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SASSANID STANDARD BEARER AND STANDARDS

128.      SASSANID STANDARD BEARER Since this is the first of the Sassanid types so far to expose much cloth, it is worth mentioning here that upper class Persians would he gorgeously dressed in rich colours and elaborate embroidered patterns. Red, yellow, violet and almond green were favourite, with blue, turquoise and leopard skin for cloaks and housings as runners up. The only shield pattern I know of is that of Khusru II, which had an eight pointed star with the shield rim and boss also differentiated. The Sha Nama of Firdausi credits the king with a gold shield. The standard actually held by 128 is the most common shape seen on monuments, with variants on 128a and 128b, turning up occasionally as well. 128c is probably the famous national Kaviani banner, described by the Sha Nama as a gold figure outlined with jewels on a ground of purple Greek brocade and with dangling ribands of red, yellow, and violet cloth. The figure in the centre is described as a star, but is probably a corruption of an earlier banner carrying the Hawk symbolising Ormuzd. Its head has become the top disk, its wings the top arms, its legs the lower arms, and its tail the lower disk. 128d appeared in the 2,500 year anniversary parade carried by a Parthian horse archer, but if it was used in that era it was probably the royal standard. It lasted into Sassanid times as a lesser standard. 128e is also from the parade. I won't go bail for the shape, but there are several references in the Sha Nama to banners of red, yellow or violet bearing such animals as white horses, dragons and wolves. [Based on Parthian Mounted Standard Bearers of the Arsacid Period See also a standard bearers on the Sassanid Rock Relief of Hormuzd II at Naqsh-i Rustam Iranian Army reconstructions, 1971]