Drachm - Shapur II

Shapur II ruled for an extraordinary 70 years — the longest reign in Sasanian history — having been crowned, by tradition, before his birth, the nobles placing the diadem on his mother's womb after the death of his father Hormizd II. A 320 dating places this drachm in the early portion of that reign, when Shapur was still a teenager consolidating power against the Arab tribes that had raided Persian territories during the regency period. His subsequent campaigns against those tribes were reportedly relentless, earning him the epithet Dhū'l-Aktāf — "Lord of the Shoulders" — for his practice of impaling captives through the shoulder blades.