Tetradrachm of Seleukos II Kallinikos

This coin is of both iconographic and historical significance. With its long, pointed beard, the portrait constitutes an interesting outlier in the canonical selection of Hellenistic ruler portraits. Alexander the Great’ssuccessors, inspired by his ever-youthful portraits, tended to strike clean-shaven, ageless profiles on their coinage, one of their main propagandistic outlets. These portraits highlighted not only dynastic continuity but also the permanence of their rule. His successors in the east, the Seleucids, were no different but tended to imbue their numismatic portraits with a heightened sense of individualism, resulting in some of the most compelling portraits in Ancient Greek art. Here, the sense of individualism is not only conveyed by the particular features such as the aquiline nose and protruding upper lip, but also by the long, pointed beard. This feature is paralleled only in coins struck farther east at the mints of Ekbatana and Susa, whose reverses allude to Seleukos’ campaign against the Parthians. It has been speculated that the beard may have represented the reality of lax grooming during military operations or that the king may have tried to adopt a Parthian fashion as part of his propaganda.