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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2634586, member: 81887&quot;]Thought I&#039;d share my latest coin, a Parthian obol of Orodes II.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]580244[/ATTACH] </p><p>Parthian Kingdom.&nbsp; AR obol (10mm, 0.52g).&nbsp; Orodes II (57-38 BC).&nbsp; Obverse: Bearded bust of Orodes II left, wearing diadem, forehead wart visible.&nbsp; Reverse: Seated archer, four-line inscription, mintmark for Ekbatana (modern Hamadan, Iran).&nbsp; Sellwood 48.15, Shore 265 (rarity R1).</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; (Pro tip: If your army is primarily heavily-armored infantry, don&#039;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.)&nbsp; 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&#039; mouth to mock his defeated opponent&#039;s wealth.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; These gains were short-lived, as the Romans quickly recovered their territories and killed Labienus and Pakoros, Orodes&#039; favorite son and presumptive heir.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; In retrospect, Orodes II&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; This feature is believed by modern authorities to be trichoepithelioma, a hereditary neoplasia of the forehead that can persist in families for several generations.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The mintmark is Ekbatana, which was the main mint for Parthian silver drachms and also issued bronze coinage.&nbsp; This coin, however, is a silver obol.&nbsp; All Parthian fractional silver is scarce to rare; Fred Shore rates this type as R1 in his Rarity and Value Guide.&nbsp; I bought this coin in a recent CNG electronic auction.&nbsp; The coin is nicer in hand; I had some trouble photographing it due to its tiny size.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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