Ardshir, the monarchy of Parthia became merged in a second Persian empire. A branch of the Arsacidæ, however, established in Armenia, continued in power long after this period, and will be spoken of among the minor dynasties whose coins have come down to us. (See Appendix.)

In the earlier periods of the Parthian monarchy the coinage consisted of silver and copper, the silver very pure, but gold was never issued. At late periods the silver coins were so much adulterated as hardly to deserve the name, those of the last prince's being classed in cabinets with potin or coins of base metal. They vary very much in size, and it would be exceedingly difficult to ascertain what scale they represent. But the original coinage was doubtless founded on the Greek drachma; tetradrachmas, didrachmas, and drachmas, being found in the earlier periods, of correct weight and great purity.

The costume on some of the later coins is singular, the portraits being represented wearing a sort of tiara embroidered with pearls, and a large ornament apparently composed of pearls covering the ear. The secondary names of this series, such as Orodes, Artabanus, Phraates, &c., mentioned by historians, are but rarely found on the coinage, while the surnames on the coins, Philopator, Evergeté, &c., are never mentioned in history, which renders the attribution of the coins exceedingly difficult. Vaillant, in his first great work, has, however, done much to clear up the intricacy of the subject, and his explanation of the coins has proved the best aid in unravelling the difficulties and chronology of Parthian history. The later work of Eckhel, containing a condensed and corrected view of the subject, and Richter and Krausa, will also be found valuable works to the curious student of the subject, as well as the works of Prinsep, Wilson, and Lassen, and Visconti's great work, the "Iconographie Grecque." This series is very well furnished (with specimens) in the collection of the British Museum; but the finest collection of Parthian coins in London is undoubtedly that at the India house, presented by Sir H. Willock.

CHAPTER XIII.

COINS OF THE SASSANIDE, THE SUCCESSORS OF THE ARSACIDE IN CENTRAL ASIA, AND THE GREEK COINS OF BACTRIA AND INDIA.

ARDISHIR, or Ardshir, the Artaxerxes of the Romans, (from A.D. 226 to 240) was one of those extraordinary men who know how to seize and use those means by which great and permanent revolutions are effected. He was the son of Babec, an inferior officer in the army of Artabanus, and grandson of Sassan. The latter appears to have been a personage of some importance, as the princes who followed Ardishir preferred assuming that as the family name to either Babec or Ardishir. Ardishir himself is said to have been a distinguished officer in the Parthian army, and to have first conceived the idea of revolt in consequence of neglect. But the means by which he succeeded in raising a powerful party against the Parthian sovereign was the renewed idea of Persian independence; for the principal part of the territories over which a Parthian family had so long held sway was no other than ancient Persia. Ardishir, therefore, declared himself the heir of the great Cyrus, descended from the ancient kings of Persia. He further strengthened the popular feeling thus created in his favour by announcing his intention to re-establish the ancient religion of the country,—that of Zoroaster, which, though openly professed by the Parthian court, was nevertheless made secondary to Greek philosophy and Greek polytheism. For the Parthians conquering the country, as they did, soon after the death of Alexander the Great, adopted all the forms of Greek civilisation, and even the language, which became (much as French is now in Russia) the language of the court and the cultivated classes, while the ancient national dialect was still spoken by the mass of the people. The restoration of the national language as that of the princes and nobles, as well as of the people, was a principal cause of the permanence of the insurrection of Ardishir. He did not therefore. on attaining supremo

power, assume the title of "King of Kings" in the Greek form, BAZIAETZ RAZIAEON, but in the Persian equivalent-Shahinshah.

Ardishir, on feeling his sovereignty firmly established, felt so thoroughly his power as the head of a vast population, of whose highest national feelings he was, as it were, the impersonation, that he ventured to defy at once the giant power of Rome, claiming from the Emperor Alexander Severus the immediate cession of all those portions of the Roman empire that had belonged to Persia in the time of Cyrus and Xerxes. An immediate war was the consequence. Ardishir collected an army, the immense numbers of which may be estimated by the fact, that the cavalry alone amounted to 170,000, his armed elephants amounted to 700, and his war-chariots to 1800. But, notwithstanding this vast array of power, he was unable to drive the Romans from one of their Asiatic or African possessions; nor could Alexander Severus, on the other hand, do more than preserve his own dominions.

The events of this remarkable reign were as great a breaking down of the Greek form of civilisation in the vast countries of central Asia, as the great inroads of the northern barbarians were of the Roman organisation of western Europe; and the Sassanian coins are a proof of this great change. The Greek inscriptions disappear, giving way to Persian legends written in Arian characters, as some term them, and the design of the type, though not so artistic as even the rudest coins where a remnant of Greek feeling remained, are yet executed with a care and finish so superior to the last of the Arsacidæ, as at once to mark what Silvester de Sacy has termed a rénaissance. The Greek inscriptions were first replaced by letters resembling those of the Hebrews of the third century, but in the beginning of the seventh century they are identical with those found in Pehlvic MSS. The characters are, however, different in different provinces, even in the coins of the same king.

The silver coins of the Sassanidæ are of similar weight to those of the Arsacida; but the gold are always of the standard of the Roman Aureus,-which may be explained by the fact that the new dynasty copied the existing standard for the silver, but for the new coinage of gold (gold never

having been coined by the Arsacida) they adopted the Roman standard, Greek forms being at that period superseded to a great extent by Roman ones in the greater part of Asia.

Sassanian coins of various periods are found in India as far as Kabool, and other places in Affghanistan, in great numbers; few of them, however, being of the earliest princes of the dynasty. The obverse of the coins of Ardishir, the founder of this line of Persian princes, bear his portrait, and have the following inscription, in the national character of the period:-"Mazdiesn bèh Artachetr malcan Arian("the Adorer of Ormuzd, the Excellent Ardishir, King of the Kings of Persia.") The reverse has only Artachetr iezda[n]i," (the Divine Ardishir). But the device which this inscription surmounts is the "speaking type" which rallied the whole Persian race round his standards: it is the flaming altar of the fire-worshippers. The small vessels at the base of the altar are supposed to be vases of perfume.

It will be observed that the portraits on most of the coins of this race wear, above the tiara, what appears to be a mass of drapery, of a circular, or rather, perhaps, of a pear-shaped form, similar to those of the fine rock-sculptures of this period, first described by Kerr Porter. Mr. Longperrier describes the circular mass of drapery as a globe celeste, an hypothesis borne out to some extent by the fact that in some cases it is spangled with stars; and it may in that case symbolise the Sassanidæ, the restorers of the ancient religion, as the supporters of heaven. The cap, or tiara, embroidered with three rows of pearls, generally considered the form of the antique Persic crown, was assumed by Ardishir, and appears on some of his earliest coins. (See Plate VI.)

Sapor, or Shapur I., (from A.D. 240 to 273.)-This prince was the son of the preceding, and his energy and abilities farther increased the power of the new empire. War broke out again with the Romans; a pitched battle was fought near Edessa, on the Euphrates, and the Romans, under the Emperor Valerianus, were completely defeated, Valerianus himself being carried captive into the heart of Persia, where he is supposed to have been put to a cruel death. All the Roman possessions in Asia now fell into the power of Sapor.

and but for the unexpected appearance in the field of Odenathus and Zenobia, from the deserts of Palmyra, would have been then lost for ever. It was in this reign that the doctrine of the celebrated Mavi spread rapidly in the east, which was an attempt to amalgamate the Christian and Zoroastrian religions; its followers suffering most sanguinary persecution both from Christians and fire-worshippers. Sapor issued an extensive gold coinage. The portraits on his coins have a large mass of flowing curly hair at the back of the head, and wear a rich tiara, surrounded by the globular ornament above described. The most common inscriptions are, "The Adorer of Ormuzd, the Excellent Sapor, King of the Kings of Irun, Celestial Germ of the Gods." On some of the coins he appears with the ancient Persic crown embroidered with pearls, previously described. The reverses have generally the fire-altar, guarded by two armed figures in the Persian costume, with loose trousers, all Greek character in the costume having disappeared. (See Plate VI.)

Hormuz, or Hormisdas I. (from A.D. 273 to 274), was the son of the preceding, and is described as an excellent prince. Varhanes, or Varavanes I. (from A.D. 274 to 277), the son of the preceding, carried on an unprofitable war against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, by whose energy the power of Persia had received a severe check, and afterwards with the victorious Aurelian.

Varhanes II. (from A.D. 277 to 294) was the son of the preceding. Disputes with the Romans continued, and he was defeated, and Ctesiphon and Seleucia taken by the army under the Emperor Carus; but the death of this emperor prevented the further progress of the Romans. On the coinage of Varhanes II. he is represented wearing very singular head-dresses: sometimes a winged crown supporting the globe-like ornament; the portrait of his queen also appears upon his coins beneath his own portrait. She wears a rich head-dress, composed of an ornament in the form of a boar's head; while a third figure, that of a boy, is placed in front of the royal profile. The boy wears a cap, terminating in an ornament formed like the head

This name is found in some histories, spelt as Bahrana, or Bahanes.