OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

317

midable power of the Parthians , which spread chap.

from India to the frontiers of Syria , was in its_

turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes , thefounder of a new dynasty, which, under thename of Sassanides, governed Persia till the in-vasion of the Arabs . This great revolution,whose fatal influence was soon experienced bythe Romans, happened in the fourth year ofAlexander Severus , two hundred and twenty-six years after the Christian era. h

Artaxerxes had served with great reputation T he Pcr -in the armies of Artaban, the last king of the narchy re-Parthians, and it appears that he was driven in- Artax- byto exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, the erxe ®•customary reward for superior merit. His birthwas obscure, and the obscurity equally gaveroom to the aspersions of his enemies, and theflattery of his adherents. If we credit the scan-dal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from theillegitimate commerce of a tanner’s wife with acommon soldier. 0 The latter represent him asdescended from a branch of the ancient kingsof Persia , though time and misfortune had gra-dually reduced his ancestors to the humble

b In the five hundred and thirty-eighth year of the era of Seleucus .See Agathias , 1. ii, p. G3. This great event (such is the carelessness ofthe Orientals) is placed by Eutychius as high as the tenth year ofCommodus ; aud by Moses of Chorene , as low as the reign of Philip.Ammianus Marceliinus has so servilely copied (xxiii, 6) his ancient ma-terials, which are indeed very good, that he describes the family of theArsacides as still seated on the Persian throne in the middle of the fourthcentury.

c The tanner’s name w r as Babec, the soldier’s Sassan; from the for-mer Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babegan, from the latter allhis descendants have been styled Sassanides *