Greek Letterforms on the Parthian Drachms

Abstract

One of the most unusual coinages in antiquity was the coinage of the Parthian empire, largest of the later Hellenistic empires. The Parthians were a non-Greek people who used Greek as their first official language of state and as the predominant language on their coins. Their most common denomination, the silver drachm, bore Greek legends for almost half a millennium, and the letterforms underwent a significant transformation in the process. Since the coinage constitutes the largest body of primary source material extant concerning ancient Parthia, that transformation is of significant interest to the classification historian.