SELEUCIS and PIERIA ANTIOCHEIA tetradrachm (1st century BC)

DescriptionAntioch on the Orontes was a major hub of the caravan and sea trades in ancient times.Seleucis (Seleukis)and Pieria was an ancient region of “greater Syria” that inclued the northwestern part of modern Syria and southeastern Anatolia in modern Turkey. Pieria is the land surrounding the town of Seleucia, which was built around 300 BC by Seleukos (Seleucus) I Nikator, a general of Alexander the Great. In the period of the decline and demise of the Seleukid kings local towns supported commerce by issuing their own coins.We think that our culture grew out of the culture of Greece because it was in Greece (and in China) that people started thinking about how things could be different than they were in a world where everything was dangerous and might made right. They also established principles of artistic expression that we still use today. We see this approach to art in their coins.Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.