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Tetradrachm - Mithridates II
| Issuer | Parthian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 121 BC - 91 BC |
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| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Obverse description | Bust of Mithridates II facing left, wearing a jeweled diadem (taenia) over curled hair and a torque at the neck, draped in a richly ornamented court robe (khandis). The king's beard is rendered in fine curling locks, reflecting the Hellenistic-influenced artistic tradition of the Parthian court. The portrait is bold and high-relief, set within a beaded border. The field to the right shows the characteristic long ribbon of the diadem trailing behind the head. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Arsaces I, the dynastic founder and divine ancestor, seated right on the omphalos, wearing the Parthian khandis robe and bashlik headdress, holding a strung bow in his right hand. The figure is rendered in a static, frontal-throne posture upon a stylized ground line. A four-line Greek legend surrounds the central type, reading ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ, meaning 'of the Great King Arsaces the Illustrious.' Various control marks, monograms, and symbols (including palm branches and mint letters) appear in the field and exergue depending on the die variety. |
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| Additional information |
Mithridates II expanded Parthian territory more aggressively than any ruler before or after him, pushing west into Mesopotamia and east toward Bactria, which is why Greek sources began calling him "the Great." His coinage reflects that ambition directly — the titulature on his coins escalates over his reign, shifting from modest royal epithets to the full "King of Kings" formula borrowed from Achaemenid tradition, a deliberate claim of pan-Iranian legitimacy.
Sellwood 24 falls within his mature issues. The diadem ties, a detail obsessively documented by Sellwood's die studies, help narrow placement within the sequence.