Featured dossier
Ardashir II: the caretaker king and the Taq-e Bostan relief
Ardashir II was Shapur II’s slightly younger half-brother and for years king of Adiabene (Ḥadyab). Shapur named him successor on condition that he hand the crown on to Shapur’s son. He reigned four years and was deposed by the nobles. His famous monument is the investiture relief at Taq-e Bostan.
- years of reign
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Map: the reign of Ardashir II
Administration & economy344 and 376 CE1 of 5
King of Adiabene
According to Iranica (Shahbazi), Syriac martyr acts name Ardashir as king of Adiabene (Ḥadyab, around Arbela) in 344 and 376.
Certainty: Probable
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Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
The Taq-e Bostan relief: who gives the crown?
In the relief Ardashir stands in the middle. On the right a figure in a crenellated crown hands him the ring of kingship. Behind Ardashir stands a figure holding the barsom bundle, wearing a crown of twelve sun rays, on a large lotus flower. Beneath the feet of the two kings lies a slain Roman whose diadem marks him as an emperor.
The crown-giver was once taken to be Ahura Mazda. Shahbazi (following Calmeyer) says his crenellated crown is Shapur II’s, who did indeed make Ardashir king. Overlaet (2012) has reopened the question, so this remains disputed. The rayed figure is taken to be Mithra. The fallen Roman has “plausibly” been identified as Julian; since Ardashir was king of Adiabene in 363, he may have shared in the defence against Julian.
Iranica reads Mithra here as the god of contract judging the pact between the two kings: Ardashir will give the crown back. Here power is handed over by a pact with a god as witness, not by the vote of those who live under it.
Sources: A. Sh. Shahbazi, Encyclopaedia Iranica · B. Overlaet
Dossier · 2
Coins and the domed crown
Ardashir’s coins show the domed crown of Ardashir I. The reverse has the fire altar and two attendants, and on some coins the king’s bust rises from the fire. The legend is usually “Ardashir, king of kings of the Iranians”, and rarely “and non-Iranians”.
Iranica suggests the bust in the fire may represent the farrah, the royal fortune. The “may” is Iranica’s own.
A king who chooses the founder’s crown draws legitimacy from lineage. Coins were a tool of message: anyone handed a coin in the market held the king’s crown and claim too.
Synthesis
Ardashir II was a caretaker king: he took the crown under a pact to give it back. His reign was short and the nobles set him aside. But by moving royal reliefs to Taq-e Bostan he left a lasting monument.
Bibliography
- A. Sh. Shahbazi, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Ardašīr II (1986). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ardasir-ii-sasanian-king/
- Agathias, tr. J. D. Frendo, The Histories (CFHB 2A), book 4.25–27 (1975). https://archive.org/details/cfhb-11.1-nicetae-choniatae-historiaAgathias (6th century) took his list of Sasanian kings, by his own account, from the Persian royal annals.
- B. Overlaet, Ardashir II or Shapur III? Reflections on the identity of a king in the smaller grotto at Taq-i Bustan, Iranica Antiqua 46, pp. 235–50 (2011). https://doi.org/10.2143/IA.46.0.2084421
- B. Overlaet, Ahura Mazda and Shapur II? A note on Taq-i Bustan I, the investiture of Ardashir II (379–383), Iranica Antiqua 47 (2012). https://doi.org/10.2143/ia.47.0.2141964
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; licence and author were checked on each file page.
Shapur II, his brotherShapur III, his successorThe Sasanian dynasty