Tetradrachm

Numismatists – the scholars who study coins – refer to the ‘front’ side of the coin, which usually features the head of a person or god, as the ‘obverse,’ and the ‘back’ side as the ‘reverse.’

On the obverse of this silver tetradrachm coin, a bust of the king faces to the left. He has a pointed beard and curly hair, rendered as rows of dots, and wears a diadem (the headband worn by victorious athletes in ancient Greece). He wears a necklace around his neck. A border of dots surrounds the image.

The reverse shows a seated man facing right. He has a long bead and wears a diadem (only the ends are visible at the back of his head) and trousers. He sits on a high-backed throne. A woman stands before him facing left. In her outstretched right hand she holds a diadem, and in her left a cornucopia. The figures are surrounded by a Greek inscription which cannot easily be read, since parts of it disappear off the edge of the coin; however, it can be reconstructed from other examples as reading "of the king of kings Arsaces the generous, just, renowned and Greek-loving." The Greek letters AΞT appear above the figures. This is the number 361, and refers to the date of the coin: year 361 of the Seleucid era (which began in 312 B.C.), that is, A.D. 49-50. The letters APTEMI, appear below the figures, an abbreviation for APTEMIΣIOY, a month in the Seleucid calendar corresponding to April.

This coin was struck by the Parthian king Gotarzes II (reigned ca. A.D. 40–51) at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris near modern Baghdad. Seleucia was captured by the Parthians in 141 B.C., but the mint there continued to strike large tetradrachm coins up until the end of the Parthian Empire – the only Parthian mint to do so. These coins also featured different imagery than most other Parthian issues. In this case the reverse of the coin shows the goddess Tyche (‘Fortune’), identifiable by her cornucopia, before the seated figure of Gotarzes. The king on the obverse is probably meant to be Gotarzes as well, wearing a diadem as a symbol of victory.

The inscription on this coin, like those on almost all Parthian coins, names the first ruler of the empire Arsaces I (reigned ca. 247–217 B.C.), rather than the current ruler. It may be a reference to the dynasty founded by Arsaces, or perhaps the seated archer is meant to represent him. It is also possible that all Parthian kings were called ‘Arsaces’ as a title or throne name.