Seleukid Kings of Syria, Tryphon, 142-138 BC
AE17. Antioch ad Orontem mint, ca 142-138 BC.
Obverse: Diademed head right.
Reverse: BASILEWS TRYFONOS AYTOKRATOEOS, spiked Macedonian helmet with cheek guards, adorned with wild goat's horn above visor; aphlaston at inner left.
Reference: GCV 7089 , Seyrig 22; Babelon, Rois, 1051; BMC 14; Houghton SC 2034.2a; Hoover 1055.
Size: 18.5 mm Weight: 6.55g Condition: Very Fine
Provenance:
Tryphon was a former strategos of Demetrios I and Alexander I Balas who appointed the two-year-old Antiochos VI to king in 144 BC and acted as his tutor and protector. It was during this guardianship that the Jews, under the lead of Simon Thassi, successfully seceded from the Seleukid state after Tryphon captured and killed Simon's brother Jonathan Apphus in 143 BC. Tryphon, on the other hand, assumed the kingship for himself when Antiochos VI died in 142/1 BC, but he was defeated and killed by Antiochos VII in 138 BC. The helmet on the reverse first appears in 143/2 on a drachm of Antiochos IV marked 'TPY' between the spike and horn on the reverse, and it becomes the main coin type under Tryphon's own kingship. It is usually described as a Macedonian helmet, but it has been suggested by K. Ehling that it might in fact be a Cretan helmet and refer to Cretan mercenaries, of whom we know a large number arrived in Syria with Demetrios II in 147. If this is true, the iconography indicates that Tryphon relied predominantly on the Cretan body of troops within the Seleukid army. Perhaps the foreign mercenaries were more willing to support the usurpation of a general than the regular Seleukid soldiers, who were usually drawn from Macedonian military colonies in Syria and hence more allegiant to the legitimate Seleukid dynasty?
Reference : Sear GCV 7089
Collection : XIV a - Famous Kingdoms and Rulers