What should you collect? Anything you like! Long ago I thought references to particular Roman victories were interesting and I decided to collect them, along with coins from many other themes. Wars against Persia are mentioned on many coins. Gradually I expanded the focus from Roman imperial coins mentioning victories against the Parthians to include some relevant Roman provincial coins, and even a few Parthian and Sasanian coins of the foes of the Romans. Now I announcing my new website on “Coins and History of the Roman Wars with Persia in the Second and Third Centuries”: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Persian/Persia.html Here is one of the coins on the page: Septimius Severus, 193-211 A denarius. 18 mm. 3.40 grams. Struck 198. VICT PARTHICAE, Victory advancing left holding wreath and trophy, captive below. RIC 514 from an eastern mint (possibly Laodicea near Antioch) The obverse legend ends "PART MAX" for "Parthicus Maximus" a title he was awarded for his Parthian victories. Take a (long) moment to go to the page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Persian/Persia.html Show us a coin related to Roman wars with Persia!
Thanks for the link to your very thorough webpage. I also collect coins showing Rome's conflicts with Persia, though I'm primarily an "Eastern" collector. Here's a couple of types you don't have on your page, both sestertius of Trajan. First, a REX PARTHIS DATVS ([A] King given to Parthia) showing Trajan presenting Parthamaspates to a figure of Parthia: And a REGNA ADSIGNATA [Kingdoms assigned), showing Trajan bestowing crowns on three new client-kings. Also, I should mention that G.R.F. Assar has made a clear and logical argument (in his essay in the Sunrise Collection book) why the Sellwood type 81 drachms, traditionally attributed to Parthamaspates (which you do on your page), were almost certainly not struck by or for Parthamaspates at all.
Does he assign any other type to Parthamaspates? To whom does he assign the type formerly given to Parthamaspates? Do you believe his arguments?
Interesting collection... The Holy Grail of such a collection would be this unique gold coin of Shapur I. It is presently in the Elaziğ Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, in Turkey. AV 28 mm, 14.85 g The obv. legend means : "the Mazdayasnian (divine) majesty, Shāpūr, King of Kings of Iranians and non-Iranians, whose lineage is from the gods" The reverse legend: ZNE ZK AMTš prypws kycry AP hrwm’y PWN b’cy W OBDk YKAYMWN / HWEd, "This (was at) that (time) when the Caesar Philip and the Romans stood in tribute and subjection to him" The Naqsh-i Rustam trilingual inscription of Shapur says that Philip paid 500,000 dinars (aurei) as a ransom for the Roman prisoners captured at Misikhe (Falluja). Without any doubt, this multiple dinar (= 3 Roman aurei?) was minted to celebrate this victory and reward brave Persian noblemen with the ransom gold...
Assar's argument against Parthamaspates as the issuer of S. 81 coins is as follows: Parthamaspates had influence only in and around Ctesiphon (which was not a mint city for the Parthians), where he was protected by the Romans. However, the S. 81 coins were probably struck at Ekbatana, in Media on the Iranian plateau, far from Parthamaspates' zone of control and a region controlled by enemies of the Romans and their puppet. This seems like a very logical and reasonable argument to me. Assar is less sure about who may have issued the S. 81 type, but tentatively suggests a nephew of Osroes I names Sanatrukes (not to be confused with a much earlier Parthian king of the same name), who was the leader of Parthian forces in Mesopotamia in 116 CE. Assar does suggest a coinage for Parthamaspates, however, the very rare Sellwood type 83 drachms and small bronzes. These coins are cruder than other contemporary Parthian coins, and Assar suggests they may have been struck at a ramshackle, temporary mint. (The S. 83 is traditionally assigned to "Unknown King".) He seems less certain of this than he is of removing S. 81 from Parthamaspates. The situation is messy and far from certain; in other words, perfectly normal for Parthian numismatics
Thank you for your helpful answer. I may qualify my description of the "Parthamaspates" coin on my page with a statement expressing those thoughts. I have also been informed that the Caracalla of "Carrhae" (catalogs and every dealer calls it Carrhae) is really of Edessa. I need to find the reference, but I had the argument explained to me and I now believe it is of Edessa. That needs changing, too.
Here is my example of S 83.1: This particular coin was authenticated by David Sellwood himself. I had bought it, unidentified, in 1972 in a group of coins from a dealer in Jerusalem. The NFA list 2.4 "Winter-Spring 1974" says, "The title 'Arsaces' is lacking ... suggesting the issuer is of non-Arsacid blood." If this type is of Parthamaspates, I wonder if he was a mature adult which would justify the long beard, or if the long beard was on coins in order to project the impression he was mature.
I have made one more correction to the new site. Terence drew my attention to an article about the "Carrhae" type. So I rewrote one part. In April 217 Caracalla was assassinated on the road from Edessa to Carrhae where he was intending to visit the temple of Lunus. Caracalla, issued at Edessa. Small. 17 mm. 3.80 grams. Caracalla's head right, laureate. M AVR ANTONINVS PF AVG (clockwise from 12:30) Turetted head of Tyche right COL MET ANTONINIANA (clockwise from 12:00) BMCG Mesopotamia, Carrhae 16-33 (with minor legend variations). Note: Until 2016 this was always attributed to Carrhae, and still is by dealers. However, an article by Edward Dandrow in the Numismatic Chronicle of 2016 convincingly attributes this type to Edessa. He notes that the original attribution to Carrhae was made from a single hard-to-read coin in 1838 and uncritically repeated ever since. Again, the page is: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Persian/Persia.html
Two AE coins of Rhesaena, Mesopotamia (Arabic Ras al-'ayn, Kurdish Serê Kaniyê) minted under Caracalla. Reverses : LEG III / P S (sometimes retrograde), vexillum with A or star. Rhesaena was the base of the Legio III Parthica Severiana. Today the city is in Syria, just at the Turkish border, and under Turkish occupation. Rhesaena, Mesopotamia - Trajan Decius (Illegible circular legend), bust of Trajan Decius radiate, draped and cuirassed right. [CЄΠ] PHCAINHCIωN L III P , eagle facing on palm, beneath : founder with two oxen. Rhesaena, Mesopotamia - Trajan Decius AYT KAI ΓAI MЄC KY [ΔЄKIOC ? TPAI]ANOC CЄB, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. [CЄΠ] PHCAINHCIωN L III P , Temple seen in perspective, eagle inside ; beneath, the River-god Aborrhas (the Khabur) swimming left.
Fantastic page @Valentinian, saved it in my bookmarks. Thanks for making an overview of the various battles/victories/wars between Rome - 'Persia' and the coins relating to those. And great coins too. A small thing I noticed. At the coin of Julian II you forgot a '/' I think (<palm>NIKB<palm> in exergue, for Nicomedia.) I have a couple of relevant coins, two of them I'll show here. First is the same one as shown on your site, struck under Trajan. The reverse of this coin is well designed, and Philip Hill argues that the reverse of this coin may have been copied from a sculptural group, or a relief. Second one if struck under Lucius Verus. The design refers to the same victory as the denarii of Verus and Aurelius, which are shown on your site. I won't show mine here. And even though your site does not go into this time period, I can't help showing this coin. I just love the design About the reverse, CNG notes: "In 19 BC, Augustus returned to Rome after a three-year absence in Greece and Asia; this reverse type may then relate to the celebration of Rome's recent military and diplomatic successes, namely Tiberius' activities in Armenia and the recovery of the standards the Parthians had captured from Crassus in 53 BC."
Philip I (244-249), 8 assaria coin, Samosata. Obv.: ΑΥΤΟΚ Κ Μ ΙΟΥΛΙ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ CЄΒ, laureate draped and cuirassed bust r. Rev.: ΦΛ CΑΜΟΣΑΤΕWΝ ΜΗΤΡΟΠ ΚΟΜ ("(coin of the citizens of) Flavia Samosata, capital of Commagene"), Tyche seated left on rock holding eagle, Pegasus jumping left at her feet. Pegasus was the emblem of the XVIth Legion Flavia Firma. Samosata, on the Euphrates, the home city of the famous Greek author Lucian (who claimed he was an Assyrian), was in the 2nd and 3rd c. one of the most important legionary bases in the East, facing the Parthian and later Persian Empire. The city was built at the foot of an acropolis overlooking the Euphrates which could be crossed at this point. The acropolis had been settled since the neolithic times, became a neo-Hittite fortress-city and, in the 3rd c. BC, was refounded as Samosata, "the delight" in old Persian, by the Iranian kings of Commagene who made it their capital. In 73 AD Commagene was annexed by the Roman Empire. Hadrian in 117 settled in Samosata the 16th Legion Flavia Firma, guarding the the Euphrates crossing. Samosata remained a legionary base facing the Parthians and the Persians for more than a century. In 256 the city was taken and and plundered by Shapur I (at least he claims he did) but soon retaken by The Romans under Valerian. It is possible that following the interruption of the Antioch mint, after Antioch too had been destroyed by the Persians, Samosata became the rear base of Valerian's forces and the place where antoniniani were minted to pay the troops. The city was involved in subsequent Romano-Persian wars. It had a long history in the Byzantine, medieval, ottoman period, but in the 20th Century Samsat, as it was now called in Turkish, had lost any political, economic or military importance, and was not more than a village. Today it is nothing at all : the whole place was flooded in 1990 behind the gigantic Atatürk barrage. The extensive Roman city was never explored or excavated. Aerial photo of Samsat taken in 1969. Today it is in the bottom of the Atatürk lake.
