90, Lot: 142. Estimate $100. Sold for $86. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SASANIAN KINGS of PERSIA. Bahram IV. 388-399 AD. AR Drachm (23mm, 3.85 gm). AS (Aspahan?) mint. Crowned and cuirassed bust right / Fire altar with attendants and ribbon; bust right on altar top, Pahlavi legend on altar column, mint signature to left of bust. Göbl I/1; Alram 840 note. VF.

From the Bellaria Collection. Ex New York International Nuismatic Convention Auction (Superior, 6-7 December 1996), lot 1621.

Bahram IV appears to have ascended the throne during the conflict with Rome over Armenia. By this time, though, the Romans, accustomed to twenty years of peace with their long-standing adversaries, decided it was better to negotiate, rather than fight. Bahram and the Roman emperor, Theodosius I, agreed to a partition of Armenia that endured (even under the Byzantines) until the fall of the Sasanian empire.