Nomos 35

KINGS OF BOSPOROS. Mithradates III, 39/40-44/5 . Stater (Gold, 20 mm, 7.88 g, 12 h), dated Bosporan era TΛH = 338 = 41-2. Laureate head of Claudius to right. Rev. BACIΛEΩC MIΘPIΔATOV / Η - ΛΤ Nike alighting to left, holding wreath in her outstretched right hand and palm in her left. A. Bertier-Delagarde, Numismaticeskij Sbornik II (1913), p. 105, 99. MacDonald 310. RPC I 1909. Extremely rare, only four were known to RPC very well-struck and clear. Die shift on the obverse and struck from slightly rusty dies, otherwise, extremely fine.

Tiberius Julius Mithradates acceded to the throne of the Bosporan kingdom as King Mithradates III following the death of his mother Gepaepyris in 39. He was not only a Roman citizen, but through his grandparents he could claim descent from both Mark Antony and Mithradates VI of Pontus. As the obverse portrait on this spectacular stater/aureus indicates, Mithradates III did not really owe his authority to his lineage, or even to the natural laws of royal succession, but to the approval of the Roman Emperor. Exactly which emperor this was meant to be is uncertain, if an emperor was meant, since the head on this coin is a kind of generic Julio-Claudian one. While it has been identified as Claudius by some, it is the same as the head on Mithradates's issue of year 336 or 39/40, which, of course, was struck under Caligula! So perhaps it is best seen as a romanised portrait of Mithradtes III himself. Unfortunately for Mithradates III, he had a younger brother named Cotys who was also desirous of the Bosporan throne. After a five year reign, in 44/5 Cotys managed to convince Claudius that he would be a more suitable client king than his older brother. While Mithradates III then raised an army and marched against Cotys and his Roman allies, he was defeated and deposed after a three-day war. Thanks to his regal bearing, even in defeat, Claudius spared him the shame of appearing in a Roman triumphal procession and instead ordered him into exile.

This extremely rare coin was struck in happier times, when the king, who was known to call himself Philogermanicus ("Friend of Germanicus") in reference either to Claudius's popular older brother or to the Emperor himself, could still count on the friendship of Claudius and his family and when he had not yet been deserted by the Victory who was his coin type.