Coin of Antiochos IV Epiphanes of Syria, Cilician Mint c. 175

Curator: This coin, issued by Antiochos IV Epiphanes of Syria at the Cilician Mint, is a fascinating window into Hellenistic self-fashioning. Editor: It's small, dark, and worn; it feels less like a celebration of power and more like a humble fragment unearthed, a whisper from antiquity. Curator: Yet, look closely at the symbols! The portrait is of Antiochos himself, and he styled himself as a god on earth, "Epiphanes," meaning "the God Manifest." Coins were key to disseminating this image. Editor: I see the political ambition, but I also see the precarity of power. A face rubbed smooth by time and trade. Whose hands held this, and what did they think of their divine ruler? What was their socioeconomic status, and how did this image impact them? Curator: An excellent point. Coins served as both propaganda and a kind of collective memory, reinforcing the ruler's image through constant circulation, so the impact was surely widespread. Editor: Well, it makes me reflect on the layers of history compressed into this small object—a king's ambition, the labourer's toil, the ever-present tension between power and those subjected to it. Curator: Indeed. This coin speaks volumes about the interplay of power, belief, and the lasting resonance of symbols.