Kings of Pontus. Mithradates VI Eupator, circa 120–64 BC. AV Stater

Kings of Pontus. Mithradates VI Eupator, circa 120–64 BC. AV Stater (20 mm, 8.21 g). In the name of Lysimachus. Tomis, circa 88–86 BC. Obv. Diademed head of Alexander the Great right, with horn of Ammon. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ, Athena seated left, holding Nike in right hand and resting left elbow on shield; transverse spear behind; in inner left field, ΛΥ; in exergue, ornate trident left. De Callataÿ –, cf. D7/R1; SNG Copenhagen 1094 var. (different monogram). Very fine. Provenance: Ex Harlan J. Berk 97 (1997), lot 9; Ira and Larry Goldberg 62 (2011), lot 3070. This attractive stater belongs to the late Lysimachi struck on the western Black Sea coast under Mithradates VI, who adopted the prestigious Alexander–Lysimachus coin type for his own political and financial purposes during the First Mithradatic War. Struck at Tomis, the issue follows the familiar royal portrait of Alexander with the horn of Ammon, a potent image of divine kingship that Mithradates consciously appropriated as he presented himself as champion of the Greeks against Rome. On the reverse, Athena seated left with Nike is preserved in fine classical style, but the addition of the trident in the exergue and the letters ΛΥ in the field serve as distinctive markers for this Black Sea issue. The trident is a particularly apt symbol for a coastal mint whose fortunes were tied to maritime power and Pontic control of the Euxine. Gold staters of this Tomitan series are both historically evocative and relatively elusive, standing at the intersection of Hellenistic royal tradition and Mithradatic propaganda in the final great resistance to Roman expansion in the Greek East.