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Stater - Sauromates III Severus Alexander, Panticapaeum
| Issuer | Bosporan Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 230-231 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 7.50 g |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and draped bust of Sauromates III facing right, with long hair falling behind the neck in the Hellenistic tradition. The effigy is rendered in a somewhat stylized manner characteristic of late Bosporan coinage. A circular Greek legend surrounds the portrait, running along the coin's periphery. |
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| Mintage | ND (230-231) |
| Additional information |
Sauromates III ruled the Bosporan Kingdom as a client of Rome, and this stater — issued in regnal years corresponding to 230–231 AD — falls precisely during Severus Alexander's Persian campaign preparations, a period when maintaining loyalty on the northern Black Sea periphery carried real strategic value for Rome. The Bosporan kings had long used joint-name coinage as a formal declaration of that client relationship, and the practice was not merely ceremonial: interruptions in it typically signal political rupture.
MacDonald 586 is among the scarcer issues in the Sauromates III sequence. The electrum by this period was heavily debased relative to earlier Bosporan staters.