The New York Sale 2026 Ancient & World

Extremely Rare and Apparently the best known Bronze of Molon

4x

1068 Seleukid Kingdom. Molon, usurper (222-220 BC). AE (8.27 g; 22 mm), struck ca. 221-220 BC. Seleukeia on the Tigris. Laureate head of Zeus right. Reverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ MOΛΩNOΣ, Apollo standing right, holding plektron in his right hand and kithara in his left; monogram in outer right field. SC 949.2; Babelon, Rois 457; ESM 227; HGC 9, 430; Extremely rare and historically important. Deep olive-brown; bold details. In NGC holder graded AU* ; Strike 5/5; Surface 3/5, light marks. Soon after being acclaimed king, Antiochos the Third appointed the Seleukid nobleman Molon as satrap of Media and Molon’s brother Alexander as satrap of Persia. After Antiochos left Babylonia on his way to receive his crown in Antioch, the brothers rebelled, reputedly because of their great hatred of the king’s chief minister Hermeias. Unchecked by the first two generals Antiochos sent against him, Molon, at the head of a large army, found himself master of the lands to the east of the Tigris. His initial attempts to pass the river, though, were foiled by the Seleukid general in Mesopotamia, Zeuxis. But later when the Achaean-born general Xenoetas, who had been dispatched with a large army by Hermeias, tried to cross the river, Molon’s forces crushed the Seleukid army. In 221 BC, Molon crossed the Tigris and entered Seleukeia, making himself master of the city and the whole of Babylon and Mesopotamia. The magnitude of the insurrection forced Antiochos, who had been campaigning against the Ptolemies, to march in person against the rebels. After wintering in Nisibis, Antiochos crossed the Tigris in 220 BC and advanced south to confront Molon. He defeated the rebels near Apollonia (Sitt Ake in Assyria). The rebel brothers survived the battle; but committed suicide to avoid capture. At the behest of Hermeias, Molon’s body was impaled on the slopes of the Zagros Mountains. NGC Certification Number 8558171-011

$8,000

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