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Tetradrachm - Mithridates VI Eupator Pergamon; ΓKΣ IA
| Issuer | Kings of Pontos |
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| Year | 223 (74 BC) |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and youthful bare-headed portrait of Mithridates VI Eupator facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic royal tradition with idealizing features. The king's abundant, wildly flowing hair radiates dramatically outward in thick, deeply engraved locks, evoking the leonine coiffure associated with Alexander the Great portraiture. A diadem is tied around the head, its ends visible behind the neck. The portrait is executed with remarkable sculptural depth and high relief, characteristic of the finest Pontic die-cutting of the late second to early first century BC. The field is plain, with no surrounding legend on the obverse. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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Mithridates VI struck this issue at Pergamon during the Third Mithridatic War, a period when he had retaken much of his lost territory and was actively using the city's mint — one of the most prestigious in the Greek world — to fund renewed military operations against Rome. The regnal year ΓKΣ (223) and month IA place production in late 74 BC, just as the Roman consul Lucullus was organizing the campaign that would ultimately drive Mithridates from Pontos entirely.
Pergamon had been bequeathed to Rome in 133 BC, making its use as a Pontic royal mint a pointed political act.