Drachm - Shapur II

Shapur II is the only ruler in recorded history known to have been crowned before birth — the Sasanian nobility, desperate for a male heir following the death of Hormizd II, reportedly placed the crown on his mother's womb. He went on to reign for seventy years, the longest of any Sasanian king, and spent much of it in near-continuous conflict with Rome and the Constantinopolitan east. The drachms of his reign accordingly span a vast chronological range, and the early issues attributed to his first decades show stylistic continuity with his predecessors before the workshop conventions solidified into the more rigid forms seen after mid-century.