BCE 0128 - 0122 SELEUCID KINGDOM. Alexander II Zabinas (128–122 BCE). AR Tetradrachm, Antioch. Diademed Head / Zeus Enthroned with Nike.
Description
Alexander II Zabinas Tetradrachm (128–122 BCE)
Seleucid Kingdom, Antioch on the Orontes
This silver tetradrachm was struck at Antioch during the short and unstable reign of Alexander II Zabinas, a Seleucid claimant installed with foreign backing amid dynastic fragmentation. The obverse presents an idealized diademed royal portrait in the late Hellenistic Seleucid style, framed by a bead-and-reel border. On the reverse, Zeus sits enthroned, extending Nike—personification of victory—on his outstretched hand while holding a grounded scepter, a visual assertion of divine sanction for royal authority. The Greek legend ΒAΣIΛEΩΣ ΑΛΕΞANΔΡOY (“of King Alexander”) and the control marks (IΣI in the left field, star above, M below the throne) securely identify the Antiochene issue and place the coin within a specific emission sequence (SC 2217.3 variant). Certified XF by NGC, the piece illustrates both the persistence of Seleucid iconographic tradition and the political precarity of the late dynasty.
