Scarce billon tetradrachm, Aspavarma (ca. 15-45 CE), Arpacarajas, Indo-Scythians

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King mounted on a horse, holding a whip. Greek legend around ΒΑΣÎΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣÎΛΕΩΝ ÎΕΓΑΛΟΥ / ΑΖΟY // Pallas Athena holding spear, and triratna symbol. Kharoshthi legend around Imtravarmaputrasa Aspavarmasa strategasa jayatasa ("Victorious strategos (general) Aspavarma, son of Indravarma"). 21mm, 9.22 grams. Senior 183.517T; Mitchiner AC#2488; Mitchiner Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian Coinage, #898. 

Rare. Ex-Steve Album (without Album's slip). Roughly cleaned, but much better silver content than usual.

Aspavarma (c. 15–45 CE) was an Indo-Scythian ruler of the Apraca (Apracarāja) dynasty, which controlled parts of Gandhāra and the northwestern frontier during the early first century CE. The Apracas were important regional rulers linking the late Indo-Scythian and emerging Indo-Parthian political worlds. Aspavarma was the son of the Apraca ruler Indravarma and is known from both coins and inscriptions. He initially acknowledged the authority of the Indo-Scythian king Azes II and subsequently that of the Indo-Parthian Gondophares, illustrating the shifting political allegiances of the period. His bilingual Greek-Kharoṣṭhī coinage, particularly the characteristic horseman / Athena types, reflects the continuing influence of Indo-Greek monetary traditions while identifying him through his Kharoṣṭhī title as stratega (“general”). 

 


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