Antioch
312-281 BCE
Æ 21mm, 7.41g, 12h
Laureate head of Apollo r.; c/m: horned horse l.
R/ Athena Promachos standing r.
SC 15.2; HGC 9, 77
Antioch was one of the greatest cities of ancient times and had a rich history from its founding by Seleukos I Nikator in 300 BCE to its time under the Romans and Byzantines.
This is one of the first coins minted in Antioch and was shortly after the city’s founding by Seleukos. It isn’t a particularly rare coin, but I picked it up due to the countermark, which I still haven’t made light of. I did perform a search to find other issues with countermarks, but found none. The strike of the countermark was strong enough that it affected the other side.
During Roman times, its population may have reached 500,000 people, making it the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. It would later play a tremendous role in the rise of Christianity.
The ruins of Antioch today are in Turkey, not far from Syria. Not much of the ancient city unfortunately remains, although archeologists continue to make interesting finds there.