Obverse: Head of Herakles Wearing the Skin of
the Nimean Lion
Reverse: Zeus Seated Facing Left Holding an
Eagles and Scepter
Mithradates VI, called “the Great,” was the
legendary king of Pontus, a region in what is now
northeastern Turkey. In about 121 B.C., at the
age of eleven, he succeeded his father,
Mithradates V, and began his career of conquest
by seizing Colchis and the Crimea from the
Scythians. His attempts to cement his control in
Paphlagonia and Cappadocia were thwarted by
Rome, and a plot to depose Nicomedes III of
Bithynia was unsuccessful. Raids on Pontic
territory in 88 B.C. by Nicomedes, instigated by
Rome, led to the First Mithradatic War.
Mithradates occupied the Roman Province of Asia
and most of the Greek cities in Asia Minor, but
during 86 and 85 he was defeated in Asia and
Greece by the Roman generals Gaius Flavius
Fimbria and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The Second
Mithradatic War began with a Roman invasion of
Pontus in 83 that was repelled the next year.
The Roman design to annex Bithynia provoked
the Third Mithradatic War. Mithradates occupied
Bithynia, but in 73 B.C. his army was isolated and
destroyed by the Roman commander Lucius
Licinius Lucullus. In 66, Pompey the Great
succeeded to the Roman command and defeated
Mithradates, who had regained much of his
territory. Mithradates then devised a plan for the
invasion of Italy from the north, but his troops
deserted to his son, Pharnaces and Mithradates
soon committed suicide.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the
coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who might have touched the coin before us, or
where the coin will venture to after it leaves our
hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of
the state that struck them, of a specific time and
location, whether contemporary currencies or
artifacts of long forgotten empires. This
stunning hand-struck coin reveals an expertise
of craftsmanship and intricate sculptural detail
that is often lacking in contemporary machine-
made currencies. Like many leaders, Mithradates
the Great adopted the imagery of Alexander the
Great in order to bolter his legitimacy as a ruler.
Mithradates actively sought to associate himself
with King Alexander, who was viewed as a god in
the Hellenistic world, in order to bolster his
standing in the Greek provinces of Asia Minor.
This magnificent coin is more than a memorial to
a king; it is an artifact of an ancient kingdom
passed from the hands of civilization to
civilization, from generation to generation.
- (C.2006)
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