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Tetradrachm - Bellaios with Amatbene
| Issuer | Characene, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 85 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Conjoined busts of the royal couple in right-facing profile: Bellaios at front, diademed and with short beard, presented as senior figure; behind him, Queen Amatbene, draped and wearing a stephane, her bust overlapping his in the Hellenistic dynastic portrait tradition. The effigies are rendered in the Greek artistic style characteristic of the Seleucid successor states, with careful attention to the royal insignia denoting their joint sovereignty. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Characene was a semi-autonomous kingdom occupying the marshy delta region at the head of the Persian Gulf, nominally subject to Parthian overlordship but functionally independent for much of its history. Bellaios is among the lesser-documented rulers of the dynasty, and the inclusion of Amatbene — almost certainly a queen or co-ruler — on the coinage is unusual enough to suggest a deliberate political statement about dynastic legitimacy rather than mere convention.
The tetradrachm fabric follows Seleucid weight standards, a deliberate echo of the coinage tradition that Characene inherited from the post-Alexander administrative system in Mesopotamia.