Evgeny Mirzoev
Nationai University of Science and Technology MISiS, Russia
The rock relief at Darabgird is one of the most controversial rock reliefs of Sasanian kings. It represents a victory scene of king Shapur I or Ardashir I over some enemy. The present paper deals with the problem of the king’s identity. It criticizes the identification of the king on the relief as Ardashir I, proposed by G. Herrmann and recently also by D. Levit-Tawil. The author supports the traditional interpretation of the triumphal relief as the scene of Shapur’s victory over the Roman emperors. In order to prove his point, the author discusses some stylistic details of rock reliefs at Darabgird, at Salmas and of the cameo, depicting Shapur I and emperor Valerianus. The author draws attention to the historical background of early Sasanian triumphal reliefs. The paper also discusses the theory, which proposes a representation of Uranius Antoninus on the relief.