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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2762868, member: 81887&quot;]What can I say, I like Parthian facing portraits...[ATTACH=full]635343[/ATTACH]</p><p>Parthian Kingdom.&nbsp; Seleukia-on-the-Tigris mint.&nbsp; Artabanos II (or III, or IV) (10-38 AD).&nbsp; Debased AR tetradrachm (26.4mm, 12.51g).&nbsp;&nbsp; Obverse: King&#039;s diademed bust facing, with beard, mustache, and shaggy long hair.&nbsp; Reverse: King on horseback left, receiving palm branch from Tyche; four-line Greek legend around Basileos/Arsakou/Dikaiou/Epiphanous, year in front of and behind head, month-monogram below horse.&nbsp; Dated Gorpiaios, 338 Seleucid Era (= August, AD 27).&nbsp; Sellwood 63.5, Shore 336.&nbsp; This coin: Agora Auctions Sale 66, lot 66.</p><p><br /></p><p>Artabanos II (or III, or IV- I&#039;m not going to choose a number for him) took the Parthian throne about 10 AD, during an unsettled time for the region. Vonones I had spent much of his life in Roman territory and proved too Hellenized for the Parthian nobles- he didn&#039;t like hunting, feasting, or (the real deal-breaker) horseback-riding. The nobles induced Artabanos to give up his job as king of the Parthian dependency Media Atropatene (Azerbaijan) and fight Vonones for the throne.&nbsp; Vonones was forced to flee back to the Romans, and Artabanos took up the Parthian crown.&nbsp; During a later dispute with the Romans over Armenia, Artabanos was forced from the throne, and spent some time living with the nomadic Dahae east of the Caspian, raising an army there which formed the nucleus of his forces when he reclaimed the throne.&nbsp; He died in 38 AD, after an eventful reign.</p><p><br /></p><p>In his book, David Sellwood enthuses about this coin type: &quot;The rare series of tetradrachms of Artabanos with facing bust show a fierce warrior-king, certainly an image we would expect from a king who regained his throne wearing the rags he wore as a solitary hunter in exile.&nbsp; They probably present a clearer picture of what a Parthian really looked like than any other portrait coin.&quot;&nbsp; These tetradrachms exist with dates for each of the five months from April to August of AD 27.&nbsp; I like my specimen- the reverse is off center, though not too badly, but the portrait is very well preserved.&nbsp; This was one of the few major types I did not have in my previous Parthian collection, so I am happy to add it now.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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