ProjectSeleukid - Seleukid captain: Seleukos son of Antiochos

The first of the captains to be painted for Project Seleukid. With the amount of purple he's wearing, the commander is obviously a royal kinsman - for our immediate focus on the battle of Magnesia (190 BC), he is to represent Seleukos, son of Antiochos III the Great, joint commander of the left wing with his cousin Antipater.

Seleukos was the second son of Antiochos the Great and his Pontic-born queen, Laodike. His elder brother, Antiochos, died in 193, and Seleukos was raised to the throne as co-regent in 192. During the Roman War, he carried out the Seleukid invasion of Pergamon and then held joint command of the left wing at Magnesia. The following year he was left in command of the Seleukid resistance to Roman conquest in Asia Minor. Following the Treaty of Apameia, Seleukos was left to rule the western portion of the Seleukid Empire while his father turned once more to the east. On Antiochos the Great's death in 187, Seleukos succeeded peacefully as Seleukos IV Philopator ('father-loving', or 'friend of his father') and continued to rule with a stable hand until his own death (read: possible murder) in 175 BC.

Both sculpts are from the 28mm Pyrrhic foot command pack from Aventine Miniatures. I wanted to try something a bit different on him and tried white armour for the first time. I'm quite pleased with the outcome and think he'll certainly stand out as a bit posh on the battlefield. 

I decided that I wanted to hand paint the banners for each of my commanders to make them really unique. For Seleukos' personal banner I went for the seated Apollo on the omphalos coin type. This type was almost ubiquitous as a Seleukid reverse on silver coinage from part-way through the reign of Antiochos I, until the iconographic reforms of Seleukos' little brother and successor  (and a personal favourite of mine) Antiochos IV Epiphanes. The banner is not perfect, but given Apollo is not quite 8mm tall, I'm pretty pleased.