| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 219 Price realized: 7,000 USD (Approx. 6,411 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AR Tetradrachm (33.5mm, 16.67 g, 12h). Pergamon mint. Dated month 12, year 223 BE (September 74 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ MIΘPAΔATOY EYΠATOPOΣ, stag grazing left; to left, star-in-crescent above ΓKΣ (year); two monograms to right, Σ below, IB (month) in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Cf. Callataÿ pp. 21–2 (for date, issue and obv. die unlisted); HGC 7, 340; DCA 692; Nomos Obolos 8, lot 260 var. (same obv. die, different positions of date and monograms). Minor die wear. EF. Extremely rare issue with letter below stag. Mithradates was a Hellenistic monarch par excellence, his career driven by megalomaniacal ambitions leading to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a personification of hysteria in its Dionysiac sense. At the age of 18, Mithradates overthrew his mother's regency and embarked on a career of conquest, bringing most of the lands around the Black Sea into his domain. His expansionist aims inevitably brought him into conflict with Rome, and in preparation for the coming war he built up the largest army in Asia, unleashing it in 88 BC in what would be the First Mithradatic War. He sought to undermine the Roman power base by ordering the massacre of every Roman citizen in Asia in which nearly 80,000 people perished. The Romans were not intimidated, and when Mithradates crossed over to Greece proper as 'Liberator', the Roman legions under Sulla smashed his army. Mithradates retreated to Pontus, from where he continued to skirmish with the Romans, suffering more defeats to the general Lucullus. In 63 BC, having suffered a final defeat by Pompey and facing a revolt by his own son Pharnakes, the elderly king tried to commit suicide by taking poison, but he had inured himself to its affects by years of small counterdoses, and so had to be stabbed to death by one of his mercenaries. Estimate: 2500 USD |  |
