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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2835742, member: 81887&quot;]Here&#039;s another of my recent wins from Frank Robinson:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]669484[/ATTACH] </p><p>Sasanian Kingdom.&nbsp; AR drachm.&nbsp; Khusro I (531-579 AD), regnal year 30.&nbsp; Darabgird mint.&nbsp; Obverse: King&#039;s bust right, name before.&nbsp; Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, mintmark DA to right, date &quot;thirty&quot; to left.</p><p><br /></p><p>Khusro&#039;s father, king Kavadh I (488-531 AD), had favored a radical Zoroastrian sect called the Mazdakites.&nbsp; The Mazdakites preached a doctrine with some resemblance to socialism, including sharing the resources of the aristocracy with the lower classes.&nbsp; (Kavadh may have supported the Mazdakites as a way to break the power of the nobility, leaving the central monarchy in control.)&nbsp; The Mazdakites also practiced wife-swapping, though some killjoy historians claim this aspect was over-emphasized by their enemies.&nbsp; Upon Kavadh&#039;s death, he named his younger son Khusro as successor.&nbsp; The Mazdakites supported the oldest son, Kawus; but Khusro soon defeated his sibling, executed the leader of the Mazdakites and many of his followers, and was successful in reestablishing Zoroastrian orthodoxy.&nbsp; Politically, Khusro continued to fight the powers of the aristocracy and minor nobles, removing the exemption from taxation that many of the wealthy families had enjoyed and installing government employees as tax collectors, instead of leaving local tax collection to the corrupt nobles.&nbsp; He also encouraged small landowners, and was strict in punishing any corruption by government officials.&nbsp; He fought a number of wars against the Byzantines, and also campaigned against the Hephthalites in Central Asia and established a military presence in Yemen.&nbsp; Overall, he is considered one of the greatest kings of the Sasanian dynasty, and is still revered in Iran as Anushiruwan (Immortal Soul); his Wikipedia article even shows a statue of &quot;Anushiruwan the Just&quot; in Tehran&#039;s main courthouse:</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_I#/media/File:Anoushiravan.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_I#/media/File:Anoushiravan.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_I#/media/File:Anoushiravan.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Like most Sasanian drachms, this coin shows some areas of flatness in the strike- Sasanian drachms are impressively large in diameter but rather thin, so often there wasn&#039;t enough metal to fill all the space in the dies.&nbsp; However, this one does have a good, clear face of the king.&nbsp; This was minted in Darabgird, a small city in Fars Province, Iran which was supposedly founded by the Achaemenid king Darius I (hence the name Darab-gird or &quot;Darius-town&quot;).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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