The coins List of known specimens Die analysis Weight analysis References

The coins

On the total majority of royal coins issued during the sole reign of Antiochos VIII,1 either the epithet Epiphanes (“Illustrious” or “[God] Manifest”) is attached to his name or his name is stated without any epithet. His coins therefore bear either the inscription ‘ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ’ or simply ‘ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ’.2 There is only one exception, a small issue of bronze coins minted at Antioch on the Orontes which bear the epithet Philometor (“Mother-loving”):3

This small issue is a part of an extensive series of bronze coins which was minted at Antioch mint from 121/0 BC (SE 192, i.e. year 192 of the Seleukid era) to 111/10 BC (SE 202). Coins of this series have the same design as the coins with the epithet Philometor, but they bear the standard epithet Epiphanes and they are dated SE 192, ... , SE 200 and SE 202 (coins of this series dated SE 201 are not known).5 Whereas coins of this series with the epithet Epiphanes are abundant, the coins bearing the epithet Philometor are rare and they are known from the year SE 202 only. Moreover, this epithet is not found elsewhere on Antiochos VIII’s coins.

The epithet Philometor in itself is strange considering the role of Antiochos VIII in the death of his mother, Kleopatra Thea:6

Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 39.2: Grypus (Antiochos VIII), having thus recovered his father’s throne, and being freed from foreign perils, found his life endangered by a plot of his own mother (Kleopatra Thea); who, after betraying, from desire of power, her husband Demetrius (Demetrios II), and putting to death her other son (Seleukos V, the oldest son of Demetrios II), was discontented at her dignity being eclipsed by the victory of Grypus, and presented him with a cup of poison as he was returning home from taking exercise. But Grypus, having received notice of her treacherous intention, desired her (as if to show as much respect for his mother as she showed for him) to drink herself first, and, when she refused, pressed her earnestly, and at last, producing his informant, charged her with the fact, telling her, “that the only way left to clear herself from guilt, was, that she should drink what she had offered to her son.” The queen, being thus disconcerted, and her wickedness turned upon herself, was killed with the poison which she had prepared for another.

Appian, Roman History, 11.69: After Seleucus (Seleukos V, the oldest son of Demetrios II), Grypus (Antiochos VIII) became king, and he compelled his mother (Kleopatra Thea) to drink poison that she had mixed for himself. So justice overtook her at last.

However, as Houghton, Lorber and Hoover mention in SC II (Vol. 1, p. 502), this epithet was born apparently without any irony. It is also attested by Eusebius of Caesarea7 and by an inscription from Delos (ibid, p. 487).

List of known specimens

The following table shows all specimens known to me.8 Please contact me at pvesely2002@yahoo.co.uk if you are aware of other coins of this type.

The abbreviations A and P stand for Anvil (obverse) and Punch (reverse) dies but the die identification is tentative because details are not clearly visible on some coins.

No.	Dies	Weight	Diameter	Symbols and date	Reference or location
1	A1/P1	6.18 g	20 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Electronic Auction 200 (December 3, 2008), Lot 160
	Photo courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.
2	A1/P1	5.02 g	unknown	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Collection of the American Numismatic Society, 1992.54.2162; Houghton, Lorber and Hoover, SC II, 2308 (this coin)
	Photo courtesy of Seleucid Coins Online
3	A1/P2	6.61 g (originally stated as 102 gr)	c. 19 mm (originally stated as 0.75 in)	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue9	Hunterian Coll. III, p. 103, No. 39 (Plate LXX, 2)
	© Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
4	A1/P3	6.12 g (originally stated as 94.5 gr)	c. 19 mm (originally stated as 0.75 in)	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Hunterian Coll. III, p. 103, No. 41
	© Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
5	A1/P4	5.60 g	19 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	FORVM ANCIENT COINS, fixed price list, stock No. BB49012 (recorded January 2011)
	Photo courtesy of FORVM ANCIENT COINS
6	A2/P4	6.35 g (originally stated as 98 gr)	c. 19 mm (originally stated as 0.75 in)	control mark and date off flan	Hunterian Coll. III, p. 103, No. 40
	© Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
7	A3/P4	5.34 g	18 - 19 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date off flan	Daniel Kearney’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Daniel Kearney
8	A4/P5	6.30 g	19 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Tom Kirby’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Tom Kirby
9	A4/P6	5.74 g	20 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date Β[Σ] in exergue	Tom Kirby’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Tom Kirby
10	A5/P7	5.54 g	18 - 20 mm	control mark in outer l. field, unclear date in exergue	Petr Vesely’s collection, A08-AE-02
11	A5/P8	5.18 g	17.5 - 19 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Petr Vesely’s collection, A08-AE-01
12	A5/P8	4.64 g	16 - 18 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Tom Kirby’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Tom Kirby
13	A6/P9	5.61 g	18 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Jay Guberman’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Jay Guberman
14	A7/P9	6.41 g	17 - 18 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Petr Vesely’s collection, A08-AE-03
15	A7/P10	5.50 g	19 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date ΒΣ in exergue	Münzen & Medaillen GmbH, Auction 17 (October 4, 2005), Lot 1046
	Photo courtesy of Münzen & Medaillen GmbH
16	A8/P11	5.47 g	18 mm	control mark in outer l. field, date off flan	Tom Kirby’s collection
	Photo courtesy of Tom Kirby
17	A8/P12	5.91 g	17 - 18 mm	unclear control mark in outer l. field, unclear date	Petr Vesely’s collection, A08-AE-04

Die analysis

Basic statistics are presented in Table 1, and die frequencies in Table 2. The 17 coins catalogued here were struck from 8 obverse and 12 reverse dies. Three obverse dies are represented by one coin (A2, A3 and A6), three obverse dies are represented by two coins (A4, A7 and A8), one obverse die is represented by three coins (A5) and one obverse die is represented by five coins (A1). One reverse die is represented by three coins (P4), three reverse dies are represented by two coins (P1, P8 and P9) and the remaining eight reverse dies are represented by one coin.

Table 1: Basic statistics

Table 2: Die frequencies (numbers of dies represented exactly N times)

Pairs of obverse and reverse dies recorded in the corpus are presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Incidence matrix between obverse and reverse dies

Note that all coins have bevelled edges. In nine cases (coins Nos. 3-5, 9-13 and 17) the smaller face of the bevelled edge blank was struck with the obverse type. In eight cases (coins Nos. 1-2, 6-8 and 14-16) the smaller face of the bevelled edge blank was struck with the reverse type. Obviously, the mint did not pay attention to which face of the single bevelled edge blank received which type.

Estimates of coverages of the corpus10 and of the original numbers of dies are presented in Table 4.11 Nevertheless, it is necessary to emphasize that these estimates should be taken cautiously because the number of coins is small, and because the die identification is tentative (details are not clearly visible on some coins).

Table 4: Estimates of the coverage and of the original number of dies

Moreover, there is still another potential distortion. It cannot be excluded that there are obverse die links with Antiochos VIII’s coins bearing the regular epithet Epiphanes on the reverse (for coins of this type dated SE 202, see Houghton, Lorber and Hoover, SC II, 2307.2). Such possible coins are not taken into consideration in this study and this may somewhat distort the estimates of the original number of obverse dies.

To receive more reliable results, it is necessary, on the one hand, to enlarge the corpus and, on the other hand, to accumulate a representative corpus of the common variant with the epithet Epiphanes and to put the examined series with the epithet Philometor into context from the point of view of mutual obverse die links and from the point of view of the annual production of the common variant. Such widening of this study will be added in the future.

Weight analysis

Table 5 shows statistics of the weights of coins in the corpus.12 Figure 1 shows a histogram of the weights with a kernel density estimation13 and the fitted normal density curve superimposed (plotted against the right vertical axis). The normal probability plot is shown in Figure 2. The normality assumption does not seem to be unreasonable.14

Table 5: Statistics of the weights of coins (in grams)

Figure 1: Histogram, kernel density estimation and fitted normal distribution

Figure 2: Normal probability plot

References:

Appian:Roman History, Book XI - The Syrian Wars. Translated by Horace White. Macmillan and Co., New York, 1899. (The Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.org/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=App.+Syr.+1.1; Livius.org, http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_00.html)

Esty, Warren W.:Estimating the size of a coinage: A survey and comparison of methods. Numismatic Chronicle 146 (1986), pp. 185-215.

Esty, Warren W.:How to estimate the original number of dies and the coverage of a sample. Numismatic Chronicle 166 (2006), pp. 359-364.

Esty, Warren W.:The geometric model for estimating the number of dies. In F. de Callataÿ and E. Lo Cascio (eds.), Quantifying monetary supplies in Graeco-Roman times, Pragmateiai 19 (2011), pp. 1-16.

Esty, Warren W.; Carter, Giles F.:The distribution of the numbers of coins struck by dies. American Journal of Numismatics, Second Series 3-4 (1991-1992), pp. 165-186.

Eusebius of Caesarea:Chronicle (Latin Schoene ed.). Translated into English by Andrew Smith. (Attalus, http://www.attalus.org/translate/eusebius.html)

Houghton, Arthur; Lorber, Catharine; Hoover, Oliver:Seleucid Coins, A Comprehensive Catalogue. Part II, Volumes 1 and 2. The American Numismatic Society, New York, in association with Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Lancaster/London, 2008. (abbr. SC II)

Justin (Marcus Junianus Justinus):Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus. Translated by Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A. George Bell and Sons, London, 1897. (See Forum Romanum website, http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/index.html - 1853 Edition)

MacDonald, George:Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow. Volume 3. Further Asia, Northern Africa, Western Europe. Elibron Classics, Adamant Media Corporation, 2003. Replica edition of the edition published by James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow, 1905. (abbr. Hunterian Coll. III)

Silverman, B. W.:Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis. Chapman and Hall, London, 1993 (repr. of 1st ed. publ. 1986).