The Bronze Heracles of Mesene

[JMP]

The statue shown underneath is known as "The Bronze Heracles of Mesene".
It was found in the ruins of the city of Seleucia on the Tigris and since 1984 it is in The Iraq Museum in Baghdad.

In 151 AD, the Parthian king Vologases IV drove Mithradates, son of Pacorus out of Mesene and so, brought Mesene back in the Parthian orbit of which it was fallen out since Trajanus' invasion in 116 AD.
By this occasion Vologases brought this statue from Mesene to Seleucia, where he placed it in the temple of Tiri (= Apollo).

That is the story which is written on this statues' thighs, in Greek and in Parthian.

In the next message, we get to see the Greek text, a translation of it in English and a transcription of the Parthian script of which we will see what we can learn.

[JMP]

Here is the text which is written on the statues' thighs:
The Greek text and its translation in English are clear enough and need no special explanation.
The Parthian text however, not only by its strange alphabet but certainly also because it does not use vowels, is not easily to read and a transcription gives us only an idea of the difficulties we are placed for.

WLGShY MLKYN MILK' we recognise from the topic about Vologases' bust, it means:"Vologases, king of kings".
From the translation of the Greek text, we can deduce that MTRDT and PKWR stand for Mithradates and Pacorus and that BRY means son (of). MYShN is obviously Mesene, but Heracles is for the Parthians "Verethraghna" (WRTRGN) and that is a rather oriental, Indo-Persian god.
And the temple of Apollo from the Greek text, becomes the temple of Tiri, an Armenian-Parthian godhead. This means, the name Tiridates is about the equivalent of Apollodatus.

All such little things, I find interesting to know and to learn them from the thighs of this remarkable statue, very special !

[JMP]

Those messages about Vologases IV make a lot more sense for someone who has coins of this Vologases in his collection of course. For me, this is the case since I was on a specialized coin fair for ancient coins, last month.

Underneath: on top, a specimen of CoinArchives (for I do not undo my coins of their coinholder just to show them here).
And my coin, which is about exactly the same.

Coins of Vologases IV can be identified with some confidence, because exeptionally in the top line of their reverses legend, one can read Vologases name in Parthian script. The rest of the legend is in stylized Greek: