Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 782. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Osroes I. Circa AD 109-129. AR Drachm (3.73 g, 12h). Ekbatana mint. Diademed bust left, wearing long beard and earring, and with hair in bunches above head and over ears / (quadrate O)ΛIIΛI-Λ/(quadrate O)ΛIIΛI-ΛИ ΛI- IΛN[(quadrate O)V]/IVIIΓIT ΛIXΛI(quadrate O)V IΠIΦΛИ(quadrate O)V(three-bar Σ)/[Φ]IΛIΛΛHX(quadrate O)[(three-bar Σ)] (sic), archer (Arsakes I) seated right on throne, holding bow; monogram below bow. Sellwood 80.1; Shore 422. Superb EF, usual doubling on reverse.

From the Todd A. Ballen Collection.

Osroes I seized control of Mesopotamia in 109 AD, during the reign of Vologases III. It is unknown whether he could have achieved more, as shortly thereafter he was forced to deal with the massive Roman invasion led by the emperor Trajan. The event was precipitated by Osroes’ dethroning of the king of Armenia, whom the Romans viewed as their own vassal. Basing his action on the model that solved the same crisis under Vologases I, Osroes sent Parthamsiris, a son of Pakoros II, to Trajan, hoping to have the Roman confirm him as the new king of Armenia. Trajan, convinced that the Romans held a strong upper hand, refused. Parthamasiris was killed, and the Romans advanced into Mesopotamia, captured the capital, Ktesiphon, and placed their own candidate, Parthamaspates, upon the throne. Events forced the Romans to withdraw in 116 AD, and the threat of their return in 117 AD was abated by Trajan’s death and his replacement by the non-expansionist emperor Hadrian. Little is known of Osroes’ later rule.