1 Nöldeke, Th., Geschiebte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, (Leiden 1879) 430–131 Google Scholar (hereafter Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser).

2 Paruck, F.D.J., Sāsānian Coins (Bombay 1924), 109 Google Scholar.

3 Higgins, M.J., The Persian War of the Emperor Maurice (582–602). Part 1: The chronology. (Washington 1939), 27 Google Scholar and 73 (hereafter Higgins, Persian War).

4 Higgins, Persian War, 26.

5 Michael, and Whitby, Mary, The History of Theophylact Simocatta (Oxford 1997)Google Scholar (hereafter Whitby, Theophylact).

6 Whitby, M., The Emperor Maurice and his Historian (Oxford 1988), 222 Google Scholar (hereafter Whitby, Emperor Maurice).

7 Whitby, Theophylact, xxi-xxviii; Whitby, Emperor Maurice. 222-242 where he remarks on 229 that John of Epiphania was Theophylact’s main source for the civil war period following Varhrān’s revolt and on 230 that John was his sole source for Khusrau’s restoration. See also 292-304 for a good summary of the events of 590-1, though misleading in parts as he accepts Higgins’ accession date.

8 Theophylact records Hormizd’s speech to a gathering at Ctesiphon, made after he had been deposed. Hormizd describes Khusrau’s vices and tries to persuade the crowd that one of Khusrau’s brothers would make a better king, Whitby, Theophylact, iv.4.1-15 and 109, note 15; and later he describes Khusrau’s disposition as ‘innately knavish’ and the Persian nation as ‘worthless from the outset’ and their life as ‘one of treachery, humbug, and boasting’ Whitby, Theophylact, iv.13.1. See also Whitby’s comments in Emperor Maurice, 295.

9 For example neither Tabarī nor Sebeos mention a date. Bosworth, C.E. (tr.), The history of al-Taharī: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakmids, and Yemen, (Albany, NY 1999), 305 Google Scholar, [995] and 306 [995], (hereafter Bosworth, al-Tabarī); Thomson, R.W. and Howard-Johnston, J., The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos (Liverpool 1999), ch. 10 Google Scholar, section 75 (hereafter Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos).

10 Palmer, A., Brock, S. and Hoyland, R., The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles, (Liverpool 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘Text no. 13: The secular history of Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē’, 115 (hereafter Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles).

11 Chabot, J.B., Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d’Antioche 1166-1199, (Paris 1899-1924), vol. 2, 360,Google Scholar ch. [xxi] (hereafter Chabot, Michel le Syrien).

12 Vasilev, A.A., ‘Kitab al-’Unvan, histoire universelle écrite par Agapius (Mahboub) de Menbidj’, part 2.2 PO 8 (1912), 441–147 Google Scholar (hereafter Vasilev, ‘Agapius’).

13 Whitby, M. and Whitby, M., Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Liverpool 1989), 140 Google Scholar; for discussion of Maurice’s consulship dates see 139, note 394 (hereafter Whitby, Chronicon Paschale).

14 Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles, ‘Text no. 2: A chronicle composed in AD 640’, 17.

15 Whitby, Theophylact, iv. 12.9.

16 Whitby, Theophylact, iv.13.3. This is a puzzling reference which cannot easily be fitted into my chronology. Whitby thought ‘spring’ might have been written in error for ‘summer’ (120, note 49) as the event occurred soon after Khusrau’s flight to Byzantium.

17 Whitby, , Theophylact, v.3.1 and 135 Google Scholar, note 9.

18 Whitby, , Theophylact, v.4.3 Google Scholar.

19 Whitby, , Theophylact, iv. 12.6.Google Scholar

20 This is Theophylact’s version, Evagrius quotes a very similar letter. Whitby, , Theophylact, v. 13.5–6Google Scholar; Whitby, Michael, The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus (Liverpool 2000), vi.21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Bosworth, al-Tabarī, 381 [1045].

22 Higgins, Persian War, 26 where he dates the Hijira to 16th July 622.

23 Bosworth thinks that Khusrau would have appealed to Maurice in late spring 590, Bosworth, al-Tabarī, 311, note 728, though he also says that Varhrān entered Ctesiphon in summer 590 (311, note 727); Christensen, A., L’Iran sous les Sassanides (Copenhagen 1944), 444, note 3 Google Scholar; J. Elsen, ‘La dislocation du pouvoir royal sassanide sous Khosrow II (590-628). Chronologie des événements’, Jean Elsen Fixed Price List 206 (nov.-déc. 1999), 1-8 at 2; Frendo, D., ‘Theophylact Simocatta on the revolt of Barhram Chobin and the early career of Khusrau II’, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 3 (1989), 77-88Google Scholar at 86, note 21: ‘I follow his [Higgins’] chronology of these events without reservation.’ (hereafter Frendo, ‘Theophylact Simocatta on the revolt of Barhram Chobin’); Frye, R.N. ‘The political history of Iran under the Sasanians’ in Yarshater, E. The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3.1, (Cambridge 1983), 164 Google Scholar (hereafter Frye, Political History); Goubert, P., Byzance avant l’Islam, vol. 1 Byzance et l’Orient, (Paris 1951), 132 Google Scholar, and on 139 he says ‘On peut donc en toute sécurité adopter la conclusion de M. Higgins’; Mango, C. and Scott, R., The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813 (Oxford 1997), 388, note 11 Google Scholar; Mihăescu, H., Tbeofilact Simocata Istorie Bizantina: Domnia Împaratului Mauricius (582-602), (Bucharest 1985), 88 Google Scholar, note 16; Schreiner, P., trans. Theophylaktos Simokates Geschichte (Bibliothek der Greichischen Literatur, Band 20) (Stuttgart 1985), 295 Google Scholar, note 528; Thomson, and Howard-Johnson, , Sebeos, 12, note 85 Google Scholar and 170; Whitby, , Theophylact, 106, note 13 Google Scholar and 135, note 11; Whitby, Emperor Maurice, 294; Whitby, Evagrius, 308, note 62; Whitby, Chronicon Paschale, 140, note 396.

Even when Higgins’ work is not directly referred to there seems to be some confusion amongst historians and numismatists about the date of Khusrau’s accession and the length of his reign, see for instance: Frye, R.N., The Heritage of Persia (London 1964), 239 Google Scholar ‘590 or 591’; Gobi, R., Sasanian Numismatics (Brunswick 1971), 97 ‘591–628’Google Scholar but on table xii, ‘590/1-628’ and 39 regnal years (hereafter Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics); Harper, P.O., The Royal Hunter (New York 1978), 23 ‘591–628’Google Scholar; Hermann, G., The Iranian Revival (Oxford 1977), 8 ‘591–628’Google Scholar; Lukonin, V.G., Archaeologia Mundi: Persia II (Geneva 1967), 226 ‘591–628’Google Scholar, Malek, H.M., ‘A survey of research on Sasanian numismatics’, Numismatic Chronicle 153 (1993), 237 Google Scholar ‘591-628’ and ‘years 1-39’; Sellwood, D., Whining, P., Williams, R., An Introduction to Sasanian Coins (London 1985), 152 Google Scholar ‘590, 591-628’ and on 157-158 list three mints which strike coins in year 39; Splendour des Sassanides (Brussels 1993), 26, 298 ‘591-628’.

24 Bosworth, al- Tabarī, 330 [1009].

25 Higgins, Persian War, 26–7. Bosworth, al-Tabarī 381 note 944, now dates the flight which took place in Rabí’ I of the year 1 to September 622.

26 See for instance Peeters, P., Analecta Bollandiana 61 (1943) 281–286 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Whitby, , Theopbylact, iv. 12.6Google Scholar.

28 Higgins, Persian War, 8.

29 Boyce, M., ‘Iranian festivals’, Cambridge History of Iran 3.2, 792–815 Google Scholar at 797.

30 Boyce, ‘Iranian festivals’, 795.

31 de Blois, F., ‘The Persian calendar’, Iran 34 (1996), 39-54CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 47-48.

32 Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, 430.

33 Higgins, Persian War, 29. In theory, according to my chronology, there could be as many as forty days between the two events, with the coins of Hormizd IV bearing the regnal year 13 being struck from the time of Hormizd’s death to the time that news reached the provincial authorities (presumably on average a few days), or even up to the point when the new dies for Khusrau IPs coinage were made. Nothing is known about how mints would have operated at the time of transition between kings. See below for discussion on Hormizd’s year 13 drachms.

34 Whitby, Theopbylact, 132, note 4.

35 Higgins, Persian War, 51-52.

36 Higgins, M.J., ‘Chosroes IPs votive offerings at Sergiopolis’, BZ 48 (1955), 89-102Google Scholar at 97. He later repeats this assertion on 98 ‘[...] our sources probably substituted ‘first’ for ‘second’ in Chosroes’ original [letter] to bring it into conformity with Byzantine usage’.

37 Whitby, , Theopbylact, v.13.3Google Scholar. Whitby, 150, note 67, thinks Theophylact’s claim to have transcribed the dedication accurately was probably justified. Evagrius says ‘[...] and Chosroes inscribed the following on the cross in Greek letters [...]’, Whitby, , Evagrius, vi.21Google Scholar.

38 Khusrau’s offering have been discussed in exhaustive detail by a number of authors. Higgins, ‘Chosroes IPs votive offerings at Sergiopolis’, 101 argues that in Theophylact’s work we find an accurate reproduction of John of Epiphania’s lost History. Allen, Pauline, Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian (Louvain 1981) 259–261 Google Scholar agrees with Higgins’ reasons for the differences between the two texts and that Evagrius must have seen the gifts after they had been inscribed but thinks that Theophylact worked from copies of Khusrau’s letter, preserved in Constantinople. She then says ‘On this assumption, then, the text of the votive offerings would not have been included by John of Epiphania in his History’. If she is right Higgins must be wrong in his belief that Evagrius could have influenced John/Theophylact and there is even less likelihood that both historians independently changed the regnal year. Whitby too (Emperor Maurice, 245) thinks it unlikely that Evagrius influenced John/Theophylact (or vice versa) in general, not just on this specific point.

39 Higgins, , Persian War, vii Google Scholar.

40 Higgins, Persian War, 43.

41 Whitby, Theophylact, 112, note 23.

42 Whitby, Theophylact, 120, note 47.

43 Whitby, Theophylact, 120, note 49.

44 Whitby, Theophylact, 125, note 57.

45 Frendo, ‘Theophylact Simocatta on the revolt of Barhram Chobin’ 80-82, where he suggests that even though the Chronicle of Seert is late (written in the first half of the thirteenth century) it may be relying on an early source for this incident as its author claims to be basing his account on the ‘The annals of the kings’.

46 Higgins, Persian War, 26 used the date and length quoted by Nöldeke from the ‘royal lists’. These lists cannot be accepted as accurate unless supported by some other evidence nor be used to calculate a date, to the day, as Higgins did. The only time mentioned by Theophylact ( Whitby, , Theophylact, iv.2.1Google Scholar) in connection with Varhrān’s revolt is that the Romans broke camp for winter [589/90] while Varhrān ‘advanced against the territory of Media’. Other than that he only gives such guides as ‘the usurper [Varhrān] had spent a considerable time in that region’ (iv.2.7) or ‘on the third day’ (iv.3.5). The latter, as Whitby comments (106, note 9), is not a helpful chronological indicator.

47 Wright, W., Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1838 (3 vols) (London 1870-2), 52-3Google Scholar, no. lxxvi; Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, 430.

48 There are a number of different Seleucid eras, see Whitby, Emperor Maurice, 246, note 49.

49 Higgins, Persian War, 52; see Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles, xxxvii for a useful table of comparative eras.

50 Paruck, F.D.J., ‘Mint-marks on Sāsānian and Arab-Sāsānian coins, journal of the Numismatic Society of India 6 (1944), 79-151Google Scholar, especially 141-143.

51 Erdmann, K., ‘Die Entwicklung der Sāsānidischen Krone’, Ars Islamica 15-16 (1951), 87-123Google Scholar at 87, 89.

52 See Erdmann, ‘Die Entwicklung der Sāsānidischen Krone’, 87-123 at 89-90, note 10 for a discussion of the problems. There are also occasional references to the crowns of Sasanian kings in western literature, e.g. Theophylact’s (iv.3.7) description of Hormizd IV includes a description of his crown but is not detailed enough to be of much use.

53 Göbi, Sasanian Numismatics, Tables 1 and la and 9–11. Some Sasanian kings are represented on what appear to be issues of special coins wearing a crown which is different from their usual one and sometimes consists of just a diadem. These coins are rare and often struck in gold, a metal which was not normally used by the Sasanians for their coinage. See, for instance, Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, Table viii, obverse II and III for two examples of Varhrãn IV’s ‘special’ crowns.

54 Frye, ‘Political History’, 147. For a summary of current thinking on the coins of Pēroz and Kavād I see Curtis, V.S., ‘Some observations on coins of Peroz and Kavad I’, in Coins, Art and Chronology, Alram, M. and Klimburg-Salter, D.E. (eds) (Vienna 1999), 303–309 Google Scholar.

55 Gobi, Sasanian Numismatics, Table x; Frye ‘Political history’, 150 suggests ‘the end of 498 or the beginning of 499’.

56 The information set out in the tables cannot yet be considered complete but a wide enough range of sources has been consulted for them to be taken as representative.

57 See Mochiri, M.I., Etude de Numismatique Iranienne sous les Sassanides et Arabe-Sassanides, vol. 2 (Louvain 1983), 104–117 Google Scholar for MRVIRT and BHL (hereafter Mochiri, Numismatique Iranienne sous les Sassanides); see Mousheghian, K., Mousheghian, A., Bresc, C., Depeyrot, G. and Gurnet, F., History and Coin finds in Armenia: Coins from Duin, Capital of Armenia (4-13th c); Inventory of Byzantine and Sasanian Coins in Armenia (6-7th c), Collection Moneta 18 (Wetteren 2000), 38 Google Scholar for ZWZN’.

58 In order to estimate the comparative number of coins likely to have been struck in years 12 and 13 (and other years discussed later) one would have to count the number of obverse and reverse dies used for each year. This work has not yet been done so these assessments are based on the examination of parcels of coins seen in trade.

59 Scher, A. (tr.) Histoire Nestorienne. Chronique de Séert, PO 13 (1919), 443 Google Scholar. A slightly different version of the story is told by Mirkhond, , Sacy, A.I. Silverstre de, ‘Histoire des rois de Perse de la dynastie des Sassanides’ in Mémoires sur diverses antiquités de la Perse (Paris 1793), 395 Google Scholar. This story has been accepted by some modern historians, see for instance: Frendo, ‘Theophylact Simocatta on the revolt of Barhram Chobin’, 81-82; Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos, 169; Whitby, Emperor Maurice, 294.

60 I am grateful to Lutz Ilisch for this suggestion.

61 See Göbi, Sasanian Numismatics, Tables 11 and 12.

62 Whitby, , Theophylact, v.4.3Google Scholar.

63 Whitby, , Theophylact, v.9.5Google Scholar and for location of battle see 144, note 42.

64 Theophylact does not relate Varhrān’s end. The versions of other authors differ but agree that he fled eastwards. Sebeos says that he took refuge in Balkh (Bahl Shahastan) where he was put to death by its people on Khusrau’s orders (Thomson and Howard-Johnson, Sebeos, ch. 11, 80) while Tabarī says that he retreated towards Khurasan and then to the ‘Turks’ (Bosworth, al-Tabarī, 314 [1000]).

65 Alternatively the original die may have been cut to strike drachms for Hormizd IV with the date y’cdh, dw’cdh or even sycdh (11, 12, 13) rather than being a die of year 1 ‘ywk’ for Varhrān VI.

66 Gurnet, F., ‘Some considerations on the re-use of dies in Sasanian numismatics and their implications’, Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter 141 (1994) 4-8Google Scholar.

67 He suggests September 591 but later says the Khusrau defeated Varhrān before October 1 591, Persian War, 54 and 73.

68 Whitby, , Theophylact, v.6.8 - v.9.2Google Scholar.

69 See Appendix 1 for coins of the mint NY, year 3. T. Daryaee mentions but does not illustrate coins of year 2 with pelleted wings from another two mints, BN and NY in Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter 150 (1996), ‘The effect of civil war on mint production in the Sasanian empire’ 8-9, where he attributes the variation in design of the wings to the ‘utter confusion in the empire’. T. Mallon-McCorgray mentions but does not illustrate a further two coins of year 2 with pelleted wings, AO and GO, and coins of year 3 with pelleted wings from the mints AO, GO and LAM (website www.grifterrec.com). Mochiri, Numismatique Iranienne sous les Sassanides, 201, fig. 496 illustrates a drachm from Istakhr (ST), year 6 with the pelleted wings. Presumably the mint was using an old die. Mallon-McCorgray describes the issues with the pelleted wings as ‘characterised by a long, thin bust, [...] pointed wings, [which] appear to be the work of a single engraver or workshop’ and considers that this style is also sometimes used with the ‘normal’ wings.

70 Whitby, Chronicon Pascbale, 727-729.

71 Whitby, Chronicon Paschale, 733.

72 Vasilev, ‘Agapius’, 452.

73 Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles, ‘Text no. 2: A chronicle composed AD 640’, 18.

74 Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles, ‘Text no. 13: The secular history of Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē’, 138.

75 Palmer et al., West-Syrian Chronicles, ‘Text no. 12: Two chronicles up to AD 819/846’, 76.

76 Chabot, , Michel le Syrien, vol. II, book xi, ch. iii, 410 Google Scholar. Khusrau’s death is mentioned on 409.

77 It is just possible that minting might have stopped in late 627 after the defeat at Nineveh and the chaos of Heraclius’ march into lower Mesopotamia (I am grateful to Michael Whitby for this suggestion). Even if this were the case there should still be significant numbers of coins dated to Khusrau’s last regnal year.

78 See notes to Appendix 2.

79 MacKenzie, D.N., A Concise Pahlevi Dictionary (London 1971), 2 Google Scholar.