sulla80
Numismatics & Generative AI
There are multiple versions of the story of Pandora. Hesiod, who is thought to have lived between 750 and 650 BC, describes the creation...
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sulla80
Mar 173 min read
Standards Restored
"I compelled the Parthians to restore to me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies and to ask as suppliants for the friendship of...
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sulla80
Feb 178 min read
A Fierce Parthian Portrait
This week's coin of interest is a 13.24g tetradrachm of Artabanus II (also know as Artabanus III and IV by various historians). This...
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sulla80
Apr 10, 20236 min read
King Phraates IV and Son
This post was originally published in August 27, 2020 and has been updated with additional coins, references and images. I had been...
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sulla80
Apr 29, 20224 min read
Parthian Beginnings
After the death of Alexander the Great in June of 323 BC, his generals fought each other and divided up his empire. Seleukos I took the...
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sulla80
Apr 9, 20225 min read
The End of Parthia
February 19, 197, the armies of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus clashed in Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France), and concluded the civil...
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sulla80
Feb 24, 20224 min read
Rome v. Parthia (AD 161-166)
I wrote an earlier post on Rome v. Parthia - in May 53 BC, when at Carrhae, Mesopotamia a member of the Sūrēn (Surena) family won a...
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sulla80
Jan 22, 20223 min read
Trajan Aims for Parthia
At the end of the reign of Rabbel II, King of Nabatea (78-106 AD), in 106 AD, Trajan annexed his kingdom and created the Roman province...
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sulla80
Dec 24, 20217 min read
Parthian Invasion, 40 BC
The Parthians are mostly known from the writings of their Greek and Roman enemies - not the writers you would trust to document...
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sulla80
Jan 21, 20213 min read
A Parthian Usurper's Tetradrachm
My coin for today is an unusual tetradrachm of Parthia, from a few years after the end of the Roman republic and the beginning of the...
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sulla80
Sep 11, 20204 min read
Romans vs. Parthians
After a number of diversions in Anatolia, and a bit of a Roman Republican drought, this week I added another Roman Republican coin to my...
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sulla80
Sep 6, 20202 min read
Arsakes XVI and the Third Mithridatic War
Attributing Parthian coins to a king and time period, can be complicated. This coin, 30.16, is assigned by Sellwood to an Unknown King...
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sulla80
Sep 6, 20204 min read
Sulla in Cappadocia: First Meeting with Parthia
This story of the first diplomatic contact between Rome and Parthia, is illustrated with three coins. The story begins around 101 BC when...
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sulla80
Sep 5, 20202 min read
Resources for Parthian Coins
I have been reading the The Sunrise Collection, Assar's intro on Parthian coins. The most referenced resource for Parthian coins is...
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sulla80
Sep 23, 20182 min read
Provenance
I often ask for provenance for the coins that I have purchased. Only rarely do I get anything and then it is something like from "a...
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