Resumen de Seleucid Campaingn Beards

Catharine C. Lorber, Panagiotis P. Iossif

• With the exception of Demetrius II in his second reign, the Seleucid kings were normally portrayed clean-shaven on their coinage. Nevertheless, a number of Seleucids wear beards in a portion of their coin portraits. The paper explores the hypothesis that such a tempo¬rary beard was the outward mark of a vow undertaken before a military campaign, then shaved off at its successful completion. The beards were associated with particular types of campaigns, against eastern invaders, usurpers, and dynastic rivals. The deities to whom each Seleucid offered his vows may be those depicted on coins with his bearded portrait.