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Tetradrachm - Phraates IV
| Issuer | Parthian Empire (Parthian Empire (247 BC - 224 AD)) |
|---|---|
| Year | 25 BC - 24 BC |
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| Composition | Billon |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Phraates IV, diademed, seated right on a throne; before him stands a helmeted Athena facing left, extending a wreath in her right hand toward the king while holding a scepter in her left hand. A seven-line Greek inscription fills the field, recording the full royal titulature of the Arsacid king. |
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Phraates IV secured the Parthian throne around 37 BC by murdering his own father Orodes II and systematically eliminating his brothers — a consolidation of power so brutal that it prompted a temporary defection of the nobility to Rome. By the mid-20s BC, when this tetradrachm was struck, his position had stabilized enough that he negotiated the return of the Roman standards captured at Carrhae in 53 BC, a diplomatic coup Augustus exploited heavily in his own propaganda. Phraates sent four of his sons to Rome as hostages to cement the arrangement.
Sellwood 52.1 belongs to a tightly defined issue within his long reign, distinguished by specific obverse die characteristics catalogued by Shore.