DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45399#0027
THE PARTHIAN COINAGE.
17
had suffered most severely. But the vitality of Parthia was exhausted with the exertion
required to throw off this last of the Boman invasions, and the empire was about to fall.
Persia proper had long been a province of the Parthian dominions; but, like Media and other
provinces, had been governed by kings of its own, subject only to a tribute and a Parthian
garrison. Ardeshir or Artaxerxes raised, about 220 a.d., the banner of revolt against the
barbarian conquerors in the name of the ancient lineage and religion of Persia; Artabanus
fell in a battle,1 and the sceptre of the East passed from Parthian into Persian hands in
the year 226-7. Not that all resistance on the part of Parthia at once ceased. Doubtless
Hyrcania and Parthia proper would hold out long against the new Persian king. We possess
a tetradrachm with the date 227-8 and the name of Artavasdes, which must have been struck
by a Parthian patriot in a yet unconquered corner of the East; but this is the last monument
of Parthia. The nation, when it had once ceased to be victorious, vanished from the field os
politics like a dream, leaving, perhaps, fewer lessons and fewer memorials of every kind to
posterity than any other dynasty which has reigned, for half a millennium, within historical times.
III. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON COINAGE.
It will be best to prefix to a description of the coins issued by the Parthian Kings a
brief dissertation. All peculiarities attaching to particular issues will be noted in their place
in the detailed description; but a few general remarks are required in this place, on the
essential characteristics which run through all the series.
There are no known gold coins of Parthia, and it is at present impossible to say what
is the denomination or normal value of the copper pieces. All the silver coins, without
exception, follow the Attic standard as adopted by the Kings of Syria, whose tetradrachms
weigh about 270, the drachms about 67J, and the obols about 11 grains. Few of the Parthian
coins—except in certain reigns the drachms—come near to this standard, and a slight diminu-
tion of weight marks the later coins as compared with the earlier. It was not, however, by
reducing in Roman method the standard of weight that the Parthians debased their coin.
They found it more convenient to allow the metal used to deteriorate in quality. The coins
os Tiridates, and even os Mithradates, are of tolerably pure silver; those of the later Kings
of a very debased mixture. Together with the debasement of the metal of which the coin is
composed, proceeds the deterioration in art and workmanship, which must strike the most
superficial observer. The types mostly persist; but they are reproduced by every fresh die-
cutter in a more ugly and untruthful form.
The types used by a people on its coin are almost always characteristic, and offer us the
most valuable information as to the national customs and beliefs. This is perhaps less the case
1 Herodian vi. 2.
GARDNER
3
17
had suffered most severely. But the vitality of Parthia was exhausted with the exertion
required to throw off this last of the Boman invasions, and the empire was about to fall.
Persia proper had long been a province of the Parthian dominions; but, like Media and other
provinces, had been governed by kings of its own, subject only to a tribute and a Parthian
garrison. Ardeshir or Artaxerxes raised, about 220 a.d., the banner of revolt against the
barbarian conquerors in the name of the ancient lineage and religion of Persia; Artabanus
fell in a battle,1 and the sceptre of the East passed from Parthian into Persian hands in
the year 226-7. Not that all resistance on the part of Parthia at once ceased. Doubtless
Hyrcania and Parthia proper would hold out long against the new Persian king. We possess
a tetradrachm with the date 227-8 and the name of Artavasdes, which must have been struck
by a Parthian patriot in a yet unconquered corner of the East; but this is the last monument
of Parthia. The nation, when it had once ceased to be victorious, vanished from the field os
politics like a dream, leaving, perhaps, fewer lessons and fewer memorials of every kind to
posterity than any other dynasty which has reigned, for half a millennium, within historical times.
III. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON COINAGE.
It will be best to prefix to a description of the coins issued by the Parthian Kings a
brief dissertation. All peculiarities attaching to particular issues will be noted in their place
in the detailed description; but a few general remarks are required in this place, on the
essential characteristics which run through all the series.
There are no known gold coins of Parthia, and it is at present impossible to say what
is the denomination or normal value of the copper pieces. All the silver coins, without
exception, follow the Attic standard as adopted by the Kings of Syria, whose tetradrachms
weigh about 270, the drachms about 67J, and the obols about 11 grains. Few of the Parthian
coins—except in certain reigns the drachms—come near to this standard, and a slight diminu-
tion of weight marks the later coins as compared with the earlier. It was not, however, by
reducing in Roman method the standard of weight that the Parthians debased their coin.
They found it more convenient to allow the metal used to deteriorate in quality. The coins
os Tiridates, and even os Mithradates, are of tolerably pure silver; those of the later Kings
of a very debased mixture. Together with the debasement of the metal of which the coin is
composed, proceeds the deterioration in art and workmanship, which must strike the most
superficial observer. The types mostly persist; but they are reproduced by every fresh die-
cutter in a more ugly and untruthful form.
The types used by a people on its coin are almost always characteristic, and offer us the
most valuable information as to the national customs and beliefs. This is perhaps less the case
1 Herodian vi. 2.
GARDNER
3