Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2763693, member: 81887&quot;]Re: Why didn&#039;t the Parthians vary the coinage more:&nbsp; Well, the reverses of the bronze coins are a lot more varied.&nbsp; But, we could reframe the question, why change the coins so frequently as the Romans and Greeks did?&nbsp; Switzerland has been using the same coin designs for over a century now, and they seem to be doing fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why was this particular design used?&nbsp; Good question.&nbsp; There does seem to be a correlation between Parthian kings who issued facing portrait coinage and kings with origins in Media Atropatene- Phraates III, Artabanos II, and Vonones II all issued facing coins and came from, or served as king of, that region before taking the Parthian throne.&nbsp; Only Vologases V seems to have no connection to Media Atropatene but issued facing coinage anyway.&nbsp; However, the connection between the region and a preference for facing portraits remains obscure.&nbsp; There isn&#039;t any obvious connection between the five-month period these tetradrachms were issued and the major political events in Artabanos II&#039;s life that we know of.</p><p><br /></p><p>Good books on Parthia: Finding good, readable books about Parthia is not easy.&nbsp; The best, most comprehensive and entertaining book on Parthian history that I&#039;ve read is George Rawlinson&#039;s &quot;Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Volume 6: Parthia&quot;.&nbsp; You can even download a Kindle version at Amazon.com for free!&nbsp; One tiny drawback: It was written in 1873, so it is just a tiny bit out of date in many places.&nbsp; Fred Shore&#039;s &quot;Parthian Coins and History: Ten Dragons Against Rome&quot; from 1993 has good historical and cultural sections, as well as the catalog of the author&#039;s comprehensive Parthian coin collection.&nbsp; Naturally, such a useful book is long since out of print and used copies are hard to find.&nbsp; Most other comprehensive books about Parthia are also out-of-print; the most recent in-print books tend to be more closely focused scholarly works.&nbsp; The excellent parthia.com website has an annotated bibliography at <a href="http://www.parthia.com/parthia_biblio.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.parthia.com/parthia_biblio.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.parthia.com/parthia_biblio.htm</a>&nbsp; which you can peruse for more sources.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in