son Sanatruces II. 115; and Parthamaspates 116–117). Obviously the empire can never have been at peace during these years, a fact which materially assisted the aggressive campaigns Wars with Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. of Trajan (113–117). Trajan resuscitated the old project of Crassus and Caesar, by which the empire of Alexander as far as India was to be won for Western civilization. In pursuance of this plan he reduced Armenia, Mesopotamia and Babylonia to the position of imperial provinces. On his death, however, Hadrian immediately reverted to the Augustan policy and restored the conquests. Simultaneously there arose in the East the powerful Indo-Scythian empire of the Kushana, which doubtless limited still further the Parthian possessions in eastern Iran.
An era of quiet seems to have returned with Vologaeses III. (147–191), and we hear no more of rival kings. With the Roman Empire a profound peace had reigned since Hadrian (117), which was first disturbed by the attack of Marcus Aurelius and Aelius Verus in 162. This war, which broke out on the question of Armenia and Osroene, proved of decisive significance for the future development of the East, for, in its course, Seleucia was destroyed by the Romans under Avidius Cassius (164). The downfall of the great Greek city sealed the fate of Hellenism in the countries east of the Euphrates. Henceforward Greek culture practically vanishes and gives place to Aramaic; it is significant that in future the kings of Mesene stamped their coinage with Aramaic legends. This Aramaic victory was powerfully aided by the ever-increasing progress of Christianity, which soon created, as is well known, an Aramaic literature Christianity. of which the language was the dialect of Edessa, a city in which the last king of Osroene, Abgar IX. (179–214), had been converted to the faith. After that Greek culture and Greek literature were only accessible to the Orientals in an Aramaic dress. Vologaeses III. is probably also the king Valgash, who, according to a native tradition, preserved in the Dinkart, began a collection of the sacred writings of Zoroaster—the origin of the Avesta which has come down to us. This would show how the national Iranian element in the Parthian Empire was continually gathering strength.
The Roman war was closed in 165 by a peace which ceded north-west Mesopotamia to Rome. Similar conflicts took place in 195–202 between Vologaeses IV. (191–209) and Septimius Severus, and again in 216–217 between Artabanus IV. (209–226) and Caracalla. They failed, however, to affect materially the position of the two empires.
VIII. The Sassanian Empire.—That the Arsacid Empire should have endured some 350 years after its foundation by Mithradates I. and Phraates II., was a result, not of internal strength, but of chance working in its external development. It might equally well have so existed for centuries more. But under Artabanus IV. the catastrophe Ardashir I. came. In his days there arose in Persis—precisely as Cyrus had arisen under Astyages the Mede—a great personality. Ardashir (Artaxerxes) I., son of Papak (Babek), the descendant of Sasan, was the sovereign of one of the small states into which Persis had gradually fallen. His father Papak had taken possession of the district of Istakhr, which had replaced the old Persepolis, long a mass of ruins. Thence Ardashir I., who reigned from about A.D. 212, subdued the neighbouring potentates—disposing of his own brothers among the rest. This proceeding quickly led to war with his suzerain Artabanus IV. The conflict was protracted through several years, and the Parthians were worsted in three battles. The last of these witnessed the fall of Artabanus (A.D. 226), though a Parthian king, Artavasdes—perhaps a son of Artabanus IV.—who is only known to us from his own coins, appears to have retained a portion of the empire for some time longer. The members of the Arsacid line who fell into the hands of the victor were put to death; a number of the princes found refuge in Armenia, where the Arsacid dynasty maintained itself till A.D. 429. The remainder of the vassal states—Carmania, Susiana, Mesene—were ended by Ardashir; and the autonomous desert fortress of Hatra in Mesopotamia was destroyed by his son Shapur (Sapor) I., according to the Persian and Arabian traditions, which, in this point, are deserving of credence. The victorious Ardashir then took possession of the palace of Ctesiphon and assumed the title “King of the kings of the Iranians” (βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀριανῶν).
The new empire founded by Ardashir I.—the Sassanian,
or Neo-Persian Empire—is essentially different from that of
his Arsacid predecessors. It is, rather, a continuation
of the Achaemenid traditions which were still
alive on their native soil. Consequently the national
impetus—already clearly revealed in the title of the new
Sassanian Wars
with Rome.
sovereign—again becomes strikingly manifest. The Sassanian
Empire, in fact, is once more a national Persian or Iranian
Empire. The religious element is, of course, inseparable
from the national, and Ardashir, like all the dynasts of Persis,
was an ardent devotee of the Zoroastrian doctrine, and closely
connected with the priesthood. In his royal style he assumed
the designation “Mazdayasnian” (Μασδάσνας), and the fire-cult
was everywhere vigorously disseminated. Simultaneously
the old claims to world dominion made their reappearance.
After the defeat of Artabanus, Ardashir, as heir of the Achaemenids,
formulated his pretensions to the dominion of western
Asia (Dio. Cass. 80, 3; Herodian vi. 2, 4; Zonar. xii. 15; similarly
under Shapur II.: Ammian. Marc. xvii. 5, 5). He attacked
Armenia, though without permanent success (cf. von Gutschmid
in Zeitschr. d. d. morgenl. Ges. xxxi. 47, on the fabulous Armenian
account of these wars), and dispatched his armies against
Roman Mesopotamia. They strayed as far as Syria and
Cappadocia. The inner decay of the Roman Empire, and the
widespread tendency of its troops to mutiny and usurpation,
favoured his enterprise. Nevertheless, the armies of Alexander
Severus, supported by the king of Armenia, succeeded in repelling
the Persians, though the Romans sustained severe losses (231–233).
Towards the end of his reign Ardashir resumed the attack;
while his son Shapur I. (241–272) reduced Nisibis and Carrhae
Shapur I.
and penetrated into Syria, but was defeated by
Gordian III. at Resaena (243). Soon afterwards,
however, the Roman Empire seemed to collapse utterly. The
Goths defeated Decius (251) and harried the Balkan Peninsula
and Asia Minor, while insurrections broke out everywhere and
the legions created one Caesar after the other. Then Shapur
resumed the war, subdued Armenia and plundered Antioch.
The emperor Valerian, who marched to encounter him, was
overthrown at Edessa and taken prisoner (260). The Persian
armies advanced into Cappadocia; but here Ballista or Balista
(d. c. 264) beat them back, and Odenathus (Odainath), prince of
Palmyra (q.v.), rose in their rear, defeated Shapur, captured
his harem, and twice forced his way to Ctesiphon (263–265).
Shapur was in no position to repair the defeat, or even to hold
Armenia; so that the Sassanid power failed to pass the bounds
of the Arsacid Empire. Nevertheless Shapur I., in contrast
to his father, assumed the title “King of the kings of the Iranians
and non-Iranians” (βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀριανῶν καὶ Ἀναριανῶν;
shah an shah Iran we Aniran), thus emphasizing his claim to
world dominion. His successors retained the designation,
little as it corresponded to the facts, for the single non-Iranian
land governed by the Sassanids was, as under the Parthians,
the district of the Tigris and Euphrates as far as the Mesopotamian
desert; Western and northern Mesopotamia remained
Roman.
The Sassanid ruler is the representative of the “Kingly Majesty,” derived from Ormuzd, which appears in the Avesta as the angel Organization. Kavaem Hvareno, “the royal glory,” and, according to legend, once beamed in the Iranian kings, unattainable to all but those of royal blood. A picture, which frequently recurs in the rock-reliefs of Ardashir I. and Shapur I., represents the king and the god Ormuzd both on horseback, the latter in the act of handing to his companion the ring of sovereignty. Thus it is explicable that all the Sassanids, as many of the Arsacids before them, include the designation of “god” in their formal style. From this developed (as already under the Arsacids) that strict principle of legitimacy which is still vigorous in Firdousi. It applies, however, to the whole royal house, precisely as in the Ottoman Empire of to-day. The person of the individual ruler
