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KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AV Stater (19.5mm, 8.42 g, 12h). Pergamon mint. Dated CY 4 (85 BC). Diademed head right / Stag grazing left; BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, MIΘPAΔATOY/EYΠATOPOΣ in two lines below; star-in-crescent to left; Δ (year) to right, monogram in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callataÿ dies D11/R2, b (this coin); HGC 7, 334; DCA2 557; Hirsch 1414 (same dies). Some light marks, scrape on reverse, edge marks and bumps. VF. Very rare. Click here for a video presentation on this collection.
From the Gerald F. Borrmann (Northern California Gentleman) Collection. Ex Olga H. Knoepke Collection (Glendining’s, 10 December 1986), lot 236; J. Hirsch XX (13 November 1907), lot 362; Theodor Prowe Collection (Egger XVII, 28 November 1904), lot 959; ‘Late Collector’ [Rothschild Collection] (Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, 28 May 1900), lot 305.
Mithradates was a fascinating Hellenist at a time when Roman power was ascendent. His career, driven by megalomaniacal ambitions, led to murderous assaults upon family and followers alike and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a personification of hysteria in its Dionysiac sense.
At the age of 18, Mithradates overthrew his mother’s regency and embarked on a career of conquest, bringing most of the lands around the Black Sea into his domain. His expansionist aims inevitably brought him into conflict with Rome, and in preparation for the coming war he built up the largest army in Asia, unleashing it in 88 BC in what would be the First Mithradatic War. He sought to undermine the Roman power base by ordering the massacre of every Roman citizen in Asia in which nearly 80,000 people perished.
The Romans were not intimidated, and when Mithradates crossed over to Greece proper as ‘Liberator’, the Roman legions under Sulla smashed his army. Mithradates retreated to Pontus, from where he continued to skirmish with the Romans, suffering more defeats to the general Lucullus. In 63 BC, having suffered a final defeat by Pompey and facing a revolt by his own son Pharnakes, the elderly king tried to commit suicide by taking poison, but he had inured himself to its affects by years of small counterdoses, and so had to be stabbed to death by one of his mercenaries.
The final winners of all Triton XXVIII lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 14-15 January 2025.
Triton XXVIII – Session One – Lot 1–287 will be held Tuesday morning, 14 January 2025 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
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