his late friend, the king of Egypt.

The following offering, lots 361-375, constitutes some of the earliest coinage of Seleukos, all minted in Babylonia prior to his assumption of the royal title. Of special significance, the first tetradrachm, minted in the name of Philip III, is from Seleukos' first satrapy, an attribution established recently by A. Houghton and C. Lorber, in their monumental work, Seleucid Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue.