Mithridates & Perseus

"having received also from Hermes an adamantine sickle he (Perseus) flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon."
-Apollodorus, The Library, 2.55-57

Under Mithridates VI Eupator, Amisos struck an abundance of bronzes with the city’s name and types inspired by Mithridatic and Athenian tradition. Mithridates set himself up as the protector of Anatolia from Roman interference. His orchestrated purge of 80K Romans from Asia minor started the war with Rome that put Marius and Sulla in conflict and the sent Sulla to War with Mithridates.

The Coin

This tiny well preserved AE coin is packed with symbolism.

Pontus, Amisos , circa 85-65 BC, Æ (14.5mm 2.78g)

Obv: Head of Perseus right, wearing a winged Phrygian helmet

Rev: ΑΜΙ - ΣΟΥ, winged harpa; monogram right.

Ref: SNG BMC Black Sea 1198; SNG Stancomb 693; SNG Copenhagen 160; Waddington Recueil, pg. 55, 32.

Perseus: Perseus killed Medusa with divine help; Apollodorus says Hermes gave him a sickle, Athena guided his hand, and Perseus cut off Medusa’s head while she slept. Mithridates VI claimed descent from the Achaemenid kings of Persia. In Greek mythology, Perseus was the eponymous ancestor of the Persians (Perses). By featuring Perseus, Mithridates bridged the gap between his Iranian roots and his Greek subjects.

Phrygian Helmet: While the helmet is "winged" (a Greek attribute of Perseus), its Phrygian shape emphasizes the Eastern character of the Pontic Kingdom. It presents Perseus as an Anatolian hero.

Harpa: The harpa was the weapon used by Perseus to decapitate Medusa. In a Mithridatic context, this represents the striking power of the King. It serves as a visual metaphor for Mithridates the savior who would "slay" the Roman Gorgon threatening the East.

Perseus

Greek mythology puts Perseus as the founding father of the Persians. Herodotus reports that the people later known as Persians had once been called Cephenes by the Greeks and Artaians by themselves and their neighbours. After Perseus, son of Danaë and Zeus, came to Cepheus, married Andromeda, and left behind their son Perses, the race took the name “Persians” from Perses.

For Mithridates VI, this genealogy was politically valuable: Perseus was at once a Greek heroic monster-slayer and, through Perses, an imagined ancestor of the Persians. He could therefore bridge Greek and Iranian cultures, making Perseus an ideal symbol for a Pontic king trying to present himself as both Greek liberator and heir to eastern kingship.

Amisos

Amisos, was near modern Samsun on the southern Black Sea coast. It was a Greek city whose importance came less from a great natural harbor than from its strategic position at a key route between the Pontic coast and the Anatolian interior. Founded as an Ionian colony, later reinforced by Athenian settlers and briefly renamed Peiraeus, it recovered the name Amisos after Alexander and became one of the principal cities of the Pontic kingdom.

Under Mithridates VI Eupator, it was enlarged and ornamented, with the king founding a new adjoining quarter that he named after himself, Eupatoria. Its prominence made it a target in the Mithridatic Wars. Lucullus captured the city in 71 BC after a difficult siege: Eupatoria was destroyed, Amisos was badly burned and plundered, then restored and granted freedom. In that sense, Amisos was both a Greek civic mint and a Mithridatic stronghold where Perseus, the winged harpa, and anti-Roman hope were struck on a small bronze coin.

References

• Waddington, W. H., E. Babelon, and Th. Reinach. Recueil général des monnaies grecques d'Asie Mineure. Tome 1, Fascicule 1: Pont et Paphlagonie. 2nd ed. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1925. (Chicago Style)

• Price, Martin J. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Volume IX, The British Museum, Part 1: The Black Sea. London: British Museum Press, 1993. (Entry 1198).