Musa of Parthia
(obverse, with Nike on each side) and Musa (reverse). The Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΣΣΕΣ ΘΕΑ ΟΥΡΑΝΙΑΣ (queen, goddess in heaven).
Musa was queen of Parthia c. 2 BC–AD 4. She was an Italian slave given as a concubine by the Roman emperor Augustus to king Phraates IV of Parthia as part payment for the return of the eagles lost by Marcus Licinius Crassus in the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. She became a favourite of Phraates and he made her his legitimate wife under the name of "the goddess Musa"; her son Phraates V, commonly called Phraataces (a diminutive form), he appointed successor. She persuaded Phraates to send his other sons to Rome as hostages. With all rivals out of the way, she and Phraataces poisoned the king and and assumed the throne in about 2 BC. They appear together on their coins, and were apparantly co-rulers. Josephus alleges that Musa then married Phraataces, and, this being unacceptable to the Parthians, they rose up and overthrew them, offering the crown to Orodes III.
ReferencesJosephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xviii, 2–4.
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