PARTHIAN KINGDOM. Osroes II (ca. AD 190-208). AR drachm (18mm, 3.64 gm, 1h). NGC AU 5/5 - 3/5. Ecbatana. Diademed, draped bust of Osroes II left, with long pointed beard, wearing tiara, four pendant ends to diadem; dotted border / Corrupted Greek legend, archer (Arsaces I) enthroned right, in Parthian dress, with bow in outstretched right hand; AT monogram below bow. Sunrise 453. Shore 437. Sellwood 85.1. Ex Heritage Auctions, Auction 232246 (16 November 2022), lot 63127. Osroes II (alternatively Khosrow) attempted to usurp the Parthian throne of Vologases IV in 190 AD, and he must have been successful in at least briefly wresting control over the western part of Iran. Numismatic evidence is all that survives of Osroes II's reign. His namesake, Osroes I, had rebelled against a Parthian Emperor (also named Vologases) nearly a century earlier, and there is a possibility that he was the same Osroes who minted independent coinage as the Parthian vassal king of Elymais, in the heartland of what would become the province of Khuzestan. Osroes II's royal portrait on the obverse of his coins is a significantly linearized emulation of Osroe I's, which was itself based on the Sasanianesque portrait of the king of Elymais. HID09801242017 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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