Demetrios I Soter, 162-150 BC, Drachm

Demetrios I Soter, Drachm, AR, 162–150 BC, 4.38 g, 17 mm. Antioch on the Orontes. Obv: Diademed head of Demetrios I right. Rev: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ; Tyche of Antioch seated left on rock, holding palm; river-god Orontes swimming left below. Struck at the royal mint of Antioch on the reduced Attic standard. SC 1642.2. Demetrios I, son of Seleukos IV, escaped from Rome and took the Seleucid throne in 162 BC, later earning the epithet Soter (“Savior”) after defeating the rebel Timarchos in 160 BC; the legend on this coin records that title. Antioch served as his capital and principal silver mint, and the Tyche-with-Orontes reverse is the city’s emblematic type, asserting civic identity under royal authority during a reign marked by internal challenges and ending with Demetrios’ death in 150 BC at the hands of the pretender Alexander I Balas.