HUNNIC TRIBES: Hephthalites. Phromo Kesaro, Circa 7th-8th Century AR Drachm (3.42 g), imitating a drachm of Hormizd IV (579-590) from Balkh. mint in Bactria, Circa after 589. Dated Year 11. Draped bust of Hormizd IV to right, wearing elaborate mural crown with frontal crescent and korymbos set on crescent; behind head, AFZUT ('may increase' in Pahlawi); before head, WHLMZD ('Hormizd' in Pahlawi); in outer margin, countermark of a helmeted head of a Huna, wearing an earring. Rev. Fire altar flanked by two attendants; in upper left field, six-pointed star; in upper right field, crescent; to left, date in Pahlawi (RY 11 = AD 589); to right, BHL (Balkh, name of the mint in Pahlawi); in outer marigin, countermark of oρoρο in Bactrian. Vondrovec type O.IV. very fine host EF C/M. *The king who calls himself Phromo Kesaro ('Caesar of Rome') has been identified with Fulin Jisuo (Sinicization of the same title), who was approved by the Chinese emperor Xuanzong in 738 as the succesor to his father, the Khorasan Tegin Shah, in Kabul. He issued a number of Arab-Sasanian-style silver and copper coins bearing this title. The Sasanian occupation of Bactria lasted only a few years, but their Balkh drachms from the regnal years 9-11 became the prototypes for the local numismatic iconography and were eagerly imitated by the Hephtalite authorities for several decades. |
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