Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIII 23 March 2017
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Kingdom of Pontos, Mithradates VI Eupator AV Stater. Bithyno-Pontic year 223, intercalary month 13 = October 74 BC. Diademed head right / Stag grazing left; BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, MIΘPAΔATOY / EYΠATOPOΣ in two lines below; to left, star-in-crescent above ΓKΣ (year); two monograms to right, IΓ (month 13) in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Unpublished in the standard references; Roma VII, 758 (this coin); CNG 96, 372 (same dies); cf. for date: Callataÿ 1997, tetradrachms D56-59. 8.41g, 21mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine. Unpublished; one of only two known a coin of great numismatic importance.
Ex Roma Numismatics VII, 22 March 2014, lot 758.
A beautifully idealized portrait of the ageing king, the obverse die of this coin was also used to strike a previously unrecorded stater dated with the intercalary month IB (i.e., September 74 BC; see CNG 93, 22 May 2013, lot 339). This places this unique coin circa October 74 BC, making it one of the very latest gold staters of Mithradates of which we are currently aware. The facts that the obverse die was reused and the paucity of surviving specimens both suggest that the issue was a small one. Additionally, this coin stands out for having been issued more than ten years after the main series of staters had ended in 85 BC. This revival of gold issues by Mithradates can only be explained by the events unfolding at the time: the death of Nikomedes IV of Bithynia in 75 left no heirs to the kingdom, and instead bequeathed the state to Rome. Faced with the prospect of losing a coveted territory to his old enemy who would not share a border with his own lands, Mithradates began renewed preparations for war.
This coin was struck on the very eve of Mithradates' invasion of the new Roman province of Bithynia and the start of the Third Mithradatic War (73-63 BC). This conflict 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. Armenia, which under Tigranes 'the Great' had supported Mithradates in his war on Rome, suffered several heavy defeats and the loss of its capital; it ended the war as a client state of Rome. Pontos would cease to exist as a kingdom, and would be declared to be a Roman province by a victorious Pompey.
Intercalation - the inserting of months, days, even hours and seconds - into the calendar is a practice which aligns the calendar in use with the observable seasons or phases of the moon. There are many recorded instances of intercalation from classical antiquity, and the Romans used it extensively until Julius Caesar reformed the Roman Calendar of 355 days replacing it with his own Julian Calendar of 365.25 days, which took effect in 45 BC.
Extremely Fine. Unpublished; one of only two known a coin of great numismatic importance.
Ex Roma Numismatics VII, 22 March 2014, lot 758.
A beautifully idealized portrait of the ageing king, the obverse die of this coin was also used to strike a previously unrecorded stater dated with the intercalary month IB (i.e., September 74 BC; see CNG 93, 22 May 2013, lot 339). This places this unique coin circa October 74 BC, making it one of the very latest gold staters of Mithradates of which we are currently aware. The facts that the obverse die was reused and the paucity of surviving specimens both suggest that the issue was a small one. Additionally, this coin stands out for having been issued more than ten years after the main series of staters had ended in 85 BC. This revival of gold issues by Mithradates can only be explained by the events unfolding at the time: the death of Nikomedes IV of Bithynia in 75 left no heirs to the kingdom, and instead bequeathed the state to Rome. Faced with the prospect of losing a coveted territory to his old enemy who would not share a border with his own lands, Mithradates began renewed preparations for war.
This coin was struck on the very eve of Mithradates' invasion of the new Roman province of Bithynia and the start of the Third Mithradatic War (73-63 BC). This conflict 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. Armenia, which under Tigranes 'the Great' had supported Mithradates in his war on Rome, suffered several heavy defeats and the loss of its capital; it ended the war as a client state of Rome. Pontos would cease to exist as a kingdom, and would be declared to be a Roman province by a victorious Pompey.
Intercalation - the inserting of months, days, even hours and seconds - into the calendar is a practice which aligns the calendar in use with the observable seasons or phases of the moon. There are many recorded instances of intercalation from classical antiquity, and the Romans used it extensively until Julius Caesar reformed the Roman Calendar of 355 days replacing it with his own Julian Calendar of 365.25 days, which took effect in 45 BC.