Tetradrachm - Gotarzes II Seleucia

Gotarzes II seized the Parthian throne through a prolonged and brutal civil war against his half-brother Vardanes I, a conflict that consumed most of the 40s AD and left the empire's western territories badly destabilized. The Seleucia mint's output during his reign is complicated by the city's own history of revolt — Seleucia had declared independence from Parthian control in 36 AD and held out for seven years before Vardanes retook it. Coins struck there under Gotarzes carry the weight of that recent rupture.

Sellwood 65.23 is among the later emissions of his reign, datable to the period after Vardanes was killed in 47 AD.