abundance by that of the Ptolemies, which it excels in its series of portraits, though it is far inferior in its gold money and wants the large and well-executed bronze pieces which make the Egyptian currency complete. The gold Syria. of the Seleucids is scarce, and their main coinage is a splendid series of tetradrachms bearing the portraits of the successive sovereigns. The reverse types are varied for the class of regal money. The execution of the portraits is good, and forms the best continuous history of portraiture for the third and second centuries before our era. The reverses are far less careful. The weight is Attic, but the cities of Phoenicia were ultimately allowed to strike on their own standard. Many of the coins of the earlier kings were issued in their Bactrian or Indian dominions. Seleucus I. (312–280 B.C.) began by striking gold staters and tetradrachms with the types of Alexander the Great. The same king, like his contemporaries, then took his own types: for gold staters, his head with a bull’s horn, and on the reverse a horse’s head with bull’s horns; for tetradrachms, his own head in a helmet of hide with bull’s horn and lion’s skin, and Victory crowning a trophy, or the head of Zeus, and Athene fighting in a car drawn by four or two elephants with bull’s horns. Antiochus I. (293–261), like his father, first struck tetradrachms with Alexandrine types, and then with his own head, Apollo on the omphalos occupying the reverse. The portrait of Antiochus has a characteristic realism. Antiochus III. (222–187) is represented by a fine and interesting series with a vigorous portrait. He alone of the Seleucids seems to have struck the great octadrachm in gold in rivalry of the Ptolemies. Coins dated by the Seleucid era (312 B.C.) first appear in his reign. The portrait of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (175–164) is extremely characteristic, marked by the mad obstinacy which is the key to the tyrant’s history. The most remarkable coin is a tetradrachm with the head of Antiochus in the character of Zeus. In his time mints became numerous in the bronze coinage, and there is a remarkable series in that metal with Ptolemaic types, marking his short-lived usurpation in Egypt. From the time of Demetrius I. (162–150) the silver tetradrachms bear both mints and dates. In one type the heads of Demetrius and Queen Laodice occur side by side. With Alexander I. Balas (152–144), Tyre and Sidon begin to strike royal tetradrachms on their own Phoenician weight. Tarsus also first strikes coins for him with the type of the pyre of Sandan. The money of young Antiochus VI. presents the most carefully executed portrait in the whole series, which, despite its weakness, has a certain charm of sweetness that marks it as a new type in art. The same artist’s hand seems apparent in the fine portrait of the cruel usurper Tryphon, and also in the picturesque spiked Macedonian helmet with a goat's horn and cheek-piece which occupies the reverse. Antiochus VII. (138–129) continues the series with, amongst other coins, the solitary bronze piece of Jerusalem, bearing the lily and the Seleucid anchor. Alexander II. Zebina (128–123) is represented by a unique gold coin (Pl. II. fig. 18), as well as by silver and bronze. The empire closes with the money of the Armenian Tigranes (83–69), bearing his portrait with the lofty native tiara, and for reverse Antioch seated, the Orontes swimming at her feet (a copy of the famous group by Eutychides).
There is a copper coinage of the Syrian koinon under Trajan; also of the cities of Commagene, Samosata and Zeugma, and less important mints. The money of the kings of Commagene is in bronze (c. 140 B.C. to A.D. 72).Commagene.
Cyrrhestica has bronze coins of a few cities, nearly all imperial, the chief mints being Cyrrhus and Hieropolis. Hieropolis in the time of Alexander the Great issued some remarkable silver coins in the name of Abd-Hadad and Alexander himself, with figures of the Syrian goddess Atergatis, who also appears on its imperial coins.Cyrrhestica.
Of Chalcidene there are bronze coins of Chalcis and of the tetrarchs, and Palmyrene shows only the small bronze pieces of Palmyra, the money of Zenobia and the family of Odenathus being found in the series of Alexandria.Chalcidene, &c.
In Seleucis and Pieria, the four cities of Antioch, Apamea, Laodicea ad Mare and Seleucia Pieria issued a joint coinage inscribed ΑΔΕΛΦΩΝ ΔΗΜΩΝ about the middle of the 2nd century B.C. But the bulk of the money of this territory is of the great city of Antioch on the Orontes. The coinage is both autonomous bronze before and of Roman times, and imperial silver, Antioch. base metal and bronze. Other mints (as Tyre and Sidon) in this same province issued silver of the same class as Antioch, with different symbols. A large series of coins was issued bearing on the reverse the letters S.C. (Senatus consulto), showing that the coinage was under the control of the Roman senate. Both Latin and Greek inscriptions are used until the reign of Trajan. The city is first called a colony on the coins of Elagabalus. The earliest coins are dated by various eras (Seleucid, Caesarian, Actian); later the emperor’s consulships are used to date the silver. The leading types are the figure of Antioch seated, the river Orontes swimming at her feet, from the famous statue by Eutychides, and the eagle on a thunderbolt, a palm in front. Under Hadrian the eagle is represented carrying an ox’s leg, a reference to the story of the foundation of the city when an eagle carried off part of the sacrifice and deposited it on the site which was consequently chosen. There are few other types. The series (which, strictly speaking, was not the local coinage of Antioch, but an imperial coinage for the province) is very full and includes money of the Syrian emperor Sulpicius Uranius Antoninus (who also struck bronze at Emesa and gold of the Roman imperial class). It ends with Valerian, though it begins anew in the Roman provincial money of the reform of Diocletian, to be noticed later.
Of the other cities of this district, Emisa presents the type of the sacred stone of Elagabal. The imperial money of Gabala shows the veiled cultus-statue of a goddess flanked by sphinxes. Laodicea has an important series. It begins with bronze money of the later Seleucids. The autonomous tetradrachms of the 1st century B.C. have a turreted and veiled female Apamea, &c. bust of the city, a favourite Syrian and Phoenician type. From 47 B.C. its title is Julia Laodicea; from Caracalla downwards it is a colonia; the inscriptions become Latin; then, very strangely, Greek on the obverse of the coins and Latin on the reverse. Seleucia has a similar regal autonomous and imperial currency, but does not become a colonia. A shrine containing the sacred stone of Zeus Casius, and the thunderbolt of Zeus Keraunius resting on a throne, are among the types.
In Coele-Syria, Damascus issues coins from the 3rd century B.C. (beginning with Alexandrine tetradrachms) onwards; the city becomes a colonia under Philip I. The imperial money of Heliopolis (Baalbek), a colonia, shows a great temple (of the Zeus of Heliopolis) in perspective, another temple containing an ear of corn as the central object of worship, and Coele-Syria, &c. a view of the Acropolis with the great temple upon it, and steps leading up the rock.
The coinage of Phoenicia is a large and highly interesting series. The autonomous money is here important, and indicates the ancient wealth of the great marts of the coast. The earliest coins were struck about the middle of the 5th century and usually bear Phoenician inscriptions. The coinage falls into three main periods; the first pre-Alexandrine; Phoenicia. the second, that of Alexandrine, Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule; the third, that of the empire. In the first period Aradus strikes silver, usually on the Babylonian standard, staters with a head of Melkarth and a galley, and smaller denominations. All the other cities use the Phoenician standard. The regal silver coins of Byblus have a galley as obverse type; on the reverse, a vulture standing on a ram, or a lion devouring a bull. Here and at Sidon and Tyre portions of the types are represented incuse. Sidon has a large and important series of silver octadrachms and smaller denominations; on the obverse is a galley (at first with sails set, then without sails, first lying before a fortress, afterwards alone). On the reverse is the king of Persia in a chariot, or slaying a lion. These coins were issued by the kings such as Strato I. and II. and Tennes, and by the satrap Mazaeus. The early silver of Tyre has as reverse type an owl with a crook and flail over its shoulder; on the obverse a dolphin, or Melkarth riding on a sea-horse; a common symbol is the purple-shell (Pl. II. fig. 20). In the second period, besides Alexandrine silver and regal coins of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, there are certain large and important issues of autonomous or semi-autonomous silver tetradrachms and smaller denominations, as at Aradus (head of the City, and Victory; also drachms with types copied from Ephesus: obv., bee, rev., stag and date-palm), Marathus (head of the City, and nude figure at Marathus seated on a pile of shields), Sidon (head of the City, and eagle), Tripolis (busts of the Dioscuri, and figure of the City holding cornucopiae) and Tyre (head of the Tyrian Heracles, Melkarth, and eagle). Tyre also issued a gold decadrachm with the head of the City, and a double cornucopiae. On these and other coins Sidon and Tyre claim the rights of asylum. Berytus first
