Peroz the Kidarite Hun, in the style of a Kushano-Sasanian ruler, 330-365 CE

September 22, 2023

Peroz the Kidarite Hun, in the style of a Kushano-Sasanian ruler, 330-365 CE

"The rule of the Kushano-Sasanians ended in the mid-4th century CE, when they lost their territories to the invading Kidarites Huns.

Peroz was a successor of the first Kidarite ruler Kirada, and the immediate predecessor of the famous Kidarite ruler Kidara. He was previously thought to be one of the last of the Kushano-Sasanids Kushanshas rulers.

Historian Khodadad Rezakhani suggests that Peroz was at the Siege of Amida in 359 CE, where a Kidarite army under Grumbates is known to have supported the Sasanian army of Shapur II in besieging the city held by the Romans. In his account of the siege, Ammianus Marcellinus describes in detail the costume, and in particular the headgear of one of the besieging rulers:

'The king himself, mounted upon a charger and overtopping the others, rode before the whole army, wearing in place of a diadem a golden image of a ram's head set with precious stones, distinguished too by a great retinue of men of the highest rank and of various nations.'

— Ammianus, Roman Antiquities, 1935:471

This ruler is traditionally held to be Shapur II, although Ammianus Marcellinus doesn't expressly say so, and Shapur's traditional headgear, a crenellated crown, is very different. The headgear with ram's horn would rather correspond to that of Peroz as seen on many of his coins in the Sasanian style. Ammianus Marcellinus also mentions that the king, whom he assumes to be Shapur, was called "Saansaan" and "Pirosen" by the Persians, which could actually refer to "Šāhanšāh Pērōz", the ruler of the eastern Hunnic tribes (Chionites, Gelani, and Sagistani)."

-taken from Wikipedia

Coin in the name of the Kushano-Sasanian ruler Varahran I, struck under Peroz (ram horns added), circa 330-365 CE. Kidarite tamgha to right. Balkh mint.