A detail of history

An enigmatic carved plaque  on the wall of the Meldrum Tower at Fyvie castle.

This what Dr W. Douglas Simpson, renowned historian and librarian of the University of Aberdeen, had to say about it in 1938.

"The plaque on the Meldrum Tower shows a bust of a bearded and turbaned Oriental, with the inscription ARIADENVS BARBARVS. Who this is I have been unable to discover, unless it is meant for Ariabignes,  the Persian commander who fell at Salamis"