Tetradrachm - Autophradates I without bow

Autophradates I ruled Persis as a client under the Seleucid crown, but the precise moment at which Persis asserted effective independence — and began issuing coinage in its own right — remains contested among scholars. The variant catalogued without a bow is significant: the bow was a standard attribute of Achaemenid royal iconography, and its deliberate omission likely reflects a calculated positioning of the ruler's identity, though whether that signals submission, local tradition, or something else entirely is unresolved.

The dating window overlaps with the collapse of Seleucid control in the east following Antiochus IV's death and the subsequent Parthian expansion under Mithridates I, who seized Media and then Babylonia during precisely these years.