★ Antioch in aliance with Seleukia ★

SYRIA, Seleukis and Pieria. Antioch in aliance with Seleukia. mid 2nd century BC. (Bronze, 21 mm, 7.92 g, 12 h), dated, Seleucid Era EΞΡ = 165 = 148/7 . Jugate laureate heads of the Demoi of Antioch and Seleukia to right. Rev. AΔΕΛΦΩΝ ΔΗΜΩΝ /EΞΡ Tyche standing facing, head to left, holding wreath with her outstretched right hand and cornucopia with her left. DCA 374. HGC 9, 1394-5. Cf. BMC Galatia pg. 152, 11 (but undated). Same obverse die as Triton V, 2002, 529. A historically important and extremely rare alliance issue. Uneven patination between the two sides of the coin, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

From the Dr. Paul Peter Urone Collection, acquired from Frank Kovacs.

The reign of Alexander I Balas (150-145 BC), during which this coin was struck, saw the encouragement of civic institutions among the cities of Syria, following the precedent of his supposed father, Antiochos IV Epiphanes. This development was often illustrated by the flowering of civic and quasi-municipal coinages in the Syrian Tetrapolis and elsewhere.

The present piece goes a step further than celebrating the city of issue, but instead advertises an alliance between two cities
that considered themselves to be Brother Peoples or Adelphoi Demoi. In the nineteenth century, numismatic scholars believed that the "Brother Peoples" included all four cities of the Syrian Tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleukeia, Apameia, and Laodikeia), but more recent study has concluded, based on reverse types and the use of only two Demoi on the obverse, that the "Brother Peoples" were most likely just Antioch on the Orontes and Seleukeia in Pieria.

The "Brother Peoples" series of the Seleukid period is very important from a historical numismatic perspective as it not only prefigures the homonoia "alliance" coinages of Roman times but represents one of the earliest appearances of the personification of Demos on a coin.