ANTIOCHUS III SILVER TETRADRACHM – 1/4 DOCUMENTED SPECIMENS OF RARE ELEPHANT CORPS ISSUE – VF GREEK SELEUCID COIN (Inv. 20168)

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20168. SELEUCID KINGDOM. ANTIOCHUS III, 222–187 BC
Silver Tetradrachm, 16.92 g, 30 mm. “Unattributed Issue,” formerly considered by Newell and Houghton to be Nisibis, ca. 192/0–187 BC.
Obv. Diademed head of Antiochus III right within a fillet border. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ANTIOXOY, elephant right, ΘE control monogram in left field, K– control monogram in right field.
SC 1067 (portrait type E); Arthur Houghton, “The elephants of Nisibis,” in ANSMN 31 (1986), 100–102 (obverse die A6).
VF, overstruck on uncertain type, extremely rare, one of four specimens on record and the only example struck on a flan large enough to reveal the fillet border on the obverse (this feature was previously unknown as the other pieces are struck on short flans). Traces of the overstrike appear on Antiochus’ neck and at the outer perimeter of the coin.

From the very foundation of the Seleucid dynasty by Seleucus I Nicator it was famous for its use of war elephants brought from India. Seleucus I had defeated his great rival, Antigonus Monophthalmus at the Battle of Issus in 301 BC thanks to 500 war elephants he had received from the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta. Ever since then, the “elephant corps” became a staple component of the Seleucid army and a widely recognized symbol of the dynasty. This tetradrachm of Antiochus III reinforces the tradition of the war elephant as a Seleucid symbol and may also have been intended to compare him to Seleucus I and Alexander the Great. As part of his great eastern campaign (212–206 BC), Antiochus III marched as far east as India, where he was given 150 elephants by a ruler named Sophagasenus, before returning to the West, making him only the third Greco–Macedonian king to reach India with an army. Comparison to Alexander may be implied by the fact that when he returned with his elephants, Antiochus III began to include Megas (“the Great”) among his titles.

The use of Antiochus’ elephant corps against Ptolemy IV at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC is described by Polybius 5.84.1–6 as follows:
“1 When Ptolemy and his sister after their progress had reached the extremity of his left wing and Antiochus with his horse–guards had reached his extreme right, they gave the signal for battle and brought the elephants first into action. 2 A few only of Ptolemy’s elephants ventured to close with those of the enemy, and now the men in the towers on the back of these beasts made a gallant fight of it, striking with their pikes at close quarters and wounding each other, while the elephants themselves fought still better, putting forth their whole strength and meeting forehead to forehead. 3 The way in which these animals fight is as follows. With their tusks firmly interlocked they shove with all their might, each trying to force the other to give ground, until the one who proves strongest pushes aside the other’s trunk, 4 and then, when he has once made him turn and has him in the flank, he gores him with his tusks as a bull does with his horns. 5 Most of Ptolemy’s elephants, however, declined the combat, as is the habit of African elephants; 6 for unable to stand the smell and the trumpeting of the Indian elephants, and terrified, I suppose, also by their great size and strength, they at once turn tail and take to flight before they get near them.”