Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm - Phraates II
| Issuer | Parthian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 128 BC - 127 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm (247 BC-224 AD) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Arsakes I, the dynastic founder and heroized ancestor, depicted seated right upon an omphalos, dressed in Parthian costume with scale or ribbed armour visible on the torso. He holds a strung bow in his right hand, the standard reverse type of early Parthian drachms asserting dynastic legitimacy. A Greek legend surrounds the central device, reading in two vertical columns to the left and right of the seated figure. The composition is set within a plain field without exergue line, consistent with Sellwood type 16. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Phraates II inherited the Parthian throne from his father Mithridates I and almost immediately faced catastrophic pressure on two fronts. The Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes invaded with a massive force around 130 BC, initially pushing deep into Parthian territory — then overwintered his army across three Median cities, whose populations, exhausted by the occupation's demands, rose in revolt. Phraates crushed the scattered Seleucid forces in 129 BC, killing Antiochus in the field. The relief was short-lived: Yuezhi nomads from the east killed Phraates himself around 127 BC, ending a reign defined almost entirely by crisis management on alternating borders.