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Drachm - Orodes II
| Issuer | Parthian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 57 BC - 38 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | Sellwood#47 |
| Obverse description | Bust of Orodes II facing left, depicted in the characteristic Parthian royal style with a heavily beaded beard and curled hair rendered in fine granular detail. The king wears an elaborate tiara or diadem adorned with a crescent symbol at the top right, and his torso is clad in decorated scale or mail armour with beaded ornamentation at the shoulder. A sceptre or royal staff is visible behind the bust to the right. A small eagle or starburst device appears in the left field. The portrait is executed with strong plastic modelling, conveying regal authority in the late Hellenistic tradition of Parthian royal coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Antioch of Margiana (modern-day Merv, Turkmenistan), Aria (modern-day Herat, Afghanistan), Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan, Iran), Kangavar (Iran), Laodicea in Mesopotamia (Iran), Nisa (modern-day Ashgabat, Turkmenistan), Rayy (modern-day Hasanabad, Iran), Susa (Susiana, modern-day Shush, Iran), Traxiane (modern-day Damghan, Iran) |
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| Additional information |
Orodes II secured the Parthian throne by having his brother Mithridates III hunted down and killed, then spent the next two decades consolidating a kingdom that would deliver Rome its most humiliating eastern defeat. The destruction of Crassus's army at Carrhae in 53 BC — seven legions annihilated, the standards captured — occurred squarely within this coin's issue period, and Parthian drachms of this type were almost certainly circulating in the treasuries funding that campaign.
Sellwood 47 spans a long reign, and die wear and style variations across the sequence are substantial. The later issues, approaching Orodes's forced abdication in favor of Phraates IV around 38 BC, tend toward cruder workmanship.