★ An excellent early portrait of Mithradates VI ★

KINGS OF PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator, circa 120-63 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 16.83 g, 12 h), Pergamon, year 208 of the Bithyno-Pontic era, 9th month = June 89 BC. Diademed head of Mithradates VI to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - MIΘPAΔATOY / EYΠATOPOΣ Pegasus grazing left; in field to left, star-in-crescent (Pontic royal badge); to right, HΣ (year) above monogram; in exergue, Θ (month); all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callataÿ p. 12, D47/R5 f ( this coin ). Dewing 2120 ( same obverse die ). Gulbenkian 939. HGC 7, 338. SNG von Aulock 6678 ( same dies ). Very well struck, beautifully toned and with an excellent portrait. A few tiny marks and with very light doubling, otherwise, good extremely fine.

From the Basileiai Hellēnikai Collection of Exceptional Tetradrachms and the collection of Annemarie and Gerd Köhlmoos, Künker 376, 18 October 2022, 4019, ex Hess-Divo 310, 22 October 2008, 106, and from the collection of O. H. Knoepke, Glendining & Baldwin's, 10 December 1986, 237. This magnificent piece was minted by Mithridates VI to finance the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BC), which would culminate the following year in the Asian Vespers. On Mithridates VI's orders, an estimated 80,000 to 150,000 Romans and Italians were massacred in Asia Minor in a coordinated action. Given the orchestrated violence against a specific ethnic group, some modern historians have described the massacre as an early form of genocide. While applying such modern concepts to the ancient world is debatable, there is no doubt that the Asian Vespers represents a particularly dark chapter in ancient history