Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 871. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Phraates II. 138-127 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.87 gm). Seleukeia mint. Struck circa 129-127 BC. Diademed bust right / Bearded male deity enthroned left, wearing chiton and kalathos, holding Nike and cornucopiae; two monograms in exergue. Shore -; Sellwood 17.1; Le Rider, Susa pl.LXX, 25. VF, scattered light porosity and hairline scratches. Rare. ($750)

A good VF example sold in Peus 363 (26 April 2000), lot 5112 for DM 18,000. The god depicted on the reverse of these tetradrachms appears on no other Parthian coin, and apparently nowhere else. He (or she) combined the attributes of figures on the Seleukid tetradrachms of Aleaxander I Balas and Demetrios II Nikator, whose coinage would have been in circulation at time when Seleukeia fell to Mithradates I of Parthia around 141 BC. The seated Zeus of Alexander is bearded and holds a Nike. The seated Tyche of Demetrios wears the chiton and holds a cornucopiae. The kalathos or modius headdress could be an attribute of either Serapis or Tyche. Such a representation of a transgender pantheistic deity is very unusual in ancient art. One wonders if the artist was intent on rendering a Persian god in Greek guise, or simply misunderstood the types he was copying. The precise dating of the type comes from the identity of the monograms with issues of Antiochos VII (LeRider, Suse, plate XXXI, A-B).