Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 387. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Arsakes I. 238-211 BC. AR Drachm (4.03 gm). Nisa(?) mint. Head right wearing bashlik / ARSAKOU [A]UT-OKRATO[ROU], Arsakes seated left on backless throne, holding bow. Sellwood 1.1; A&S Type 1, 1/4 (same dies); Shore 1; Alram 388; MACW 450. Toned VF, weak strike. Very rare. ($2000)

Ex Peus 343 (26-28 April 1995), lot 223.

The history of Iran from the mid-4th to mid-3rd century BC is so poorly recorded that there is practically nothing known about any serious unrest or opposition to the Macedonian occupation for about eighty years after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. Nonetheless, many scholars believe, but have not conclusively proven, that between 250-247 BC a man of unknown antecedence called Arsakes (Arshak) led an invasion into the Seleukid satrapy of Parthia and slew her governor, Andragoras. Soon afterwards he extended his power as far as Hyrcania and then in about 228 BC defeated the Seleukid king, Seleukos II (246-226 BC), who had set out to punish the rebellious satrapies. According to Justin (41.4.10), the Parthians commemorated that date as the beginning of their independence. Sadly, there is virtually no reference to the events and extent of the rule of Arsakes I in the contemporary Babylonian records and classical literature. Justin (41.5.5-6) reports that, having founded and consolidated the kingdom, Arsakes died at an advanced age, revered and perhaps deified by the Parthians.

The coins attributed to Arsakes I, Sellwood’s S1-S4 drachms, are all struck from five or less dies with a high ratio of die identities (or linkage). This indicates that they were probably minted towards the end of his reign, perhaps after his victory over Seleukos II. Hence the inclusion of the epithet AUTOKRATWR (“Autocrat”) or its possible Parthian equivalent krny (“Elected or Supreme General”) in the royal titulature on the coin.