Artemide Aste s.r.l.
Auction L 3-4 Nov 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Greek Asia. Kings of Pontos. Mithradates VI Eupator (120-63 BC). AR Tetradrachm, Pergamon mint. Dated month 12, year 219 BE (=September 78 BC). D/ Diademed head right. R/ BAΣIΛEΩΣ/MIΘPAΔATOY/EYΠATOPOΣ. Stag grazing left; to left, star-in-crescent above monogram; to right, ΘIΣ (year) above monogram; BI (month) below; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callatay p.18 D20/R? HGC 7,338. SNG BN 814= Waddington 126 (same obv. die). AR. g. 16.09 mm. 31.00 RRR. Extremely rare date, only the BN example noted by Callatay; two addictional: Gorny &Mosch 130, lot 1225 (also noted in Callatay's supplement) and Triton XXI, lot 439. A very attractive example, prettily toned, with iridescent hues. Good VF.
Apparently the fourth specimen known.
Mithradates is the Hellenistic monarch par excellence, his career driven by megalomaniacal ambitions leading to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a personification of hysteria in its Dionysiac sense. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the god as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that circulated in the area. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos and the mintmark is of Pergamon, all part of the new Pontic kingdom, symbolized by the star and crescent. His empire collapsed before the armies of Sulla and Lucullus, and Mithradates ended his own life in exile in the far region of the Crimea, pursued to the end by vengeful Romans and family. (CNG 436344).
Apparently the fourth specimen known.
Mithradates is the Hellenistic monarch par excellence, his career driven by megalomaniacal ambitions leading to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a personification of hysteria in its Dionysiac sense. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the god as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that circulated in the area. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos and the mintmark is of Pergamon, all part of the new Pontic kingdom, symbolized by the star and crescent. His empire collapsed before the armies of Sulla and Lucullus, and Mithradates ended his own life in exile in the far region of the Crimea, pursued to the end by vengeful Romans and family. (CNG 436344).