SASANID, Hormazd IV, 579-590 AD, drachm, year 8, NAH

DescriptionHormazd IV took the side of land owners against hereditary court aristocracy and the Zoroastrian priesthood. He proceeded against them by killing a lot of them. Declined to persecute Christians, though. He fought wars in both the East and the West. A civil war developed, during which he was captured and killed.The Sasanid dynasty grew out of a secession from the Parthians of the district of Persis, more or less the southwestern part of Persia. There was a political aspect: they portrayed themselves as authentic Persians, as opposed to the Parthians against whom they rebelled, who were foreign nomads to the Sasanids. There was also a religious element: the Zoroastrian religion considered itself a distinct, modern, better formulation of religion than the overall jumble of localisms that was the key idea of the pagan world. There was also the anti-Roman thing: the last of the Parthians were either ineffectual or Roman puppets.Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.