Cappadocia King - Ariarathes IX?

The seller's attribution labeled this Ariarathes IX and I can see some resemblence but the nose is just off. All of Ariarathes profiles that I'm seeing have a distinct feature in the nostrils that I can't help but not seeing in my example. Also if this is to be Year 4 wouldn't that put Ariarathes at 12? This profile looks much more like an adult than a 12 year old to me? Would love input and wisdom on this Cappadocia King.

An examples of Ariarathes IX year 4 that I've found elsewhere to show the nose I'm referring to.

 

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I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.....

And I must be drunk as the devil to be quoting Shelley.

 

Not all all. I used to teach 6th grade in Indiana, which was one of the first states in the country to institute mandatory, state-wide standardized testing in order to "grade" schools. Whenever I had to inflict these tests on my students, I would always post a copy of this poem on my door next to the "Quiet, testing" sign.

My poor principal never could figure out why I did that.

 

Just because the nose is off does not stop it being Ariarathes lX. What you need is Cappadocian coins by Simonetta and then ignore his attributions.

The famous Cappadocian wars between Morkholm and Simonetta are great reading in Numismatic chronicle of the 1960's and 70's. Morkholm won out.

 

What say you about the year 4 distinction? I don't have a exergue to properly identify this but WildWinds attributes a great many styles similar to this to year 4

 

And to me, all those Kings of Cappadocia look as alike to me as all those pyramids, ziggurats, temple and tombs of antiquity and never ending undulating dunes sifting their eternal sands from the extremities of nothingness to the limits of nowhere.

 

That's a beautiful example, @Lane Walker. There is a lot of variation in the portraits of Ariarathes IX. A main reason is that he was the son of King Mithridates VI of Pontus, and he was essentially just a puppet ruler put in place by his father. After a few years, his portrait style completely changed, and he started to be depicted on coins with features of his father Mithridates (which explains why he has different features and often looks older than he actually was).

Here is a link to an excellent thread from @Pavlos which should have some helpful information for you on the coinage of Ariarathes IX.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-puppet-kingdom-of-mithridates-vi-eupator.348119/

And here is my only coin of Ariarathes IX.

Ariarathes IX Eusebes Philopator, AR Drachm, (18mm, 3.94g.), Diademed head right, with the features of Mithradates VI of Pontos / Athena Nikephoros standing left, monogram to inner left.

 

Both heads of Mithradates Vl Eupator in my collection. The top is a classic tetradrachm struck in Pontus somewhere in 89/88 BC in the run up to the 1st Mithradatic war. Below is a late Alexander of Odessos with the head of Herakles morphed into the late features of Eupator. Struck during the 3rd war c 74-63 BC.