Leu Numismatik AG
Auction 1 25 Oct 2017
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BITHYNIA. Kios (as Prusias ad Mare). Orsobaris Musa, daughter of Mithradates VI Eupator, circa mid to late 1st century BC. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 23 mm, 7.74 g, 1 h), circa 30-22 BC (?). [BAΣIΛIΣΣHΣ - OPΣOBAPIOΣ / MOYΣHΣ] Diademed head of Orsobaris Musa to left. Rev. ΠPOYΣIEΩN TΩN / ΠPOΣ ΘAΛAΣΣHI Bearded head of Herakles to left. RPC I 2020. Extremely rare and interesting. Attractive olive-green patina. Hairline flan crack and with minor corrosion, otherwise, fine.
The dates of birth and death of Orsobaris Musa are unclear, but Appian reports that she was a daughter of Mithradates VI of Pontos and brought to Rome in 61 BC, together with a number of other descendants of the Pontic king, to be presented in Pompey's great triumph (App. Mithr. 117). We also know that Orsobaris married Lykomedes of Comana, an unsuccessful contender for the Bithynian throne in 74 BC and priest-king of the temple-state of Comana in 47-30 BC, at an uncertain time in her life. The chronology is further complicated by the present coin type struck in the Bithynian city of Prusias ad Mare, presenting her name as 'Queen Orsobaris Musa', and another issue struck in the same mint for 'Orodaltis, daughter of Lykomedes' (RPC 2021). It seems apparent that Orodaltis was the daughter of Lykomedes and Orsobaris and that she lived in the city of Prusias ad Mare somewhen in the late 1st century BC (possibly before, or until, the administrative reforms of Agrippa in Asia Minor in 22 BC). But when did her mother, being married to Lykomedes and likely living in Comana in 47-30 BC, then rule the city? A likely assumption is that Orsobaris received the city of Prusias ad Mare as a principality from Augustus after the death of her husband in 30 BC, and to see the types in her and her daughter's name as part of a single issue, produced at some point in the years thereafter. This reconstruction explains the striking stylistic similarities between the coinage for Orsobaris and for her daughter, most apparent in the rendering of the portraits and the curious placement of the legends, both of which indicate the hand of a single artist. Orsobaris, as the senior ruler, would thus have issued a larger denomination, naming herself 'queen' and associating herself with the founder of Kios-Prusias, Herakles, on the reverse, while her daughter, on the smaller half denomination, appears without any title and is called the 'daughter of Lykomedes' only. The coinage in the name of the two Bithyno-Pontic women is of extreme rarity today: RPC records just four coins of Orsobaris and two of her daughter, all of which are referenced to the late 19th century (for a recently surfaced third coin of Orodaltis, see CNG E-Sale 253, 6 April 2011, 89). The present example is, to our knowledge, the first coin of Orsobaris to be offered in a public sale in over a hundred years!
The dates of birth and death of Orsobaris Musa are unclear, but Appian reports that she was a daughter of Mithradates VI of Pontos and brought to Rome in 61 BC, together with a number of other descendants of the Pontic king, to be presented in Pompey's great triumph (App. Mithr. 117). We also know that Orsobaris married Lykomedes of Comana, an unsuccessful contender for the Bithynian throne in 74 BC and priest-king of the temple-state of Comana in 47-30 BC, at an uncertain time in her life. The chronology is further complicated by the present coin type struck in the Bithynian city of Prusias ad Mare, presenting her name as 'Queen Orsobaris Musa', and another issue struck in the same mint for 'Orodaltis, daughter of Lykomedes' (RPC 2021). It seems apparent that Orodaltis was the daughter of Lykomedes and Orsobaris and that she lived in the city of Prusias ad Mare somewhen in the late 1st century BC (possibly before, or until, the administrative reforms of Agrippa in Asia Minor in 22 BC). But when did her mother, being married to Lykomedes and likely living in Comana in 47-30 BC, then rule the city? A likely assumption is that Orsobaris received the city of Prusias ad Mare as a principality from Augustus after the death of her husband in 30 BC, and to see the types in her and her daughter's name as part of a single issue, produced at some point in the years thereafter. This reconstruction explains the striking stylistic similarities between the coinage for Orsobaris and for her daughter, most apparent in the rendering of the portraits and the curious placement of the legends, both of which indicate the hand of a single artist. Orsobaris, as the senior ruler, would thus have issued a larger denomination, naming herself 'queen' and associating herself with the founder of Kios-Prusias, Herakles, on the reverse, while her daughter, on the smaller half denomination, appears without any title and is called the 'daughter of Lykomedes' only. The coinage in the name of the two Bithyno-Pontic women is of extreme rarity today: RPC records just four coins of Orsobaris and two of her daughter, all of which are referenced to the late 19th century (for a recently surfaced third coin of Orodaltis, see CNG E-Sale 253, 6 April 2011, 89). The present example is, to our knowledge, the first coin of Orsobaris to be offered in a public sale in over a hundred years!