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Figure 14.6B Silver tetradrachm minted at Tyre, dated year 99 of the city’s era (28/27 BCE). The obverse bears a head of the Tyrian god Melqart, assimilated to Heracles; and the reverse an eagle standing on a ship’s ram. The inscription in Greek reads “of Tyre, the sacred and inviolate, year 99.” Such coins circulated widely in the southern Levant in the first century BCE and later, until they were supplanted by Antiochene silver coins under the Roman emperor Nero (54–68 CE).

Figure 14.6C Copper-alloy coin of Antiochus IV (175–164 BCE), minted at Apamea. The obverse portrays Antiochus wearing the royal diadem; the reverse has a seated figure of Zeus with the legend “of the Apamaioi, who are on the Axios (river).” Axios was an alternative name for the river Orontes. Although the coin does not bear the king’s name and titles, it is likely that it was issued with royal consent.

Figure 14.6D Copper-alloy coin of Ptolemy, tetrarch of Chalcis (c. 84–40 BCE). The obverse bears a laureate head of Zeus; the reverse shows a flying eagle, with the legend “of Ptolemy the tetrarch.”