Drachm - Phraates - Kingdom of Elymais Arsacid Dynasty

Elymais occupied the mountainous region northeast of the Persian Gulf — roughly modern Khuzestan — and by the second century AD had devolved into a deeply local power, its Arsacid rulers increasingly disconnected from the Parthian mainstream. The billon coinage of this period reflects that decline: silver content had been so thoroughly debased by successive rulers that these pieces are functionally copper alloy with a silver memory.

Phraates is one of several poorly documented kings in the late Elymaean sequence, his reign reconstructed almost entirely from coin evidence rather than any written source.