Tigranes II Tetradrachm populair coin! (O2532)

KINGS OF ARMENIA. Tigranes II ‘the Great’, 95-56 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 16.06 g, 12 h), Antiochia on the Orontes (?), circa 80-68. Draped bust of Tigranes II to right, wearing five-pointed tiara decorated with comet star between two eagles. Rev. [BA]ΣIΛEΩ[Σ] - TIΓPANOY Eutychides' Tyche of Antiochia, turreted and veiled, seated right on rock, holding long palm frond and tiller in her right hand; below, river-god Araxes swimming right; on rock, monogram; all within wreath. Kovacs 75.3. about very fine.

After decades of fratricidal strife between various members of the Seleukid dynasty, the Syrians rose up against their rulers and invited Tigranes II, the Great, of Armenia to restore order in their kingdom (83 BC). His rule extended over the following fourteen years until he was eventually driven out of Syria by the Roman general Lucullus. This tetradrachm issued at the Syrian capital of Antioch shows the king wearing his distinctive Armenian tiara on the obverse, while the reverse shows the city goddess, or Tyche, of Antioch with the river god Orontes swimming at her feet. This statue was created by the Greek sculptor Eutychides of Sikyon (ca. 335-275 BC) and its image appears on the reverses of many Antiochene coins down to early Byzantine times.