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Stater - Pharnakes II
| Issuer | Bosporan Kingdom (Bosporos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 51 BC |
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| Composition | Gold |
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| Reverse description | Apollo seated left upon an omphalos or throne, his extended right hand proffering a laurel branch above a tripod set in the lower field, while his left arm rests upon a kithara at his side. The Greek legend BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩN MEΓAΛOY ΦAPNAKOY (of the Great King of Kings Pharnakes) surrounds the field. Behind the figure, the Pontic regnal era date ςMΣ (246, corresponding to 51 BC) appears alongside a control monogram, with some emission variants substituting or omitting the monogram. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Pharnakes II, son of Mithridates VI, reclaimed the Bosporan throne around 63 BC after his father's suicide, having himself betrayed Mithridates to Pompey. He spent the following decade as a cooperative Roman client king before opportunistically invading Pontus and Cappadocia in 48 BC while Caesar was occupied with civil war — a campaign that ended at Zela in 47 BC, the battle that prompted Caesar's famously terse dispatch. These staters belong to the narrow window of his reign before that overreach, struck from a kingdom still prosperous on Black Sea grain and fish trade.