The premise of this book is to demonstrate that history not only looks different, but also richer when we find creative and rigorous ways to use numismatic data to tell that story. It constructs a history of a single ancient city over the course of 750 years, drawing on literary accounts, epigraphy and most innovatively patterns in the surviving coinage. Beyond the methodological innovations, the key argument of the book is that the people of Antioch as a civic body exercised significant agency over the course of regional events from the period of their foundation. The book can be read as a biography of a city, a powerful counter-narrative to accounts that prioritise either the Seleucids or the Romans, or the conflicts of such large powers.

The project, consisting of the book and accompanying website (syrios.uh.edu), seeks to build a bridge between the two disciplines, numismatics and ancient history. This is no small feat. In order to expand the traditional sources of historical information, N. begins by assembling a data set of excavation finds and hoard evidence, and then applies exploratory data analysis to identify aggregate patterns. The book is thoroughly grounded in contemporary scholarship as well as in ancient textual sources. Of the latter, N. shows particular sensitivity to evidence available in what survives of the Chronographia of John Malalas, a source all-too-often overlooked. The volume is richly illustrated, but only a limited number of those illustrations are of coins; the majority of figures are data visualisations.

The overall approach of the book is to prioritise the needs of the historian without a significant numismatic background. It is generally structured along chronological lines, making those interested in specific periods of time or events able to dive in and out as needed. The only exception to this narrative approach is the first chapter, which introduces non-specialists to the methodologies involved. It has a strong emphasis on key vocabulary terms, and these are often picked out in italics in a helpful way, allowing readers to browse and return to it later. However, most of the rich and complex methodological explanations are relegated to Appendix 1. This appendix will be of keen interest to any historian or numismatist interested in questions of quantification and statistical techniques. I presume that it was likely moved from Chapter 1 to the appendices to make the book more ‘reader friendly’. However, I might have hoped that the table of contents would have had a list of the titles of the appendices to emphasize how key they are to the project as a whole. I found the discussion of statistical methods in Appendix 1 clear and cogent, and I worry it may be overlooked by too many readers.

Chapters 2–5 are organised chronologically, and all follow much the same pattern. Each opens with an excerpt in translation from an ancient author; discussion of the passage is then used to frame the big historical themes and questions of the period. The first part of the chapter orients readers to the history of the period as seen through the lens of the city, drawing widely on textual and epigraphical evidence. In and of themselves, these narratives represent a remarkable portrait of a city over time. There follows a discussion of silver and bronze coinage, typically in that order, making extensive use of data visualisation. In simplest terms N. explores what types of coins are found where, most often using percentages of finds to compare one location to another in a specific period of time. The discussion of the data visualisation is both meticulous and clear.

Given the consistent structural approach to each chapter, readers should easily find materials related to their particular period of interest or type of question. There seems little value in summarising each chapter in this review; rather it seems preferable to note a few points this reviewer found edifying that may give some sense of the book as a whole.

Throughout, N. tries to engage with what vocabulary both ancient and modern is best used to describe the status of Antioch (and by extension many other cities of the ancient world). For example, when can we describe a city as a capital? This question is introduced in Chapter 2, but recurs, as the question of the city's official status in relation to the surrounding region and imperial powers changes over time. Similarly, she addresses the evolving meaning of the term ‘metropolis’; here the use on coin legends plays a critical role in our understanding.

Antioch is particularly well suited to the intensive numismatic analyses offered in the latter part of each chapter, as often in its history the city issued coins both in its own name and in the name of either a king or the Roman emperor. This allows N. to differentiate and track evidence of the circulation of both and note the remarkable differences. Perhaps some of the most interesting historical interpretation of this data comes in Chapter 3 with the discussion of the distribution of bronze coins. Samaria-Sebaste shows an unexpectedly high percentage of civic bronzes from Antioch given the geographical distance: in this N. hypothesises perhaps an unintentional movement of coins coinciding with troop movements, which may have happened in the 30s bce. The exceptional numbers of Antioch royal bronze coins found at Dura Europos suggest the continuation of an earlier policy of moving coins struck at Antioch to meet the needs of other Seleucid cities.

While the book is primarily data-driven and takes a cautious approach to any iconographic interpretation, N. does have a keen eye for drawing out key visual details and developments. For instance, in Chapter 5, she discusses the introduction of the imperial radiate under Gordian III and notes stylistic parallels with contemporary tetradrachms. In Chapter 4 she draws particular attention to a delightfully evocative bronze type with the head of Zeus on one side and the seated personification of the Boule dropping a voting token into an urn, a type struck under the reigns of both Nero and Hadrian (RPC I, 4305, III, 3737–9). Likewise, in multiple chapters she considers the different representations of Tyche and their relationship or non-relationship to the famous statue of the Tyche of Antioch created by Eutychides of Sicyon.

Overall, the book is erudite, insightful and clear. It synthesises great quantities of evidence and scholarship over an enormous period of time. It may stretch the comfort of many readers who might want it to be more strictly historical or purely numismatic, but readers from both fields will benefit greatly from taking time to digest the chapters and the book as a unified whole. If I had one slight quibble, I am old-fashioned in wanting an index locorum of primary evidence, but as most scholarly reading is now done digitally, a quick search of a PDF version could answer any precise queries. The subject index is thorough and contains most ancient authors cited.