Drachm - Phraates III

Phraates III came to power around 70 BC with Tigranes of Armenia and Mithridates VI of Pontus pressing hard on Parthian borders, and he survived by playing Rome against both. His diplomatic correspondence with both Pompey and Lucullus — each commanding Roman armies in the East — kept Parthia intact while its neighbors collapsed. The years covered by this issue coincide almost exactly with Pompey's final settlement of the East after Mithridates' suicide in 63 BC, a realignment that established the Euphrates as the boundary Parthia would defend for generations.

Sellwood 39.12 belongs to a late phase of his coinage distinguished by a specific diadem treatment and die axis consistency that makes attribution reasonably secure even on worn flans.