Seleucid Philip I Philadelphos AR Tetradrachm, Antioch, 95–75 BC

Philip I Philadelphos, tetradrachm, silver, reign 95–75 BC, struck 95–75 BC at Antioch on the Orontes, 16.30 g, 27 mm. Obverse anepigraphic; diademed bust of the king right. Reverse ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΥ; Zeus seated left on a backless stool-throne, eagle on outstretched right hand, sceptre in left; legend in two vertical columns within laurel-wreath border. Struck on a broad flan, well centered with full legend and wreath; obverse die-link recorded within the issue. SC 2463.2a; HGC 9, 1319.

Philip I, a son of Antiochus VIII Grypus, ruled parts of Syria during the final decades of the Seleucid kingdom amid conflicts with his brothers and rivals such as Antiochus X and Demetrius III. His Antiochene tetradrachms maintained the long-standing civic type of Zeus within a wreath, while the epithets Epiphanes Philadelphos asserted divine favor and dynastic legitimacy. The series belongs to the last substantial Seleucid silver coinage at Antioch before the region fell under dominant Roman influence and local powers curtailed Seleucid authority.