Drachm - Orodes II

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.