Leu Numismatik AG
Auction 7 24-25 Oct 2020
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SELEUKID KINGS OF SYRIA. Demetrios I Soter, with Laodike IV, 162-150 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 16.80 g, 1 h), Seleukeia on the Tigris. Jugate busts of Demetrios I, diademed, and Laodike, draped and wearing stephane, to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ΔHMHTΡIOΥ - ΣΩTHPOΣ Tyche seated left on throne, holding short scepter in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left; to left, monogram and palm branch. SC 1687. Very rare. A splendid example of this historically interesting issue, beautifully toned and with two superb portraits. Good very fine.
Laodike IV was a daughter of Seleukos IV, who married her off to the Macedonian King Perseus in 178 BC. Unlike her husband and her three children, she escaped Roman captivity after the lost Battle of Pydna in 168 BC and returned home to Syria, where her brother Demetrios I offered her as a wife to Ariarathes V of Cappadocia in circa 160 BC. To the King's great outrage and affront, however, Ariarathes refused the proposal, whereupon Demetrios himself apparently married his sister, who now appeared alongside her brother on the Seleukid coinage. Some years later, the royal siblings ultimately faced a violent death, as they were both slain by Alexander Balas in 150 BC.
Laodike IV was a daughter of Seleukos IV, who married her off to the Macedonian King Perseus in 178 BC. Unlike her husband and her three children, she escaped Roman captivity after the lost Battle of Pydna in 168 BC and returned home to Syria, where her brother Demetrios I offered her as a wife to Ariarathes V of Cappadocia in circa 160 BC. To the King's great outrage and affront, however, Ariarathes refused the proposal, whereupon Demetrios himself apparently married his sister, who now appeared alongside her brother on the Seleukid coinage. Some years later, the royal siblings ultimately faced a violent death, as they were both slain by Alexander Balas in 150 BC.