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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2793111, member: 81887&quot;]Here&#039;s one of my wins from the recent Triskeles 20 auction:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]649368[/ATTACH] </p><p>Parthian Kingdom.&nbsp; AR drachm (20mm, 3.61g).&nbsp; Vonones I (c. 8-12 AD).&nbsp; Obverse: Diademed bust of Vonones I left, BACILEUC ONWNHS around.&nbsp; Reverse: Nike standing left holding palm branch, Ekbatana mint symbol, BACILEUC ONWNHC NEIKHCAC APTABANON around.&nbsp; Sellwood 60.5, Shore 329.</p><p><br /></p><p>Vonones I was the eldest son of the Parthian king Phraates IV.&nbsp; When Phraates IV and Augustus concluded a peace agreement in the 20s BC (which included return of Crassus&#039; standards to Rome, and the gift of concubine/eventual queen Musa to Phraates), Vonones was sent to Rome to live and learn Roman customs, and not-so-incidentally to serve as a hostage to guarantee Parthian good faith.&nbsp; After Phraatakes and his mother/wife Musa were overthrown in 4 AD, Parthian leadership was thrown into chaos.&nbsp; Orodes III took power but was almost immediately murdered.&nbsp; The Parthian nobles then asked Rome for Vonones to be sent them as their king.&nbsp; However, they were soon displeased at how Romanized/Hellenized he had become.&nbsp; He no longer cared for traditional pursuits of the Parthian nobles such as hunting and feasting, and worst of all, did not enjoy horseback riding, preferring to ride in a litter.&nbsp; Soon some nobles backed Artabanos, king of the Parthian vassal state Media Atropatene and part of the Parthian royal family, as a rival for the throne.&nbsp; Vonones won an early battle, but in 12 AD was forced from the Parthian throne by Artabanos and fled to Armenia, where he ruled as king.&nbsp; After a few years Artabanos complained to the Romans, who induced Vonones to head into a luxurious exile/house arrest in Roman Syria.&nbsp; He was then transferred farther from Parthian territory, into Cilicia, and was killed trying to escape in 19 AD.</p><p><br /></p><p>This drachm, while still recognizably Parthian in style, is a notable departure from previous issues and shows some of the Hellenistic influence Vonones had picked up.&nbsp; The obverse clearly states the king&#039;s personal name, a detail that almost all Parthian kings left off their coins (to the annoyance of future historians and numismatists).&nbsp; On the reverse, the usual figure of an archer is omitted and replaced by Nike (Victory), a theme which is continued in the reverse legend.&nbsp; Instead of the standard seven-line reverse legends, which merely repeat a bunch of stereotyped titles and don&#039;t even give the king&#039;s personal name, we get a direct four-line inscription that refers to current events: &quot;King Vonones, Conqueror of Artabanos&quot;.&nbsp; Who knows, perhaps if he had lived longer Vonones might have initiated a renaissance for Parthian coin artistry.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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