Coin of Antiochos IX Kyzikenos of Syria c. 114 - 195

Curator: At first glance, this coin feels like a whisper from the past, all muted tones and worn edges, wouldn't you say? Editor: Absolutely. The "Coin of Antiochos IX Kyzikenos of Syria," currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums, is fascinating not just as currency but as a symbolic artifact. Curator: Oh? Tell me more. It's got this, I don't know, stoic vibe? Like it has seen empires rise and fall. The lion's face seems to hold a thousand untold stories. Editor: Well, Antiochos IX Kyzikenos ruled during a period of intense political turmoil in the Seleucid Empire. Coins like these were propaganda tools, circulating specific images of power and legitimacy in times of crisis. Curator: So, more than just pocket change, it's a statement, a claim. I wonder who clutched this coin, what dreams they bought with it. Editor: Precisely. Consider how gender, race, and class would have shaped an individual’s relationship to such an object. Who had access to it, and what did it signify for them? Curator: It's a tiny portal to another world. Makes you ponder what will be left of us, smudged echoes on some future coin. Editor: Indeed, it reminds us of art's enduring role in shaping and reflecting power dynamics.