Tetradrachm - Phraates IV

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.