ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Seleukos began to move his iconography away from that of Alexander and establish his own identity as a monarch. This chapter argues that Seleukos at first utilised Alexander’s coinage imagery before beginning subtle modifications that related the image specifically to his new status as a Zeus-favoured king. As one of the immediate successors to Alexander, Seleukos’ claim was partially based on his connection to the king, but as he became more successful he was able to begin to differentiate his own image and promote his own legitimate rule. Further, it is argued that Seleukos attempted to systematise bronze coinage in the empire into a consistent ideological message, but this project failed. Therefore, it was not until Antiochos I’s need to establish his own legitimacy and to separate it from Alexander and the Ptolemies that Seleukos I became the scion of Apollo and the founder of the Seleukid house, rather than Alexander and that a consistent pattern of Seleukid coinage was established.
