Mithridates VI struck these tetradrachms at Pergamon following his seizure of the city in 88 BC, when he expelled Roman forces and ordered the massacre of an estimated 80,000 Italian residents across Asia Minor — an event known as the Asiatic Vespers. The civic mint at Pergamon, previously operating under Roman provincial authority, was pressed directly into service funding his war against Rome. The regnal year IΣΘ (year 210 of the Pontic era) places this piece squarely within that first, most aggressive phase of the First Mithridatic War.
Mithridates VI struck these tetradrachms at Pergamon following his seizure of the city in 88 BC, when he expelled Roman forces and ordered the massacre of an estimated 80,000 Italian residents across Asia Minor — an event known as the Asiatic Vespers. The civic mint at Pergamon, previously operating under Roman provincial authority, was pressed directly into service funding his war against Rome. The regnal year IΣΘ (year 210 of the Pontic era) places this piece squarely within that first, most aggressive phase of the First Mithridatic War.