Tetradrachm - Phraates V

Phraates V came to power after murdering his own father, Phraates IV, with the assistance of his mother Musa — a former Italian slave girl given to Phraates IV as a gift by Augustus. The two then married, a union so scandalous it triggered a Parthian aristocratic revolt that drove them both from the throne within a few years. This tetradrachm dates to that brief, turbulent co-reign.

Sellwood 57.5 is among the scarcer varieties of this short series, which closed well before the dynasty stabilized under Orodes III.