Date of the Ecbatana Horseman Issue of Seleucus I
Abstract
The paper presents three new examples of the formerly unique Ecbatana horseman tetradrachm, with die linkage. This special issue introduced the name of King Seleucus as issuing authority of Ecbatana’s coinage. The emission is redated from c. 295 to c. 304. Other needed corrections to the chronology of Seleucus’ Ecbatana coinage are passed in review, and a new tetradrachm variety with a horned horse head and Argead star is placed on the record. The redating of the horseman emission has implications for the closure dates of various hoards.
References
Amandry, M., and O. Callot. 1988. Le trésor de Failaka, 1984 (Koweit). Revue Numismatique 30: 64‒74.
Andronikos, M. 1987. Vergina: The Royal Tombs. Athens: Ekdotike Athenon.
Babelon, E. 1890. Les rois de Syrie, d’Armenie et de Commagène. Paris.
Bartsiokas, A. 2000. The eye injury of King Philip II and the skeletal evidence from the royal tomb II at Vergina. Science 288 no. 5465: 511‒514.
Boillet, P.-Y. 2013. La production de l’atelier monétaire d’Ecbatana: mise en perspective historique et financière, https://isidore.science/document/10.3406/numi.2013.3205.
Borza, E.N. 1981. The Macedonian royal tombs at Vergina: some cautionary notes. Archaeological News 10: 73‒87.
Borza, E.N. 1982. Those Vergina tombs again, Archaeological News 11, 1‒2: 8‒10.
Elayi, J., and A.-G. Elayi. 1998. Une série de petits bronzes d’Alexandre frappés à Tyr, Revue Numismatique 153: 107‒117.
Graslin-Thomé, L., P. Clancier, and J. Monerie. 2023. La Babylonie Hellénistique: Textes traduits et commentés. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Green, P. 1993. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Hackl, J. 2020. Bemerkunge zur Chronologie der Seleukidenzeit: Die Koregentschaft von Seleukos I. Nikator und Antiochos (I. Soter). Klio 102: 560‒578.
Hadley, R.A. 1974. Seleucus, Dionysus, or Alexander? Numismatic Chronicle 14: 9‒13.
Hammond, N.G.L. and F.S. Walbank. 1988. A History of Macedonia, Vol. 3: 336‒167 B.C. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hoover, O. 2002. The identity of the helmeted head on the ‘victory’ coinage of Susa. Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 81: 51‒60.
Houghton, A., and A. Stewart. 1999. The equestrian portrait of Alexander the Great on a new tetradrachm of Seleucus I. Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 78: 27‒35.
Iossif, P. 2004. Les monnaies de Suse frappées par Séleucos I: Une nouvelle approche. Numismatica e Antichità Classiche: Quaderni Ticinese XXXIII: 249‒271.
Kritt, B. 1997. The Early Seleucid Mint of Susa (Classical Numismatic Studies 2). Lancaster: Classical Numismatic Group.
Kritt, B. 2016. The Seleucid Mint of Ai Khanoum (Classical Numismatic Studies 9). Lancaster: Classical Numismatic Group.
Lehmann, P.W. 1980. The so-called tomb of Philip II: A different interpretation. American Journal of Archaeology 84: 527‒531.
Lehmann, P.W. 1982. The so-called tomb of Philip II: An addendum. American Journal of Archaeology 86: 437‒442.
Lemaire, A. 1976. Le monnayage de Tyr et celui dit d’Akko dans la deuxième moitié du IVe siècle av. J.-C. Revue Numismatique 18: 11‒24.
Lorber, C.C. 2018. Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire, Part I: Ptolemy I through Ptolemy IV. New York: American Numismatic Society.
Lorber, C.C. and P.P. Iossif. 2022. Alexander in elephant headdress on Seleucid coinage. Numismatic Chronicle 182: 63‒85.
Marest-Caffey, L. 2016. Seleukos I’s victory coinage of Susa revisited: a die study and commentary. American Journal of Numismatics 28: 1‒63.
Musgrave, J., A.J.N.W. Prag, R. Neave, R.L. Fox, and H. White. 2010. The occupants of Tomb II at Vergina: Why Arrhidaios and Eurydice must be excluded. International Journal of Medical Science 7: 1‒15.
Newell, E.T. 1916. The Dated Alexander Coinage of Sidon and Ake. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Newell, E.T. 1923. Alexander Hoards II: Demanhur, 1905 (Numismatic Notes and Monographs 19). New York: American Numismatic Society.
Newell, E.T. The Coinages of Demetrius Poliorcetes. 1978 reprint, Chicago: Ares, of 1927 original, London.
Palagia, O. 2000. Hephaestion’s pyre and the royal hunt of Alexander, in A.B. Bosworth and E.L. Baynham (eds) Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction: 167‒206. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2015. From Triparadeisos to Ipsos: Seleukos I Nikator’s Uncertain Mint 6A in Babylonia. American Journal of Numismatics 27: 41‒97.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2019. The Susa wreath group Alexanders: the first steps in the transformation of the anchor seal to a dynastic emblem, KOINON The International Journal of Classical Numismatics II: 63‒82.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2020a. On the reattribution of some Byblos Alexanders to Arados II, American Journal of Numismatics 32: 31‒92.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2020b. Susa mint, 311‒301. KOINON The International Journal of Classical Numismatics III: 18‒42.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2021‒2022. The enigmatic Philip III issue of Seleukeia on Tigris. Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 31: 86‒106.
Taylor, L.H.W. 2022. The anchor Alexanders of Babylon II. American Journal of Numismatics 34: 1‒37.
Thompson, M. 1983. Alexander’s Drachm Mints I: Sardes and Miletus (Numismatic Studies 6). New York: American Numismatic Society.
Waggoner, N.M. 1968. The Alexander Mint of Babylon. PhD dissertation, Columbia University.