Weight with Ship's Prow
first half of 2nd century B.C.
As the port city of Antioch, the capital of the immense Seleucid empire, Seleucia Pieria had a constant flow of trade and commerce. More weights survive from Seleucia Pieria than from Antioch, testifying to the economic importance of this harbor city to the empire. This weight features the front of a ship's prow within a frame. The inscription "Seleukeion" above the prow indicates that this was an official weight of Seleucia Pieria, used as a standard against which other weights could be checked. The lower inscription gives the weight of the piece as a *tetarton*, a quarter of a *mina*, the basic unit of weight used in the Seleucid Empire at this time. An unclear trace in the background may be an inverted anchor, a common Seleucid dynastic emblem.
Yet, for all the importance of Seleucia Pieria as a port, it is not a merchant ship decorating this weight, but a warship with rams and a bow ornament. Little is known of the Seleucid navy. Treaties with the Romans indicate that Antiochus III, who ruled from 223 to 187 B.C., certainly maintained a substantial fleet in the Mediterranean and his successor Seleukos IV, who ruled from 187 to 175 B.C., used a similar prow of a warship as a symbol on some of his coinage.
Yet, for all the importance of Seleucia Pieria as a port, it is not a merchant ship decorating this weight, but a warship with rams and a bow ornament. Little is known of the Seleucid navy. Treaties with the Romans indicate that Antiochus III, who ruled from 223 to 187 B.C., certainly maintained a substantial fleet in the Mediterranean and his successor Seleukos IV, who ruled from 187 to 175 B.C., used a similar prow of a warship as a symbol on some of his coinage.
Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)