KINGS OF CHARACENE. Abinergaios II(?), circa AD 165-180. Tetradrachm (Bronze, 24 mm, 16.12 g, 12 h), Charax-Spasinu. Diademed and draped bust of Abinergaios II (?) to right, wearing tiara. Rev. Herakles seated left, holding club set on knee; in upper left field, monogram; below Herakles' arm, Aramaic letter. Alram 508. BMC p. 302, 1-2 var. (differing letter below arm; as 'Banaga/Binaga'). Klose & Müseler -. Rare and unusually complete. Patina stripped and somewhat porous, otherwise, very fine.



The seated Herakles depicted on this issue from the second half of the 2nd century AD traces its origins to the coinage of the Bactrian king Euthydemos I (circa 225-200 BC). This motif was later adopted by the first king of Characene, Hyspaosines (circa 128/7-124 BC), a long-serving Seleucid satrap who, only in old age - following the failed Anabasis of Antiochos VII - renounced the authority of the former imperial power and established his own realm. The coins of Abinergaios II (?) bear witness to the iconographic continuity within Characene, where, even three centuries later and under prolonged periods of Parthian hegemony, a conscious memory of Hellenistic roots clearly endured.