The first of several coins I won at Pars Coins' most recent auction: Sasanian Persian Empire. AR drachm. Kavad I, First Reign (488-497 AD). Obverse: Bust of Kavad I right, inscription before KaVAT (Kavad). Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants star and crescent above, unclear date to left, mintmark ?ShY (either Shiraz or Takab) to right. This coin: Pars Coins Auction 7, lot 278 (July 14, 2020). (note: historical section below contains recycled text) Kavad was born in 473, the son of Peroz I (459-484). After Peroz' death, his brother Valkash was appointed by the nobles to rule, but proved unpopular and was deposed after just four years. Kavad ascended the throne in 488 AD, but as he was just 15 he was largely a figurehead for his advisors, particularly a Parthian-descended noble named Sukhra. In 493, by now more confident and worried about Sukhra's dominance, Kavad had Sukhra exiled to his native Shiraz. However, Sukhra still proved troublesome, and Kavad had him imprisoned and then executed. This, understandably, damaged his relations with the nobility. Around this time, Kavad also fell in with a heretical Zoroastrian faction known as the Mazdakites. The Mazdakites preached a socialist-sounding program of redistribution of wealth, as well as the more lurid idea they are most remembered for, wife-swapping. Some modern historians argue that the wife-swapping part was heavily embellished by the enemies of the Mazdakites to make them look bad; Touraj Daryaee argues that they merely loosened marriage rules to help the lower classes, which the wealthier nobles saw as a threat to their marriage-based alliances and traditional lineages. Regardless of how true the "wife-swapping" was, the wealth-redistribution part was more than enough to alarm the nobles. In 497 they overthrew Kavad, imprisoning him in the awesomely-named Tower of Oblivion and installing Zamasp as king. Zamasp was apparently a moderate and humane king; he returned the state religion to more orthodox Zoroastrianism, and while he stopped the confiscation and redistribution of wealth, he did lower the taxes on the poorer classes. Meanwhile, Kavad managed to escape from captivity and make his way east. In 499 he returned at the head of a large force of Hephthalites. Zamasp decided not to fight his brother and relinquished the throne to him, heading into exile in Armenia. Having regained the throne, Kavad continued a reform program, but one more moderate than previously. He instituted a poll tax and reviewed the assignments of tax dues to improve fairness, strengthened small landowners, and introduced a new priestly office called "advocate and judge of the poor" to oversee charity programs. He also reformed the army, reducing the influence of noble-controlled cavalry and enlisting troops from Hephthalite and Arab allies. By the 520s, he had turned away from the Mazdakites, and had many of them executed, reportedly including their leader Mazdak. (There is some debate over whether Mazdak was actually a real person, or just a name used for the movement.) Kavad proved a strong military leader, successfully leading Sasanian armies against the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I from 502-505. Around 520, Kavad tried to simultaneously strengthen the position of his son (and eventual successor) Khusro, and also improve relations with the Byzantines, by having him adopted by the Byzantine emperor Justin I. Negotiations broke down, however, reportedly over fears that Khusro might try to usurp the Byzantine throne. This was later used as a pretext, in 528, for renewal of warfare between the two empires. In 531, Kavad died of natural causes, and his son and successor, now Khusro I, made peace once again with the Byzantines under Justinian I. Although the date is unclear on this coin, the portrait details and inscription are sufficient to assign it to Kavad's first reign. The portrait style, with rather fat cheeks, is normal for coins of his first reign but is replaced in his second reign by a much slimmer rendering. More definitively, the inscription before his portrait merely states his name; coins of his second reign state "KaVAT AFZATU" (May Kavad prosper). The mintmark is not 100% clear, but the seller states (and I think it is most likely) that it is ShY. Most references attribute the ShY mintmark to the famous city of Shiraz, in southwest Iran; however, some sources attribute this mintmark to the much smaller city of Takab in northwestern Iran, which in ancient times was known as Shiz. To my understanding, the argument for ShY=Shiz is largely a negative one: Although the city of Shiraz has been inhabited for a very long time, even pre-Achaemenid, the modern version of the city was only founded and named by the Umayyads in 693 AD, and it is unclear if there was any substantial town or fort named Shiraz during the Sasanian period. This argument does make sense, but it is rather indirect, and I would prefer to also consider evidence of coin find-spots in making a final decision. (if anyone knows of such evidence, I'm interested to hear it.) Coins of Kavad I's first reign seem to be scarcer than coins from his second reign, which makes sense given that his second reign was over three times as long as his first. Please post your coins of Kavad I, or whatever else is relevant.
That's an unusual portrait. Fat cheeks, that's when you think of old Peroz, the man of the apple cheeks. But maybe Kavad comes in a good second.
I thought all the dated coins were second reign. Is this site wrong? http://grifterrec.rasmir.com/sasania/sas_kavI_1a.html
Good question! Most sites do indeed state that coins of his first reign don't have dates, and on most specimens where the writing is clear the spot where the date would be spells out Kavad's name again. However, there are some confounding cases. Tom Mallon's site, which you linked, shows several first reign drachms with Kavad's name replacing the date; however, there is also a fractional silver where that spot has a different inscription, possibly SSh (which doesn't seem to fit any date, but which is also clearly not Kavad's name). Mitchiner's Ancient and Classical World features six first reign drachms of Kavad I (1011-1016), two of which (1011 and 1013) he lists as "year 4" and one (1014) as "year 9", with the others as uncertain date. Unfortunately, the pictures aren't clear enough for me to independently figure out whether these are indeed dated specimens, or whether Mitchiner is misreading the inscriptions. TL,DR: Coins of Kavad I's first reign are usually undated. But possibly not always undated. Maybe.
