Rare Final Year

CNG 105, Lot: 134. Estimate $3000. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AR Tetradrachm (32.5mm, 16.67 g, 12h). Uncertain mint. Dated year 231 BE (67/6 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ MIΘPAΔATOY EYΠATOPOΣ, stag grazing left; star-in-crescent to left, monogram to right, AΛΣ (date) below; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callataÿ p. 22, obv. die D77; HGC 7, 340; DCA 692; SNG von Aulock –; SNG BM Black Sea –; SNG Copenhagen –; RG pl. 20, 6 = Waddington 131 (same obv. die). EF, slightly weak strike in areas. Rare final issue of Mithradates’ portrait tetradrachms.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 358 (26 August 2015), lot 109.

This tetradrachm was struck during a pivotal year in the Third Mithradatic War. Following Mithradates’ defeat at Kabeira 71 BC, he had fled to the safety of Armenia, where his son-in-law, Tigranes II, ruled. Mithradates slowly assembled an army, and, in 67 BC, defeated the armies of the Roman legates M. Fabius and L. Triarius Valerius at Zela. This defeat forced the Romans to retreat to Galatia, allowing the Pontic king to return to his throne. His victory was short-lived, as Mithradates soon faced another Roman army, now headed by Pompey the Great. At the Battle of the Lykos River in 66 BC, Pompey decisively defeated the Pontic forces, forcing Mithradates to flee Pontos for Armenia. He ultimately fled to the Bosporan Kingdom, headed by his son, Pharnakes II, but Mithradates’ ambitious plans to revive the war with Rome never materialized. In 63 BC, Pharnakes, in fear of the Romans, revolted against his father, who subsequently committed suicide.