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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
6296453
Area
Coins
Title
Seleucid Empire AE24 (Demetrius II & Apollo) 147-139 BCE
Country
Face value
Year
-145
Variety / overstrike
Head of State
Type
Designer
Series
Theme
Material
Weight
12
Diameter
24
Thickness
Punch
Shape
Obverse
( Apollo seated left on omphalos, arrow in right hand, left hand on bow
Reverse
Edge
Serrated
Privy mark
Mint mark
Number produced
Krause and Mishler number
Catalogue number
SC 1912; SGC 7064; L/K AML 1835
Details
Nikator, the "victor" who wasn't.
As a boy, Demetrius fled to Crete after the death of his father, mother, and older brother, when Alexander Balas usurped the Seleucid throne.
About 147 BC he returned to Syria, and with the backing of Ptolemy VI of Egypt, regained his father's throne, and married the Egyptian king's daughter, Cleopatra Thea.
In 139 BC he marched against Mithradates I, king of Parthia and was taken prisoner the following year.
The Babylonian province of the Seleucid empire became Parthian, until Antiochus VII Sidetes (his younger brother), returned from Side, and reigned (which included marrying his wife Cleopatra Thea.
King Mithradates kept Demetrius alive and even married him to the Parthian princess, Rhodogune. However, in 130 BC Antiochus Sidetes marched against Parthia, and Phraates II released Demetrius, hoping that the two brothers would start a civil war.
An omphalos is a religious stone artifact, or baetylus. The Greek word omphalos means "navel", in Greek lore, Zeus sent two eagles across the world to meet at its center, the "navel" of the world.