Sinatruces I
75 - 69 BCE
Sinatruk | Sinatrukes | سیناتروک
Sinatruces’ was perhaps the first Parthian King to feature stags on his tiara/crown. Download
Ver.2.0 - Last updated: April 13th 2022, by Mo. Rasoulipour
Brief Biography
Since the death of Mithridates II, The Parthian Empire had fallen into a state of turmoil and decline. Sanatruces took advantage of the chaotic situation in the empire, and with the aid of the Saka captured the Parthian throne in c. 75 BC, at the age of eighty.
During his reign, the king of Armenia, Tigranes the Great, took advantage of the weakness of the Parthians, and occupied a large portion of the western domains including Media Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene, Osroene, and northern Mesopotamia.
Sanatruces died in 69 BC and was succeeded by his son Phraates III.
- Paraphrased by Mahdi Valian from Wikipedia
References
Due to the similarity between the faces minted on coins of Sinatruces and his predecessors, his face on the coins might have been symbolic and not literal to an uncertain degree. Although due to the lack of visual evidence outside of remaining coins, one has no choice but to rely on what is available.
It is agreed among most scholars that the row of animals shown above this type of crown is depicting stags (See Iranica - Crown-ii). The artifacts shown above from Saka cultures may shed light on how these animals were represented on the crown.
The chart above shows the Sellwood attributions of coins to Kings. Historically there have been doughts about the differentiation of Sinatruces and Gotarzes coins. Recent studies and contemporary scholars agree that the staged tiara coins belong to Sinatruces. What is observed from these coins is that a deeply curved nose and long wavy beard are standard in all coins associated with Sinatruces. These are the features used in the recreation, with the consideration that he might have been in his eighties.
A few images of cows found in the general geographic area that could have inspired the shape of the horns on Sasa’s crown.
Likely Accuracy of the Creative Recreation
Weak Guess:
Due to the uncertainty of the level of realism in depicting the king on the coins, explained above and the lack of frontal views this creative reconstruction could be considered a weak guess.
See the latest work in progress:
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