Thought I'd share my latest coin, a Parthian obol of Orodes II. Parthian Kingdom. AR obol (10mm, 0.52g). Orodes II (57-38 BC). Obverse: Bearded bust of Orodes II left, wearing diadem, forehead wart visible. Reverse: Seated archer, four-line inscription, mintmark for Ekbatana (modern Hamadan, Iran). Sellwood 48.15, Shore 265 (rarity R1). Orodes II ascended the Parthian throne in 57 BC and soon found himself in a civil war with his brother Mithradates III, whom he finally defeated and killed in 54 BC. The next year, the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus led a substantial force of seven legions against Parthia, where they were overwhelmingly defeated at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. (Pro tip: If your army is primarily heavily-armored infantry, don't lead them into an open plain against highly mobile horse-mounted archers who can advance and retreat very quickly, and who have a huge surplus of spare arrows delivered by camels.) Although Orodes was not present at the battle site, he famously received the severed head of Crassus while watching a Greek play (the Bacchae by Euripides), and ordered molten gold poured in Crassus' mouth to mock his defeated opponent's wealth. In 40 BC, Orodes, with the help of a Roman defector, Quintus Labienus, launched an invasion of the eastern Roman territories and quickly conquered most of Asia Minor, Syria, and Judaea. These gains were short-lived, as the Romans quickly recovered their territories and killed Labienus and Pakoros, Orodes' favorite son and presumptive heir. Orodes then chose another of his thirty sons as successor, which proved a fatal mistake, as Phraates IV immediately killed his father and took the throne. In retrospect, Orodes II's reign was a high point in Parthian history, when the kingdom briefly reached its greatest extent and Parthia proved that it could be a serious military rival to Rome. Of note in the design of this coin is the prominent forehead wart, which first appears on coins of Orodes II and is intermittently seen on coinages of later Parthian kings. This feature is believed by modern authorities to be trichoepithelioma, a hereditary neoplasia of the forehead that can persist in families for several generations. It was apparently used as proof of legitimate descent from the Arsacid royal family, although in the case of later kings this claim was likely fraudulent. The mintmark is Ekbatana, which was the main mint for Parthian silver drachms and also issued bronze coinage. This coin, however, is a silver obol. All Parthian fractional silver is scarce to rare; Fred Shore rates this type as R1 in his Rarity and Value Guide. I bought this coin in a recent CNG electronic auction. The coin is nicer in hand; I had some trouble photographing it due to its tiny size.
Nice pick-up, Parthicus - and really great write-up. These fractionals are a good deal harder to come by than the drachms - so congrats! Well done. I've been getting into Parthian obols and diobols just a bit over the past few years - I think I have about seven or eight - but have yet to pick up an obol of Orodes II. Yours is a particularly nice example.
