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verso - 300065t

Tetradrachm of Syria: Demetrius I Soter, Tyche

Artist
CultureGreek
Date162 - 150 BCE
Mediumsilver
Dimensions1 1/4 in., 0.00243 lb. (3.2 cm, 0.0011 kg)
Classificationscoins & medals
Credit LineThe William A. Whitaker Foundation Art Fund
Object number70.18.4
DescriptionObverse:
Head of Demetrius, to right, diademed, surrounded by laurel wreath, partially missing. He wears short, wavy hair and a diadem with long ends behind his neck. His large eye is set deeply beneath a swollen brow, his nose is somewhat bowed outward, his mouth turns down; his neck is thick and muscular.

Reverse:
A seated woman faces left. Her head is small; she wears her hair in a high bun and holds a cornucopia with her left hand, a scepter in her right. She is clothed in a high-belted chiton and a thin mantle about the hips. Her backless seat is supported by a winged figure that emerges from plant tendrils, facing right. Indistinct symbols appear below the ground line. At right is the word “ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ,” at left “ΔΗΜΗΤΡIΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ” (of King Demetrius, savior). Farther left are two symbols. The upper resembles an “Α” within a “Π”; the lower an “Α” above a “Π.” In 162 BCE, Demetrius I murdered the reigning king, his eleven-year-old cousin Antiochus V and assumed the throne of Seleucid
Syria. Upon becoming king, Demetrius I took the title of savior and introduced a new image on the reverse of his coinage, Tyche, the goddess of luck or fortune. Demetrius’s earlier coins feature a ribbon in the border, which was later replaced with a laurel wreath, as on the Ackland coin.
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