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

XIIKAKE AND UNPUBLISHED COINS OF THESELEUCID KINGS OF SYRIA.(See Plates IX.-XI.)To the collector, who is not a mere collector, but insome degree a student, a series of coins provides aninterest just in proportion as it remains unworked, andoffers problems for solution to which his efforts maycontribute.For this purpose the coins of the Seleucid Kings of;Syria are nearly ideal.They have so far not been completelyor even thoroughly studied. In consequencemuch remains to be done in their classification andattributions.In itself the series presents a high artisticstandard, acareful portraiture, and a wide variety of type, ranging,as it does, from 312 B.C. to 69 B.C. The famoustetradrachm of Antiochus VI well illustrates this, orsuperbPI. X. 9.drachm which is describedthebelow and figured onBut the interest of the series does not abide athome, and is in no sense confined to narrow limits.TheSeleucid kings, perhaps more than any other personagesof antiquity, have profoundly influenced the life andthought of to-day.They came into contact again andagain with the Jews. The Hellenizing policy ofAntiochus Epiphanes produced the Maccabees. ThereVOL. XII., SERIES IV.R