The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

COINAGE OF ANTIOCHUS VIII OF SYRIA. 193To proceed with the chronicle of the issues of Grypus.He was born in 141 B.C. or 171 of the Seleucid Era,during the first reign of his father Demetrius Nicator,which lasted from 146 to 138 B.C. "When Demetriuswas taken prisoner by the Parthians, and spent eightyears in Eastern captivity, his wife, the Egyptian Cleopatra,married his successor and brother Antiochus VII.The latter, a very favourable specimen of the Seleuciddynasty, did no harm to his step-children, who wereall very young. Indeed we know that he had one ofthem about his court during the last year of his life.But after nine years of reign Antiochus VII Sidetesas he isgenerally named died in battle with theParthians, and Demetrius escaped from captivity andrecovered his throne, his wife, and his children in129 B.C. His short second reign of five years, however,was a period of ever-increasing trouble and disaster,and during his struggle with the usurper AlexanderZabina he appears to have sent his sons for safetyto Athens. It was from thence, at last, that we hearthat Grypus was recalled to Syria in 125 B.C., and thefact that Arrian says that he was educated in Athensis sufficient proof that his st&y in Greece must havecovered at least the two or three last years of hisfather's life.Probably Demetrius sent him away whenhe saw that the rebellion of Zabina was making head,and that the outlook was bad.Grypus returned to take up a most troublous heritage,whose horrors recall the grimmest episodes of ancientGreek tragedy. His father, finally defeated in battlenear Damascus by Zabina in 126 B.C., had beenassassinated immediately after, by his own governorin Tyre, where he had taken refuge. It was rumoured