Analyzing the Ideation of War Themes of Sassanid Kings in Petroglyphs, Coins, and Silver Vessels

Being a warrior and being able to fight on the battlefield was considered one of the important characteristics for becoming a king and sitting on the throne in the history of ancient Iran. What doubled the importance of this feature was the political, religious, war, and even social position of the king among the officials, nobles and tribes, soldiers and subordinate people. Although kings such as Ardashir and Shapur were known to the subordinate people with their series of wars with East and West, and these wars were a good display of their warrior power, the kings well understood that there is a need in opportunities and on various occasions, to display their fighting power for the people of the empire as well. This research aimed to examine and analyze the images found in petroglyphs, coins, silver vessels, etc., to identify the war and propaganda elements the Sassanid kings used in conceptualizing their war position. The findings of the research show that the visual description and promotion of the king's fighting power, whether on the battlefield or in the hunting field, was invariably one of the main concerns of the kings. Due to the limitation of advertising and display tools, using existing tools such as petroglyphs, coins, silver vessels and other tools was vital for the kings. Displaying power and legitimacy that could be exposed to the public as much as possible depended on the use of permanent visual advertisements on petroglyphs, coins, and dishes. The existence of many petroglyphs, with various political, religious, war, and even social subjects, indicates that the kings were fully aware of the propaganda aspect and the effect of art on the psyche of the people, and they were determined to dominate their beliefs and thoughts by creating a completely royal art rule in society.