Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 429. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Sinatrukes. 93/2-70/69 BC. AR Drachm (4.08 gm). Rhagae mint. Diademed bust left, wearing tiara; neck torque ends in pellet / BASILEWS MEG-ALOU ARSAKOU QEOPATROU NIKATOROS, Arsakes I seated right on throne, holding bow. Sellwood 33.4 (Gotarzes I); Shore 113 (Gotarzes I); BMC Parthia pg. 51, 55 (Phraates III?); MACW 543 var. (Phraates III; tiara style). Lightly toned EF, light reverse double strike. Attractive, sharp portrait. ($200)

Ex Spink 106 (12 October 1994), lot 98.

Soon after his final defeat of Mithradates II in 91 B.C., Sinatrukes was soon supplanted in Ekbatana and Rhagae by Gotarzes I (see below), then expelled in 88/7 B.C. from Susa by Mithradates III (see lot 430), and sought refuge among the “Guti” until about 77 B.C. when he made a fresh attempt at gaining the Parthian throne.

A NEW ATTRIBUTION FOR GOTARZES I

Gotarzes I, the eldest son and Satrap of Satraps of Mithradates II, was immediately procaimed king upon his father's death at the hands of Sinatrukes. He apparently spent the bulk of his reign struggling against the rebel, and successfully expelled him from Ekbatana and Rhagae. Dr. Assar has attributed to him the S32 tetradrachm, as his inaugural issue from Seleucia, and S29 drachms. However, some scarce coins, struck from far less skilful dies than those cut at Ecbatana and Rhagae, appear to imply that perhaps shortly before his death, Gotarzes succeeded in extending his power to the north-eastern Parthian frontiers, probably as far as Margiane, where he had his crude drachms minted.