(AD 38-64) Polemo II - AE 21

Polemo II, 38-64 AD. AE21 (6.56g). Uncertain mint in Armenia, ca 60-64 AD. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓ Μ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΩΝΟΣ (ΟΣ in ligature), diademed, naked portrait bust of Polemo right within dotted border / ΙΟΥΛΙΑΣ ΜΑΜΜΑΙΑΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ, diademed, draped portrait bust of Mammaea right within dotted border. About VF. Extremely rare, perhaps the third specimen known.

Originally appointed king of Pontus by Caligula in 38 AD, Polemo made a career dependent on Roman politics. When he was deprived of his (nominal) rule of Bosporus in favor of a certain Mithradates in 41, Claudius gave him the district of the Cilician city Olba instead. In 64, Polemo got at least a part of Armenia as a reward for assisting Corbulo's campaigns. However, just four years later Nero annexed the kingdom of Pontus, and so Polemo's rule was confined to the city of Olba. The king's consort appearing on this coin was Polemo's second wife. His first marriage was to Berenike, sister of Agrippa II and later consort of Titus. His second wife, Mammaea, given the identity of the names, seems likely to have originated from the same region in Syria as the later Roman empress.