Æ - Mithradates VI

Sinope was Mithradates VI's most prized possession — his birthplace, the Black Sea's dominant trading port, and the city he made capital of his expanding Pontic kingdom. This bronze was struck during the period when Mithradates was systematically absorbing surrounding territories, having already taken Colchis, Crimea, and much of Asia Minor before Rome began to take him seriously as a threat. The city's mint had a long independent tradition before Pontic annexation, and issues from this transitional period reflect that awkward administrative overlap between a formerly autonomous Greek polis and an increasingly autocratic royal authority.