Questions

[lim]

Question. Hello, I'm looking for money from the city of Ecbatana. I just don’t understand how dealers determine in which city the coin was issued? The example shows a Parthia coin.

[John Conduitt]

I think it is from the monogram below the archer. But all this type are Ecbatana so they don't need to work it out.

[mcwyler]

Yes it's the monogram that looks like an A with a dot, below the bow

[lim]

Is the text on the coin itself translated? Or was it depicted for beauty?

[John Conduitt]

5 minutes ago, lim said:

Is the text on the coin itself translated? Or was it depicted for beauty?

Originally, it said something. By this time, not so much. Something like, "King of Kings, Arsaces (the first ruler), benefactor, just, illustrious friend of the Greeks".

[JAZ Numismatics]

Here is a translation of all the individual words (into French), plus a table of legends arranged by Sellwood numbers...

https://www.parthika.fr/Inscriptions.html#haut

Edited November 6, 2024 by JAZ Numismatics

[lim]

Thanks a lot. I read the text, it’s interesting that the text on the money is written in Greek. It’s strange, because Parthia was Persian territory and, logically, the Persian language should be used.

[John Conduitt]

15 minutes ago, lim said:

Thanks a lot. I read the text, it’s interesting that the text on the money is written in Greek. It’s strange, because Parthia was Persian territory and, logically, the Persian language should be used.

I imagine Greek was the language of court and educated people, like Latin and French in medieval Europe. (Even modern US coins have Latin on them). The Parthians didn't write much down so there wasn't a tradition of writing in Parthian.

[JAZ Numismatics]

Alexander III established Greek culture as far east as India, several generations before the founding of the Parthian Empire. By the time Arsaces came on the scene, Greek was well established as a lingua franca in Persia.

[lim]

But then the Sasanians seemed to communicate in Aramaic. And I know that during the Achaemenid period the army language was also preserved. Even the Bible was the first to be written in this language. Why did the language return to those parts?

[JAZ Numismatics]

The Achaemenid Empire came before Alexander III, and the Sasanians came much later, 3rd century AD. The Parthians came soon after Alexander's conquests, so it makes sense they were the most Hellenized, in exactly the same way Greek culture spread through most of the Levant and Egypt during the era of the Seleucids and Ptolemies.

There is also a psychological element. Almost all civilizations that came in contact with Greek culture recognized its superiority, and embraced it eagerly.

Edited November 6, 2024 by JAZ Numismatics

[Parthicus]

The earliest version of the Ekbatana monogram is a combination of Alpha, Gamma, and Tau for Agbatana (an alternate spelling of the city's name).  Over time this got simplified to the later form seen in teh OP coin, of an A with a crossbar on top and dot underneath.  Most of the other Parthian mint-monograms similarly make sense- Rhagae is Rho plus Gamma, Mithradatkart is Mu plus Theta (with the small Theta eventually shrinking to just a dot), etc.  

The Parthians, it's important to note, were not Persians.  The Parthians originated as horse-riding nomads on the steppes of what is now Turkmenistan, and moved down to conquer the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia plus some adjacent lands.  They seem to have been distant relatives of the Persians, but were distinct culturally and in language.  The Parthian language is not very well understood, and for their coinage they mostly used Greek (the cities had been pretty Hellenized by the time the Parthians came around), but on some of the last coinage we do see Aramaic letters used to abbreviate the king's name on the obverse, and one line of Aramaic at the top of the reverse that names the king:

Vologases VI

 

And Artabanos VI:

The Sasanians were indeed culturally Persians, originating in Fars (Pars) and speaking a form of Persian that they used on their coins, written in Pahlavi script.  They might have sometimes used Aramaic to talk to some of their subjects, especially in the western part of their territory where locals may have spoken Aramaic as their main language, but I am unaware of any use of Aramaic on a Sasanian coin.  (I'd love to be shown wrong on that assumption.)

 

 

[lim]

Thanks interesting.