Trophy of Arms

No, I wish. But I do have a pair Valerian coins displaying Parthian (Persian) captives (VICT PART; there are also VICT PARTI). HIGHLY ironic!




There is a famous giant bas-relief monument in Iran depicting the "Triumph of Shapur I over Valerian":

Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For anyone curious, here's a blog post I wrote about it: "The Irony of Valerian's Captive: AR Antoninianus Celebrating 'Victory over Parthia.'"

 

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Cool coins, @Curtis, and a terrific blog post. ...I have to wonder whether, coming from the Romans, the stories of Persian atrocities had a certain element of clinical, Freudian transference.

 

I only have a coin from him. Regrettably, it is not a Valerian Commemorative... BUT, that is WHY I got a Shapur I coin!

SHAPUR I



Sasanian Shapur I 240-272 CE AE Tetradrachm 10.78g 27mm Ctesiphon mint phase 1a mural crown korymbos - fire altar type 2 SNS IIa1-1a

 

LOL, Vive the IRONY!

 

...Terrific example, @Alegandron --and I never noticed (even with a copy of Gobl, which The Same guy on the forum was kind enough to give me) that this early, the Sasanians were still issuing 'tetradrachms' of any description. Makes you wonder whether they were looking at the contemporaneous Roman tets on one hand, and the vast number of Hellenistic ones, nearer the composition and module of Sasanian drachms /drahms, on the other. Likely as not, they were still in active circulation closer to home. It's easy to suppose that, in real time, the two series registered as completely different denominations, historical backstory notwithstanding.

 

I love these. Going by the obverse legend, here is the very last version, from the mint nearest the action, Antioch:

This comes just after a similar issue for Valerian II who died in 258. It also exists for Gallienus, but as far as I know there are only 2 in existence for Valerian. This suggests a very late issue that was cancelled after Valerian's capture. (There's some doubt as to when this was... could have been as early as 258, though the standard date for the Battle of Edessa is 260.) Anyway, this is from somewhere in the 258-260 range.

I expect these emerged from the Parthian tetradrachms. The earliest ones for Ardashir were directly borrowed from the Parthian issues, in low quality billon and weighing ~12g. Here's one (not mine):

Later in Ardashir's reign these became larger with less silver, with a Sasanian rather than Parthian style crown (not my coin either):


which then leads to @Alegandron's coin under Shapur.

 

I'll see your trophy and raise you two:


Roman Republican denarius. 20-19 mm. 3.52 grams.
Faustus Cornelius Sulla, 56 BC
Venus head right, scepter behind, SC in filed
Three trophies between jug and lituus. Monogram of Faustus in exergue.
"The three trophies reproduce Pompey's signet ring (Dio xlii,18,3). Crawford, page 350.

Crawford 426/3/ Sear I 386.