ARDASHIR BABIGAN. 
127 
at the same place. The story is repeated, in Plate XXII.,* without 
the wings; which shews they were an attribute assumed and laid 
aside at pleasure. Probably they were occasionally adopted by 
this prince, and other monarchs of the same line, as typical of 
the providential care with which they watched over their empire; 
in imitation of the celestial spirit, symbolized by the winged 
globe, seen over the heads of the pontiff kings of the first Kai- 
anian dynasty, on the walls of Persepolis. 
No. 5. is a silver coin of very valuable pretensions. Its legend 
expresses it to be “ The adorer of Ormuzd, the excellent Ar- 
tachetre (Ardashir), king of kings, and of Airan.” The name is 
written in Pehlivi, exactly like that at Nakshi-Roustam, in the 
bas-relief of Plate XXIIl.f From the manner in which the crown 
is formed, and the absence of bushy hair, as well as the cha¬ 
racter of the head, and the style of the execution, I can have 
no doubt of its being meant for Ardashir Babigan, the first 
sovereign of the Sassanian dynasty. On the reverse, are the 
words “ Artachetre the Divine,” divided by a simple altar with 
flames. It is in shape like those very ancient ones on the tombs 
at Nakshi-Roustam; with a part of their pillar-ornaments, as 
supporters. J The simplicity of this design seems well appro¬ 
priated to the restorer of the Mithratic worship ; who, in placing 
the altar on his coins, made an immediate distinction to the eye, 
between them and those of the polytheistical Arsacidae ; which, 
in other respects nearly resembled his own. This coin is about 
six hundred years old. Mons. de Sacey, in his excellent work 
on the Antiquities of Persia, remarks on the general absence of 
the altar from the money of the kings of the Arsacidaean race, 
* See Plate XXII. Vol. I. p. 545. f See Vol. I. p. 548. 
t See Plate XVIL Vol. I. p. 516. 
