Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIII 23 March 2017
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Kingdom of Pontos, Mithradates VI Eupator AR Tetradrachm. Bithyno Pontic year 208 = June 89 BC. Diademed head right / Pegasos on ground line to left, preparing to lie down, BAΣΙΛEΩΣ above, MIΘPAΔATOY EYΠATOPOΣ below; star within crescent to left, HΣ (year) and monogram to right, Θ (month) below; all within ivy wreath. De Callataÿ D47/R5; SNG von Aulock 6678 (same dies). 16.77g, 30mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine.
Privately purchased from Tradart;
From a European collection, bought in 1977.
In the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Seleukid Empire and the Macedonian kingdom the influence of Rome was still only weakly felt in Asia Minor in the first decade of the 1st century BC. Following repeated Roman interference in the region (95-92 BC, which had been procured by substantial bribes by Nikomedes III of Bithynia) which prevented Mithradates from expanding his kingdom, the Pontic king appears to have resolved that a war with Rome was inevitable. Though the Pergamene king Attalos III had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 133 BC, Rome remained reluctant to involve itself in matters in the east, and had little desire to maintain a direct governmental presence. Indeed, a revolt in the Pergamene kingdom in 129 BC led to the partition of the state and the voluntary distribution by Rome of parts of its territory to neighbouring powers, including Pontos. Given this reluctance to get directly involved, the presence of no more than 5,000 Roman troops in all of Asia, and the ongoing Social War in Italy that threatened to dismember the Roman state, Mithradates judged that his chances of victory in a direct confrontation were good. In the event, discontent with the Romans and their taxes indeed meant that Mithradates' forces would be welcomed throughout Asia Minor, and he might well have believably claimed to be the Hellenistic champion against Roman oppression.
Despite a prevalent view in Rome that the reoccupation of Cappadocia was the last straw and that the Pontic king should be attacked and deposed, there yet remained the possibility, in the context of the disastrous Social War losses, that the Senate might prefer to negotiate a settlement. However, the matter was settled the following year when, on the radical advice of the philosopher Metrodoros of Skepsis, Mithradates orchestrated the infamous 'Asiatic Vespers' – the massacre of between 80,000 and 150,000 Roman men, women and children present in the region. This heinous act profoundly affected Roman-Hellenistic relations, and forced the Senate to send east a large force under Sulla with the aim of countering the Mithradatic threat.
Extremely Fine.
Privately purchased from Tradart;
From a European collection, bought in 1977.
In the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Seleukid Empire and the Macedonian kingdom the influence of Rome was still only weakly felt in Asia Minor in the first decade of the 1st century BC. Following repeated Roman interference in the region (95-92 BC, which had been procured by substantial bribes by Nikomedes III of Bithynia) which prevented Mithradates from expanding his kingdom, the Pontic king appears to have resolved that a war with Rome was inevitable. Though the Pergamene king Attalos III had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 133 BC, Rome remained reluctant to involve itself in matters in the east, and had little desire to maintain a direct governmental presence. Indeed, a revolt in the Pergamene kingdom in 129 BC led to the partition of the state and the voluntary distribution by Rome of parts of its territory to neighbouring powers, including Pontos. Given this reluctance to get directly involved, the presence of no more than 5,000 Roman troops in all of Asia, and the ongoing Social War in Italy that threatened to dismember the Roman state, Mithradates judged that his chances of victory in a direct confrontation were good. In the event, discontent with the Romans and their taxes indeed meant that Mithradates' forces would be welcomed throughout Asia Minor, and he might well have believably claimed to be the Hellenistic champion against Roman oppression.
Despite a prevalent view in Rome that the reoccupation of Cappadocia was the last straw and that the Pontic king should be attacked and deposed, there yet remained the possibility, in the context of the disastrous Social War losses, that the Senate might prefer to negotiate a settlement. However, the matter was settled the following year when, on the radical advice of the philosopher Metrodoros of Skepsis, Mithradates orchestrated the infamous 'Asiatic Vespers' – the massacre of between 80,000 and 150,000 Roman men, women and children present in the region. This heinous act profoundly affected Roman-Hellenistic relations, and forced the Senate to send east a large force under Sulla with the aim of countering the Mithradatic threat.