|
KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.40 g, 12h). First Mithradatic War issue. In the name and types of Lysimachos of Thrace. Byzantion mint. Struck circa 88-86 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear diagonally in background; ΔI monogram to inner left, BY on throne; in exergue, ornate trident left. CNG 93, lot 336 (same obv. die); Münzen und Medaillen GmbH 38, lot 10; otherwise, unpublished. Faintly toned, trace deposits, minor marks, test cut on edge. VF. Extremely rare, one of apparently three known.
From the Kalevala Collection. Ex Künker 277 (21 June 2016), lot 38.
Soon after coming to power as king of the Black Sea backwater of Pontos, Mithradates VI showed signs of an ambition that the borders of his small kingdom could not contain. Frustrated that Rome controlled most of the territories he had marked out for conquest, he cannily observed the growing resentment that greedy Roman businessmen and magistrates were earning in Asia Minor and portrayed himself as the means by which the Greek world would gain its vengeance and freedom. He invaded Rome’s Asia province in 88 BC and precipitated the massacre of 80,000 Italian residents. He next invaded Greece proper, but was met there and defeated by Roman legions under Sulla. A revolution in Rome, however, forced Sulla to cut a quick deal with Mithradates and return to Italy. A decade later, Mithradates was at it again, attacking the Roman protectorate of Bithynia and drawing a response from the general Lucullus. Again, Mithradates suffered humiliating defeat and he slipped away to fight another day. The Third Mithradatic War (73-66 BC) was another brutal back-and-forth affair finally brought to an end by Pompey the Great. Yet again, Mithradates escaped and was planning another war when his own son, Pharnakes II, led a rebellion that trapped him in the citadel of Pantikapaion. Mithradates tried to take poison to avoid capture, only to find his attempts to immunize himself by taking small amounts of poison over the years had been all too successful. He finally induced a loyal Gallic swordsman to run him through instead.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 13 May at 9 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
|
