#timarchus

When Seleucid king Antiochus IV died unexpectedly in 164 BCE, he left his nine-year-old son in the care of Lysias, a trusted official. As Antiochus V, the boy’s portrait appears on the coinage[1] with the epithet Eupatoros (“son of a good father”). With a child on the throne, the kingdom was up for grabs. While Lysias was preoccupied fighting Judaean rebels, Timarchus, the governor of the eastern province of Media (now part of Iran), rose in revolt.

The silver coinage of Timarchus is very rare, with no examples in recent sales[2]. From his capital at Ekbatana in Persia, he issued tetradrachms copying the handsome design of the contemporary Bactrian coinage of Eucratides I[3] (ruled c. 171 – 145 BCE). On the obverse, Timarchus wears a crested cavalry helmet. The reverse shows the Dioscuri (the mythic twins Castor and Pollux) on horseback, with the Greek inscription BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ MEΓAΛOY TIMAPXΟΥ (“of Great King Timarchus”). Adopting the old Persian title “Great King” might have been an attempt to appeal to his Iranian subjects.