Unique Dareios the Usurper Tetradrachm

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 247. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of ELYMAIS. Dareios. Usurper, circa 127/6 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.46 g, 12h). Diademed head right within bead-and-reel border / BAΣIΛEΩΣ down right field, ΔAPEIOY/ΣΩTHPO[Σ] down left, ([N]E ligate)ANAIENΩ[N], Nude Apollo seated left on omphalos set on ground line, holding arrow in right hand set on thigh and bow set on ground in left. van’t Haaff Type 6.1 = G.R.F. Assar, “History and Coinage of Elymais During 150/149-122/121 BC,” Nāme-ye Irān-e Bāstān 4.2 (Winter 2004-2005), pl. XVIII (this coin); otherwise unpublished. Good VF, areas of toning, slight double strike on reverse. Unique.

Ex Peus 368 (25 April 2001), lot 330.

Dareios is unknown to history save for this coin. Although there is no firm evidence for the attribution and dating of this issue, the style and fabric are most compatible to the coins of Elymais and Characene in the 2nd century BC. While Characene may remain a candidate, the chaotic political situation at Susa makes an attribution to the Elymaian kingdom more attractive. From 140-127 BC, Elymais was continually contested by the Kamnaskirids, the Arsakids of Parthia, and Seleukids. Susa changed hands on multiple occasions, and at least one other usurper, Tigraios, captured the city. The Parthians finally took firm control of the region around 133 BC, and held it until their king, Phraates II, was killed fighting the Sakae in the east in 127 BC. Assar theorizes that, upon the death of Phraates, Dareios took control of Susa, where he ruled for about a year. The historical record of Elymais is relatively blank from 127 BC until the arrival of Kamnaskires III in 82/1BC, so it is possible that Dareios may have ruled at any time during this period.