DescriptionThere was a time when he was thought of as Artabanus II. He was a governor who rebelled against a Roman puppet. He had to come to an arrangement with Rome, and that involved, as usual, concessions in Armenia. During his reign Gondophares the Indo-Parthian seceded in the east. Artabanus could not resist messing around in Armenia. The Roman response was to meddle in Parthian politics, resulting in the overthrow of Artabanus. He managed to make up with his Parthian opponents, then died. Problems. Nothing but problems.The Parthians were Central Asian nomads who descended on the “settled” and “civilized” world with their new military invention, which was stirrups, which permitted the existence of mounted spear bearing warriors.Coins of the “Greek” world before Alexander are called “archaic” if they’re old enough, and “classical” for the period of high artistry. From Alexander on they are called “Hellenistic,” and display a change of subject matter from dieties to monarchs.Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.
