Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 594. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Orodes I. 80-75 BC. AR Drachm (4.10 g, 12h). Diademed and draped bust left, wearing tiara with ear flap, long beard, and torque ending in pellet; large fleur on crown; anchor symbol to right; all within pelleted border / BAΣIΛEΩ[Σ]/MEΓ AΛOV AP ΣAKOV EVEPΓETOV EΠIΦANOVΣ/ΦIΛEΛΛHNOΣ, archer (Arsakes I) seated right on throne, holding bow; A below bow. Cf. Sellwood 34.3 (Sinatruces); cf. Shore 145. EF, toned. Very rare.

From the Todd A. Ballen Collection.

The Babylonian cuneiform records inform us that in early 80 BC a new king, Orodes I, had been recognized in Babylon. Although we have no knowledge of his relationship with other Arsakid rulers, he may have been a son of Gotarzes I and hence the absence of an allusion to a deified or illustrious predecessor on his S31 coinage. However, he is only the second king whose personal name appears in a handful of cuneiform records, often in association with his sister-wife, Ispubarza, indicating an ongoing dispute with a claimant over the throne. We know very little about the activities of this king except that he raided Elam in January/February 77 BC and expelled Kamnaskires III, celebrating his success by introducing an “anchor” – the royal emblem of the Kamnaskirid dynasty – into the obverse design of his drachms. According to our Babylonian tablets, the short reign of Orodes I came to an end in March/April 75 BC in unknown circumstances. A peculiar feature of his coinage is that it includes drachms with the central fleur-de-lys and the decoration around the crest of the royal tiara manually removed from their obverse while others are struck from altered dies on which the same decorations are erased. It is obvious that this was a deliberate attempt at assimilating Orodes’ coins with S31.5-8 drachms of Mithradates III; perhaps an indication that the latter remained active well beyond his expulsion in 80/79 BC and even after Orodes’ successful expedition into Elam in 77 BC.