Tiridates II ruled Armenia during a period of sustained pressure from both the Sasanian Empire to the east and Rome to the west — the kingdom functioning as a perpetual buffer state whose rulers had to perform constant diplomatic balancing acts simply to survive. His bronze coinage is poorly documented in the primary sources, and Kovacs remains the principal reference precisely because so little systematic study existed before his work on Armenian numismatics.
The broad date range assigned to this type reflects genuine uncertainty rather than a long reign — attribution of Armenian bronzes from this period is complicated by reuse of dies and the absence of regnal dating conventions.
Tiridates II ruled Armenia during a period of sustained pressure from both the Sasanian Empire to the east and Rome to the west — the kingdom functioning as a perpetual buffer state whose rulers had to perform constant diplomatic balancing acts simply to survive. His bronze coinage is poorly documented in the primary sources, and Kovacs remains the principal reference precisely because so little systematic study existed before his work on Armenian numismatics.
The broad date range assigned to this type reflects genuine uncertainty rather than a long reign — attribution of Armenian bronzes from this period is complicated by reuse of dies and the absence of regnal dating conventions.