(BC 120-63) Mithradates VI - AV Stater

Mithradates VI, 120-63 BC. AV Stater (8.46g). Pergamon mint. Dated year 4 of Pergamene Era (86/85 BC); struck during the First Mithradatic War. Diademed head right, hair tousled and flowing freely / Stag grazing left; pellet below, star and crescent to left, D (date) to right, monogram in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Good VF, minor scrape in reverse field. Very rare.

Mithradates' career driven by megalomaniacal ambitions leading to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the gods as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that formerly circulated in the Asian territory he conquered in his first war with Rome in 88 BC, which witnessed the horrific massacre of the Roman citizens of Asia Minor. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos and the mintmark is of Pergamon, all part of the new Pontic kingdom, symbolized by the star and crescent.