1917.] Numismatic Supplement No. XX VIII. 103 



Reverse : 



^ulUP 



ashrfi (ten) 



RD (Hekatompylos) 



Thus the legend " Firochi Vistakhm afzun" means M Long 

 live Bistam the victorious." 



Bestani is the Greek form IWraV and Bco-ray of his name 

 which is in Pahia vi Vistakhma, an Avestic name meaning 

 "very strong." It is rendered Yaratx^a^ in the Perses or 

 iEschvlus and is found as Wstam and VVestam in Armenian, Bis- 

 tarn in Arabic, and Gustehem in Firdousi. (See Drouin, Les 

 Legendes des Monnaies Sassanides, Revue Archeologique, 1898, 



and also Justi's Namenbuch, p. 371}. 



It appears that Bistam struck coins at only one mint, 

 which had for its monogram the letters RD. 



This mint appears on coins for the first time during the 

 rule of Bahram IV (388-399), and was used during the reigns of 

 Yezdegerd 11 (438-457), Firoz I (459-484) in 459 462, and 464, 

 Balash (484-488), Kobad I (1st reign, 488-497), and then in 

 522 during the second reign (499-531) of Kobad I. Its period 

 of greatest activity is from 531 to 629, when it issued coin for 

 78 years at any rate out of 98. This mint is known to have 

 been working for 90 different years, and thus is the most pro- 

 lific of all the Sassanian mints. 



Noeldeke (Z.D.M.G., 1877, p. 150; and 1879, p. 141) ex- 

 plains this monogram by Rai and the monogram RIU as Rew- 

 Ardashir; but Mordtmann (Z.D.M.G., 1879, p. 120, no. 21) 

 and De Morgan (Revue Numismatique, 1913, p 490, § 134) 



identify the monogram RIU with Rai or Rei, this being identi- 



cal with is^U the mint of the Khalifs for their dirhams, and 



the ancient Rhages in the vicinity of the modern Teheran. 



Mordtmann (Z.D.M.G., 1879, p. 117, no. 9) expresses a 

 theory that the mint-mark RD is a kind of monogram for 

 Hekatompylos : the letter R in Pahlavi signifying 100 and D 



being taken as the first letter of the word^a or tjj)* "gate of 



door " ; so that the Greek name Hekatompylos would be thus 

 a free rendering of the monogram. 



It was the first Parthian capital in Hyrcania, its ancient 

 name being Tarima, the modern Shahrud (Lat. 32°22 / N., Long. 



54°59'E.). 



In the lists of mints given by Mordtmann (Z.D.M.G., 1880, 



p. 133), we find the mint-monogram RD in the second and third 



regnal years of Khusrau II, then in his eighth and ninth, but not 



