Phraates IV secured the Parthian throne by murdering his father Orodes II and then systematically eliminating his brothers — some thirty of them. Roman relations dominated his long reign: he returned the legionary standards captured at Carrhae in 53 BC to Augustus in 20 BC, a diplomatic gesture Rome celebrated as a military victory and Phraates likely viewed as a cheap concession. He was eventually poisoned by his Italian slave-wife Musa, whom he had accepted as a gift from Augustus.
Sellwood 54 spans a wide chronological range within the reign, with die studies suggesting continued production at Mithradatkart.
Phraates IV secured the Parthian throne by murdering his father Orodes II and then systematically eliminating his brothers — some thirty of them. Roman relations dominated his long reign: he returned the legionary standards captured at Carrhae in 53 BC to Augustus in 20 BC, a diplomatic gesture Rome celebrated as a military victory and Phraates likely viewed as a cheap concession. He was eventually poisoned by his Italian slave-wife Musa, whom he had accepted as a gift from Augustus.
Sellwood 54 spans a wide chronological range within the reign, with die studies suggesting continued production at Mithradatkart.