Live auction - bgr_382036 - SASANIAN - SASANIAN KINGDOM - ARDASHIR I Drachme

SASANIAN - SASANIAN KINGDOM - ARDASHIR I Drachme AU

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Estimate :	750 €
Price :	490 €
Maximum bid :	500 €
End of the sale :	01 March 2016 14:32:24
bidders :	2 bidders

Type : Drachme

Date: n.d.

Mint name / Town : Atelier incertain

Metal : silver

Diameter : 25,5 mm

Orientation dies : 3 h.

Weight : 4,20 g.

Rarity : R2

Coments on the condition:

Exemplaire sur un flan parfaitement centré des deux côtés avec les grènetis complets. Beau portrait du Roi des rois. Revers finement détaillé. Jolie patine de collection ancienne avec des reflets dorés

Catalogue references :

Göbl10 - Sellwood10

Obverse

Obverse legend : LÉGENDE EN PEHLVI.

Obverse description : Buste d’Ardachir à droite, coiffé de sa couronne.

Obverse translation : (Adorateur de Mazda, le divin Ardachir, Roi des Rois d’Iran, qui est issu des Dieux).

Reverse

Reverse legend : LÉGENDE EN PEHLVI.

Reverse description : Pyrée (autel du feu). Les flammes s’élèvent au-dessus de la table, soutenue par un pilier central et deux colonnes en forme de pattes de lion avec des rubans qui pendent à l’extérieur.

Reverse translation : (Le feu d’Ardachir).

Historical background

SASANIAN - SASANIAN KINGDOM - ARDASHIR I

(224-242)

Ardashir is the first shah, grandson of Sassan (high priest in Persepolis) who gave his name to the dynasty which claimed descent from the Achaemenids. He is the founder of the last Indo-European empire before the Arab conquest. He forged a powerful army, a centralized administration and a state religion, Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster or Zarathustra reformed the Mazdean religion in the 6th century BC. -VS. Ardashir (Artaxerxes) appears from 212. He suppresses his brothers and the little princes of his province, extends his suzerainty far beyond Perside, on Isfahan and Kerman. Artaban IV raises an army to fight him. But in 224, in the plain of Hormizdaghân in Susiane, he was killed by the hand of Ardashir. Tradition reports that the Sassanid crushed the head of the last Arsacid king with his foot.. The new dynasty overcame the ultimate resistance when Ardashir (who would have married a daughter or cousin of Artaban IV), was crowned "King of kings of Iran" at Ctesiphon (226). After 228 and the disappearance of Vologèse VI, he is the only master of the Kingdom. He then turns against the hereditary enemy, the Roman. Alexander Severus in 231 then Gordian III in 240 and 242 were forced to go to the field of operations in order to defend the limes and the threatened province of Syria. When Ardashir died in 242, he left his son Sapor I (Chapour) a powerful and unified empire that would shake Rome for the next thirty years..