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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sulla80, post: 8294449, member: 99456&quot;]This Parthian tetradrachm doesn&#039;t have high silver content as the reddish rust at the top of the coin reveals and perhaps the greenish rust on the reverse too.&nbsp; 10-15% silver is the estimate from Assar in the Sunrise Collection notes on Parthian coins and history.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>So who is this Parthian ruler?</b><i> EΠI </i>on the left side of the reverse coin is not very revealing (ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ = the Glorious/Illustrious)....Vologases IV is not the answer - although the coins are similar - this coin is less common.&nbsp; Only one of these tetradrachms that I could find posted on CT (from [USER=21445]@Mat[/USER]), although several drachms and a chalkous or two from Vologases VI have also been shared.&nbsp; Although coins from other rulers include several letters from the sequence on the obverse e.g. Vologases III:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1466545[/ATTACH]</p><p>on this coin only the B is known - it is not a regnal year.&nbsp; What this sequence of letters might have represented - is unknown (at least to me).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1466357[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Kings of Parthia, Vologases VI</b>, 208-228 AD, BI Tetradrachm (25mm, 12.56 g, 12h), mint Seleucia, date is off flan.</p><p><b>Obv: </b>Bust left with long pointed beard, wearing diademed tiara with horn and long curved earflap, earring, and necklace; B behind</p><p><b>Rev: </b>King seated left on throne, receiving diadem from Tyche holding sceptre; [unknown Seleukid date] between</p><p><b>Ref:</b> Sellwood 88</p><p><br /></p><p>He succeeded his father, Vologases V, near the end of the reign of Septimius Severus in Rome.&nbsp; Attacks on Vologases V by Septimius earned the Roman emperor the title of Parthicus Maximus.&nbsp; According to Cassius Dio, Caracalla took delight in the quarrel of Vologases VI with his brother Artabanus VI.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot;But he (Caracalla) did not hesitate to write to the senate regarding the Parthian rulers, who were brothers and at variance, that the brothers&#039; quarrel would work great harm to the Parthian State, as if this sort of thing could destroy the barbarians and yet had saved Rome, — whereas in fact Rome had been, one might say, utterly overthrown thereby!&quot; </i></p><p><i>- Cassius Dio, <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html#12.3" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html#12.3" rel="nofollow">LXXVIII.12.3</a></i></p><p><br /></p><p>Had Ardashir I not come forward and founded a new eastern empire (Sasanian), Parthia may have ended up as a Roman province.</p><p><br /></p><p>For a longer write-up of this coin, civil war, interactions with Rome, and an inevitable link with Lucius Cornelius Sulla, see: <a href="https://www.sullacoins.com/post/the-end-of-parthia" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.sullacoins.com/post/the-end-of-parthia" rel="nofollow">The End of Parthia</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Post your coins from the final years of the Parthian empire, Septimius as PART MAX, Ardashir I founder of the Sassanian empire, or anything else the you find interesting or entertaining. </b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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