archaicwonder:Rare Tetradrachm of Mithradates VI of Pontus, c. 115-105 BC Diademed head of Mithrad
archaicwonder: Rare Tetradrachm of Mithradates VI of Pontus, c. 115-105 BC Diademed head of Mithradates right. On the reverse, Pegasus preparing to lie down, a star within a crescent to the left, a monogram to the right, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ inscribed above, ΜIθPAΔATOU EUΠATOPOΣ below; all within an ivy wreath. The earliest issues of Mithradates VI are undated with his dated issues beginning only in 96/5 BC. These early types are all extremely rare. This coin bears a remarkably realistic portrait of Mithradates in fine Hellenistic style that is reminiscent of earlier Pontic coins. Mithradates VI, also known as Mithradates the Great or Mithradates Eupator, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia (now Turkey) from about 120–63 BC. Mithridates is remembered as one of the Roman Republic’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey. He was also the greatest ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus, a prince of Persian and Greek ancestry. He claimed descent from Cyrus the Great, from the family of Darius the Great. On the Greek side he was descended from Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Seleucus I Nicator, who were generals of Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death, they became kings of parts of Alexander’s divided empire. -- source link