Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XI 7 April 2016
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Kingdom of Pontos. Mithradates VI Eupator AV Stater. Struck in Parion, Bithyno-Pontic year CΚΣ, month A (= October 72 BC). Diademed head right / Stag grazing left; BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, MIΘPAΔATOY / EYΠATOPOΣ in two lines below; to left, star-in-crescent; CKΣ (year) above ΠAP (= Parion) monogram to right, A (month) in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Unpublished in the standard references cf. for date: de Callataÿ 1997, p. 49. 8.35g, 19mm, 12h.
Good Very Fine. Unique and unpublished, a coin of great numismatic importance. The same year and monogram were previously
known from just one tetradrachm (as recorded in Recueil Général).
The dating of this coin makes this the latest stater of Mithradates VI of which we are currently aware after the unique example dated two years earlier in October 74 BC (see Roma Numismatics Auction VII, lot 758).
This unique piece was struck at Parion during the winter of 72/1 BC after the first engagements of the Third Mithradatic War (73-63 BC). Battered by the Roman armies under the consuls Lucullus and Cotta, who were sent by the Senate to quell the Pontic uprising, Mithradates used the break in hostilities to hastily rebuild his army. This issue then, would have been struck to pay mercenary troops to bolster his forces.
This war, sparked when Nikomedes IV of Bithynia died without heirs in 75 and left his kingdom to Rome, would result in great devastation being wrought on Pontos, betrayal on the part of Mithradates son, Machares, who allied himself with Rome, and rebellion by another son, Pharnakes (see lot 765) who assumed control of the army and forced his father to commit suicide.
Good Very Fine. Unique and unpublished, a coin of great numismatic importance. The same year and monogram were previously
known from just one tetradrachm (as recorded in Recueil Général).
The dating of this coin makes this the latest stater of Mithradates VI of which we are currently aware after the unique example dated two years earlier in October 74 BC (see Roma Numismatics Auction VII, lot 758).
This unique piece was struck at Parion during the winter of 72/1 BC after the first engagements of the Third Mithradatic War (73-63 BC). Battered by the Roman armies under the consuls Lucullus and Cotta, who were sent by the Senate to quell the Pontic uprising, Mithradates used the break in hostilities to hastily rebuild his army. This issue then, would have been struck to pay mercenary troops to bolster his forces.
This war, sparked when Nikomedes IV of Bithynia died without heirs in 75 and left his kingdom to Rome, would result in great devastation being wrought on Pontos, betrayal on the part of Mithradates son, Machares, who allied himself with Rome, and rebellion by another son, Pharnakes (see lot 765) who assumed control of the army and forced his father to commit suicide.