REX PARTHIS DATVS

197, Lot: 140. Estimate $500. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (34mm, 25.19 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 116-117. Laureate and draped bust right / REX PARTHIS DATVS, Trajan seated left on daïs, presenting Parthamaspates to Parthia kneeling right; behind Trajan, prefect standing left. RIC II 667; Banti 97. Near VF, green patina, smoothed and tooled.

Parthian interference in Armenia prompted Trajan to declare war against their king Osroes I in AD 114. He quickly re-established Roman control of Armenia, forced the submission of Osrhoene, and in AD 116 took Mesopotamia by defeating Osroes I. Rather than pursuing the Parthians into Iran, Trajan set up a pro-Roman Parthian "buffer state" in Mesopotamia under a puppet-king Parthamaspates.