38 BC. - 2 AD., Ecbatana in Parthia, Arsacid Kingdom, Phraates IV., AR Drachm, Sellwood 52.10.

The Arsacid Kingdom of Parthia, Phraates IV., Ecbatana mint, 38 BC. - 2 AD.,
AR Drachm (17-20 mm / 3.73 g).
Obv.: draped and diademed head l. with pointed beard, behind, eagle l., holding wreath in its beak.
Rev. above: BAΣIΛEΩΣ / BAΣIΛEΩN ; on r.: AP-ΣAK[OY] ; in ex.: [E]YEPΓETOY / ΔIKAIOY ; on l.: EΠIΦANOY[Σ] / ΦIΛEΛΛHN[OΣ] , archer enthroned r., in field r., AΓ T monogram.
Sellwood 52.10 ; Shore 278 ; BMC 23.110, 57 ; Sear GC 7472 .

Ecbatana, modern Hamadan, Iran. Alternate spelling: Agbatana. Under the Parthians, it was the satrapal seat of the province of Media and on the early Silk route that led from Areia (Herat) to Rhagae to Ecbatana where the city controls the major east-west route through the central Zagros, the so-called High Road. From Ecbatana, the goods passed into Syria via the Fertile Crescent or across the desert via Dura-Europas or Palmyra, or a more southerly route through Mesopotamia to Seleucia or Ctesiphon. A Parthian period Greek inscription on the statue of Herakles at Bisotun dated 149/48 B.C. refers to a Cleomenes as satrap of the "upper provinces" (Media); it would appear that Media and Ecbatana did not fall to the Parthian king Mithradates I until ca. 147. The attempt by Antiochus VII in 130 B.C. to restore Seleucid power in Persia probably stopped short of Ecbatana, as did the invasion by Tigranes II of Armenia in the later years of Mithradates II (Frye, 1984, pp. 212, 215). The Parthians continued to use Ecbatana as a royal summer residence (Strabo, 11.13.1, 16.1.16; Curtius Rufus, 5.8.1; Tacitus, Annales 15.31) and as a royal mint. Parthian buildings in the city included the citadel on the Mosalla. ["Ecbatana," Encyclopaedia Iranica] The attribution to the mint at Ecbatana of issues of Mithradates I, with the title 'great King,' are possibly due to his conquest of this mint city ca. 147 B.C.