Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 535. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $325. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Phraates II. 132-126 BC. AR Drachm (3.89 g, 12h). Mithradatkart or Margiane (?) mint. Diademed bust left, wearing short beard; I above M to right; all within pelleted border / BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY APΣ AKOY, archer (Arsakes I) seated right on omphalos, holding bow. Sellwood 15.2 var. (no letters on obverse); Shore 40 var. (same); Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 141, lot 105; PDC 5939 and 31683 (this coin). VF, toned, light scratches and light overall roughness. Rare.

From the Todd A. Ballen Collection. Ex Peus 384 (2 November 2005), lot 369; Peus 366, (25 October 2000), lot 245.

As a minor son of the Great Mithradates, Phraates II began his reign as a co-ruler with his mother, Riinu. The scanty evidence from this period reveals Phraates’ preoccupation with fighting the Seleukids under their king, Antiochus VII, in the west and the Sacae in the east. However, the presence of silver and copper coins from Susa indicate that he began his rule consolidating Parthian hegemony in Elam; a task that had already started in the closing months of his father’s reign. Although successful against the Seleukids (see below), his struggle against the Sacae was a protracted and severe conflict which began favorably but ultimately concluded in his defeat and death.