Younger sons always have a tough draw in royal families. Born the second son of Seleucid king Antiochus Theos, Hierax (a nickname, meaning “hawk” in Greek) was never meant to rule the empire. But like many Seleucids looking to increase their power, he saw an opportunity in the centuries-long rivalry between his own Syrian dynasty and the Ptolemies of Egypt over the lands of Phoenicia and Palestine.
 
Hierax’s father Theos had deserted his first wife Laodice to marry a Ptolemaic princess, which achieved peace with Egypt but left Laodice and her children understandably bitter. When Theos died in 246 BC, the Ptolemaic princess Berenice tried to govern the empire but was assassinated and the repudiated former queen Laodice reasserted herself, along with her two sons. Laodice wanted both her sons, the elder Seleucus Callinicus and the younger Antiochus Hierax, to share power and split the empire’s territories.

Above: Tetradrachm of Hierax minted in Ilion (Troy) purchased by Miller Ancients from Leu Numismatik in February of 2024. The coin graded Choice XF 5/5 – 4/5, Fine Style at NGC, boasting a particularly individualistic Hellenistic royal bust.
 
But Seleucus completely refused to share power, shunning his mother and brother. His uncompromising attitude was ill-timed, with Ptolemaic armies invading from Egypt. Hierax seized the moment and asserted control over Seleucid lands in Asia Minor, where he made friends with local kings and tribes, forging power bases in the mountains and forests. He survived for fifteen years, meandering with a small army and ruling an amorphous territory until his assassination in 226 BC. Hierax’s fifteen years ruling Asia Minor permanently weakened Seleucid central authority in the region. His coins are scarce but not excessively rare and bear a more personalized style than standard contemporary issues of Antioch and Seleucia. No surviving marble busts can be definitively tied to Hierax, leaving his numismatic portraits as the sole evidence of his likeness. Portraits on his coins reveal an intense and alert individual, one always on the run from his older brother and other enemies known and unknown.