Scythians had been settled in these parts, and in portions of Afghanistan and India, since the great invasion of the Yue-chi, about B.C.

200; and it is not unlikely that some of them may have passed under the Persian rule during the reign of Sapor, but we have no particulars of these conquests.
Sapor's coins resemble those of Artaxerxes in general type, but may be distinguished from them, first, by the head-dress, which is either a cap terminating in the head of an eagle, or else a mural crown surmounted by an inflated ball; and, secondly, by the emblem on the reverse, which is almost always a fire-altar between two supporters [PLATE XV., Fig.

2.] The ordinary legend on the coins is "Mazdisn bag Shahpuhri, malkan malka Airan, minuchitri minyazdan," on the obverse; and on the reverse "Shahpuhri nuvazi." It appears from these legends, and from the inscription above given, that Sapor was, like his father, a zealous Zoroastrian.

His faith was exposed to considerable trial.

Never was there a time of greater religious ferment in the East, or a crisis which more shook men's belief in ancestral creeds.