Vistahm
379 - 383 AD
Bistam | Wistaxm | وستهم | ویستَهم | گُستَهم | بسطام | بیستام | ویستاخم | 𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭧𐭬
Ver.1 - Last updated: Mar 2nd 2022
Vistahm was a Parthian dynast of the Ispahbudhan house and Khosrow II’s maternal uncle. He saw himself as the true king of kings of Iran through his Parthian Arsacid lineage. He rose up against his nephew, the king, due to the killing of his brother.
Insignia
References
A few coins of Vistahm are shown above. It is not exactly clear what he would have looked like due to the quality of the coins. There are though a few features that are common among the different coin depictions. A big jaw, crossed and frowning eyebrows, relatively short beard, and a long and distinguished mustache. There seems to be an effort to show a rough and perhaps overpowering face. The face is depicted longer than normal. This is seen in contemporary coins of, Hormizd IV and Bahram VI. Knowing that the aforementioned are from different families we can assume that this was perhaps a stylistic choice and not necessarily a display of reality of the length of the face.
The Crown would likely have more details than depicted in the coins but due to uncertainty of those decorations, the recreation also lacks those details. No surviving documents pointing toward the colors of clothing and crown were found to inform this project therefore, the colors reported by Hamzah Isfahani describing Hormizd IV’s (see below) clothing and the crown color are used here due to being close in time.
Visual Description in Literature
“His vest is embroidered and speckled in green, … his crown is green…“ -Hamzah Isfahani
from - The 'History of the Kings of the Persians' in Three Arabic Chronicles: The Transmission of the Iranian Past from Late Antiquity to Early Islam (Translated Texts for Historians LUP) Paperback – September 1, 2018 - by Robert G. Hoyland
Page 67
Likely Accuracy of the Creative Recreation
At best a “Wild Guess”:
Due to the short period of kingship and the low quantity and quality of coins and other artifacts found, this image would not be a good a strong guess.
Note: Vistahm is not from the family of Sassan thus the family relations could not help come to a better general conclusion of even the basic facial features. There is not much visual evidence from this period from the family of Ispahbudhan.
See the latest work in progress:
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