★ Mithradates III, Client King of Rome ★

Kings of the Bosporos, Mithridates III, with Claudius AV Stater. Dated BE 338 = AD 41/2. Head of Claudius right / BACIΛEΩC MIΘPIΔATOV, Victory standing left, holding wreath; HAT (date) across fields. McDonald 310; RPC I 1909; A. Bertier-Delagarde, Numis­maticeskij Sbornik II (1913), p. 105, 99. 7.95g, 22mm, 12h.

About Good Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare; only 3 examples cited by RPC, with none offered at auction in the past 20 years.

From the William Stancomb Collection.

Extending across the Crimea and eastern coastal regions of the Black Sea, the Bosporan Kingdom had long been a contested region for the surrounding powers, owing to its strategic position. In 47 BC, it was brought under Roman dominion with the decisive defeat of its last independent king, Pharnakes II, by Julius Caesar. Pharnakes had offered terms of truce before the fighting began, but this offer was refused by Caesar who proceeded to annihilate the Bosporan forces in less than four hours. It was this victory which he reportedly described with the immortal words “veni, vidi, vici”; I came, I saw, I conquered (Suetonius, I, 37).

The Bosporan Kingdom did not pass into direct Roman control following Caesar’s conquest. Instead, Rome continued to pursue a policy initiated by Pompey of supporting client kings selected for their compliance, and backed by Roman force of arms. Mithridates III. As this coin demonstrates, these ‘friendly kings’ consciously chose to adopt Roman styling, including assuming Roman names – Tiberius Julius Mithridates III succeeded his father Tiberius Julius Aspourgos (who had taken these Roman names in honour of his Roman imperial patrons) in AD 38 in joint rule together with his brother and mother. At some point thereafter, Claudius granted sole rule to Mithradates.

In AD 45 the emperor Claudius deposed Mithridates for uncertain reasons and appointed his younger brother Kotys I in his place. Almost nothing is known of Mithridates before this save that he was descended of Marc Antony through his grandmother Antonia Tryphaena, and claimed descent through Aspourgos from Alexander’s generals Antigonos, Seleukos, and Antipater; coins such as this example provide nearly all of the surviving evidence. In the event, the change of king proved not to be a peaceful matter, as attested by the layer of destruction found during recent excavations of Artezian and several other fortresses (see Abramzon and Vinokurov, ‘Gold Staters of Aspurgus and Mithridates III…’, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, July 2017).

Having fled into exile, Mithridates allied himself with the neighbouring Siracene prince, Zorsines. The Roman commander Aulus Didius Gallus had departed with the bulk of the Roman forces leaving behind only a few cohorts to defend Kotys, and thus Mithridates hoped to overthrow Kotys and his Roman supporters. Stealing the initiative however, the Romans attacked Mithridates’ strongholds and in the meantime Zorsines was besieged in his city of Upse by the ally of Kotys, Eunones of the Aorsi. Zorsines capitulated almost immediately, and upon learning of this Mithridates presented himself to Eunones and offered himself as a captive. Falling to his knees, he announced, “Mithridates, whom the Romans have sought for so many years over land and sea, is here of his own accord. Use as thou wilt the issue of the great Achaemenes - the one title of which my enemies have not bereft me.” (Tacitus, Annals, XII, 18). His only request, in exchange for bringing a quick end to what would be a difficult war with only “modest laurels”, was not to be paraded publicly as a captive according to Roman tradition. Claudius therefore instructed his representative to accept Mithridates as a captive, stating that “every extension of his poverty-stricken life would be an extension of [his] punishment”.