Part IV: Persian Coins

The Persian Empire [546-330 bc and 238 bc - 649 ad]

Daric of Darius I

While the Greeks, Romans and Byzantines ruled the Mediterranean world, the great Persian civilization to the East also developed and used coins. After Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia [546 bc] the Persians struck Lydian types until they introduced the "archer" motif [510 bc] which characterized their imperial coinage.

Siglos of Artaxerxes I

The gold daric (8.3 g) and its fractions, and the silver siglos (5.3 g) continued the Lydian weight standard, circulating mostly in Asia Minor. Over nearly two centuries their archaic types hardly changed and, as they bear no legends, attribution by reign can sometimes be difficult. After Alexander's conquest of the Persian Empire, the Persians used Greek coins - first Alexander's imperial coinage, then the royal Seleukid coinage that succeeded it.

Drachm of Arsakes I

The eastern province of Parthia broke away under the Skythian chief Arsakes [238 bc] and after Rome humbled Antiochos III at Magnesia [190 bc], the Parthians gradually took over much of the Seleukid realm, effectively reconstituting the old Persian Empire.

Tetradrachm of Mithradates I

Their coinage developed from Seleukid types; tetradrachms in Greek style were issued in Seleukeia on the Tigris, while in the rest of Parthia the principal denomination was the silver drachm, bearing the ruler's portrait on the obverse, and a seated archer within a square legend on the reverse. Occasional issues of obols and diobols, and also bronze chalkoi were struck, many on small thick flans cut from bars; few Parthian gold coins have been reported and their authenticity is in question. The Parthians never developed much literary culture, and much of what we know about their history is based on numismatic evidence.

Drachm of Mithradates II

Parthian kings were all styled "Arsakes" on their coins, which perhaps corresponded to the Roman "Caesar," so attribution by reign depends upon differences in the portraits and in the form of the legends. For the first three reigns the ruler wears a bashlyk, or nomadic felt cap; under Mithradates I [171-138 bc] this changes to a Greek diadem; and under Mithradates II [123-88 bc] the diadem changes to a tiara. Thereafter, details of the diadem or tiara, and the legend, vary between rulers.

During the early Parthian period, the Greek legends developed into a standardized formula, which during the middle period was simply repeated for each ruler and in the latter part of their regime, was illiterately copied in ever more garbled form until it degenerated into a meaningless jumble. The Parthian kingdom did not exercise tight centralized control over its dominions, and throughout the regime autonomous coins were struck in the client kingdoms of Elymais, Characene and Persis which bordered the Persian Gulf.

Drachm of Parthamaspates

The Parthian army of heavy cavalry and horse archers could be very dangerous to an invader that ventured into the Iranian plateau, but lacking infantry it could not sustain an invasion of Asia Minor. Consequently wars with the Roman Empire were mostly defensive, and the disorganized Parthians, often fighting over the succession, generally had the worst of it against the methodical Romans.

Vologases IV reigned 44 years Billon Tetradrachm

The nadir came when Trajan took their capital Ctesiphon [116] and placed a client king, Parthamaspates, on the Parthian throne. Although a major revolt in their eastern territories forced the Romans to withdraw, they returned under Lucius Verus [162], Septimius Severus [198], and finally Caracalla [217], and these repeated invasions weakened the Parthian regime.

The nobility of the Persian heartland hated the Parthians, whom they regarded as uncouth barbarians. Ardashir I, king of Persepolis, united Persis to overthrow the exhausted Parthians [224], beginning a new regime named after his grandfather Sasan. The Sasanian dynasty continued to use the silver drachm as its principal denomination, and its fractions the obol and hemidrachm, bronze chalkoi and multiples; they also struck gold dinars corresponding to the Roman aureus and its successor, the solidus. Although the denominations continued the Parthian standard, the fabric and types of the coins were markedly different.

Drachm of Ardashir I

The Sasanians revived the Zoroastrian religion, with its fire-worshiping Magi, and their types were always a crowned bust of the ruler on the obverse, and a fire-altar on the reverse. Each ruler's crown is distinctive; these ornate tiaras eventually reached a weight of two hundred pounds, and had to be suspended by wires. The legends are in Pahlavi or Middle Persian, a script related to Aramaic. From the first the Sasanians adopted a broad thin flan that eventually became much larger than the design; their coins were struck from hammered strip rather than cast flans, and frequently suffer "dead spots" in the center of the design where there was insufficient metal in the flan to fill the impressions in the dies.

Drachm of Shapur I

The Sasanian regime proved to be a much more formidable adversary to Rome than the Parthians, and the Persian military threat had much to do with the troubles that befell Rome during the third century, and the eventual fall of the West. Ardashir was succeeded by Shapur I [241-272] who demonstrated how dangerous the Sasanian military could be by capturing the emperor Valerian and his army [260], a disaster that nearly wrecked the Roman Empire. His coinage is unique among Sasanian numismatics in being debased, much of it restruck from captured Roman antoniniani. The long struggle to recover all the territory of the old Achaemenid Persian empire continued with varying fortunes against the Roman empire and its Byzantine successor, until it climaxed when Khusru II [590-628] took advantage of civil war among the Byzantines to seize Syria, Palestine and Egypt [619] and to overrun large tracts of Asia Minor. Meanwhile an Arabian merchant, Muhammed, created such religious turmoil that he had to flee Mecca [622].

Drachm of Khusru II

Khusru refused opportunities to make an advantageous peace, overreached his strength and the Byzantines counterattacked, smashing the Sasanian army at Nineveh [627]. Khusru was overthrown, and in the confusion Muhammed [+632] seized control of south Arabia. Under his successor Omar, the infant Caliphate expanded rapidly and began to overrun Syria and southwest Persia. The desperate Sasanians even chained their infantry in place to keep them from fleeing, but still lost decisively at Nehavand [637] and Qadisija [642], after which their regime disintegrated and Persia fell to the Arabs.

Yazdgard III, last Sasanian King Clipped Drachm

This was not the end of the dynasty or its coinage, as descendants of Yazdgard III [+651] maintained a government-in-exile in China well into the 8th century, while the Arabs continued to strike Sasanian types for nearly two hundred years (the Arab-Sasanian series), and the province of Tabaristan remained under Persian lords tributary to the Caliphs. Many Magi fled to India, where their descendants still follow the Zoroastrian religion.

Hemidrachm from Tabaristan Arab-Sasanian (794 ad)

In 697 the Caliph Abd-al-Malik decreed a reduction in the weight of the dirham, as the drachm was now known. A complex series of weight standards then developed, varying from one-half to three-quarters of the Sasanian drachm. As a result of this, many late Sasanian and early Arab-Sasanian coins were clipped (reduced in diameter) to meet the new standards. The design being much smaller than the flan, clipping normally did not cut into the design.

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