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years, between about 239 and 231, Tiridates ruled in Parthia and Hyrcania without taking the royal title, and was proclaimed Basileus about 231. Parthian coinage confirms this historical reconstruction.76 The earliest series of Parthian coins, minted in the Far East, is that of fractional silver and bronze, with the beardless head of a ruler, wearing an Iranian cap tied with diadem.77 The legend is , then . Accordingly, there was a period when an Arsacid ruled in Parthia without the royal title which he then assumed.76

    Let us sum up the chronological results of our investigation:
    250: Insurrection of Parni in Bactria.
    247-6: Tiridates succeeds Arsaces as the head of Parni.
    246: War between Syria and Egypt (the war of Laodice). ca.
    245: Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria, proclaimed king.
    Fall 241: Peace between Syria and Egypt.
    240: The war between Seleucus I I and Antiochus Hierax.
    239: Seleucus II defeated at Ancyra.
    238: Parthia invaded by Parni. Antiochus Hierax defeated by Attalus. Attalus proclaimed king.
    Before 236: Peace between Seleucus II and Antiochus Hierax.
    231: Seleucus' expedition against the Parthes. Death of Diodotus I. Tiridates defeated Seleucus near Asaac and proclaimed king. Introduction of Arsacid reckoning from 247-6.
    230: Second war between Antiochus Hierax and Attalus.
    229: Antiochus Hierax defeated at Coloe.
    226: Death of Seleucus II.
    211: Death of Tiridates I. Accession of Arsaces II.

ELIAS J. BICKERMAN

76. It is a fashion now to assign the beginnings of the Parthian coinage to the reign of Mithridates II, about 16o B.C., following a theory of J. de Morgan. See now his Mannuel de Numismatique Orientale, 1923, p. 123. His view is accepted by the best authorities on the subject-as Newell, WM, p. 35; McDowell (n. 60), p. 159. But while coins of this group were often issued in the second century B.C. by the same mints in the Parthian East (cf. Newell, EM, p. 256, n. 14), the type must have been introduced, as the legend shows, before the Arsacids assumed the royal name, that is, long before Mithridates II. We may note that this class of coins has only the dotted border, while

   

other Parthian silver has mostly the filleted border introduced by Antiochus III, ca. 222 B.C. (cf. Newell, WM, p. 395). The tetradrachms, of course, were minted only by Mithridates, modeled after coins of Demetrius I of Syria. Cf. Newell, Royal Greek Portrait Coins, 1937.
77. On the form of this bonnet cf. J. de Morgan, loc. cit., p. 133. I note that the diadem itself is worn also by rulers without royal rank, e.g. Vahuzbert (Oborzus) of Persis, etc.
78. Cf. coins with legend: and . Or and , etc.

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