Nomos 2

KINGS of PERSIS. Bagadat (Bayadad). Early-mid 3rd century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 16.47 g 2). Diademed and bearded head of Bagadat to right, with luxuriant mustache; wearing kyrbasia or satrapal hat, and pendant earring. Rev. Aramaic legend in two lines. Bagadat seated left on high-backed throne, wearing kyrbasia and long robes and holding cup in his left hand and long scepter in his right; to left, standard. Alram 511. BMC, Arabia, p. 195, 1. De Morgan p. 397, 1. Very rare. Good very fine.

Ex Spink, 19 March 2009, 357, from the Pishvai Collection, ex Peus 388, 1 November 2006, 223, from the Bellaria Collection, Triton VII, 13 January 2004, 536 and from the Moreira Collection, Superior 138, 31 May 1998, 1622.

The early coinage of Persis, which began towards the beginning of the 3rd century BC, is remarkable for its adamant reliance on iconography derived solely from its own Persian tradition, rather than accepting the forms of Greek art that then dominated the ancient world. While the die cutter for this coin must have been familiar with Greek work, the portraits of Bagadat are clearly of a Persian ruler - perhaps only the relatively short beard is a concession to more ‘modern’ tastes. The way he appears stiffly seated on the reverse, holding a most un-Greek cup and such an unusual scepter, harks back more to Persepolis than to anywhere else. The standard that appears on the left is surely what was to become the Sasanian national battle standard: a huge flag that came to be embroidered with precious stones, gold and silver: it was captured and destroyed by the Arabs at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636.