276
Restobatxon of the pebsian empire.
LECTURE CXXV.
The character of the Parthians must have become completely
altered since they had adopted the manners and mode of living
of the conquered people. Their excellent light cavalry for
instance, is very rarely mentioned in the latter period of their
history, which fact alone is to me a proof that they had lost
their nationality. The most severe blow that had been in-
flicted upon the Parthian empire had been the taking of
Ctesiphon; and the nations, which had till then patiently
borne the Parthian yoke, now rose against their rulers. We
usually consider this insurrection in the same light in which
we look upon that of the Persians under the great Cyrus
against the Medes, in which the inhabitants of Persia shook off
the dominion of the Medes; but I believe that the cases are
somewhat different ; the difference between the Parthians and
the other tribes, resembles that which now exists between a
nomadic people and the inhabitants of towns; and those who
now rose against the Parthians were, on the whole, probably
the Tadjiks of the Iran race, that is, the inhabitants of the
towns who occur throughout Persia under the name of the
Tadjiks, who speak a peculiar idiom of their own, and whose
abodes begin on the Oxus; whereas, in the time of Cyrus, the
Medes and Persians were two essentially distinct nations, al-
though in the course of time the former must have become
completely Persians, for they now had the same language, and
Irak Adjemi had probably preserved the language of the
Medes.1 Now in a struggle, the particulars of which are
utterly unknown to us, the Persians succeeded in throwing
off the yoke of the Parthians, who after this are no longer
mentioned in history, nor do we know what became of
them. The Persian empire was now restored and rose
again, and several of their ancient institutions were revived.
The Parthians had been barbarians; they had ruled over a
nation far more civilised than themselves, and had oppressed
them and their religion, offending against their worship of
the elements by a foreign idolatry. The Persians who restored
the kingdom were now governed by Ardshir1 the son of Babek1
' An examination of this question would be very interesting.—N.
WAR OF ARDSHIR WITH THE ROMANS.
277
whom the Greeks call Artaxerxes or Artaxares, and who
claimed to belong to the race of the Sassanidae2 ; the story
of his being a son of Babek is very apocryphal.3 Ardshir
also restored the ancient fire-worship, but during the sway of
the Parthians a great many new opinions and religious rites
had been introduced among the Persians which it was not
easy to eradicate, and hence the Byzantine writers are quite
right in asserting that the later religion of the Persians was
essentially different from that which had prevailed among
them in the earlier times. Although Ardshir removed the
monuments to Persepolis, yet this city was no longer the
centre of the empire, which was henceforth at Ctesiphon in
Media. Susa was then uninhabited, and Ecbatana had become
an insignificant place. After having established the dominion
of the Persians, Ardshir, in compliance with the wishes of the
nation, which was elevated by the consciousness of having
accomplished a great thing, laid claims to extensive countries
then belonging to the Romans, the decline of whose power
cannot have escaped him ; and he demanded that they should
give up to him all the countries as far as the Aegean and the
Propontis, on the ground that Asia naturally belonged to the
Persian empire as Europe belonged to the Romans.4 To this
demand the Romans answered by declaring war, and Alex-
ander Severus went to the East. The state of our information
respecting the issue of this war is a remarkable instance of the
extent of our ignorance concerning those times. We have
two contradictory accounts of the operations of Alexander
Severus and their results. The one which Hcrodian5 gives,
and which is recommended by internal probability and preci-
sion, makes Alexander, after his arrival at Antioch, invade the
enemy’s country with three armies. The first marched from
the north through Armenia, along the right bank of the
Euphrates, the second was in Media, and the third was to
keep up the communication between the two in Mesopotamia.
The first of these armies, after having gained various advan-
tages, was compelled by the difficulties of the country, to
2 The expulsion of the Parthians and the restoration of the Persian empire
by Ardshir, is represented in a bas-relief, which is still extant at Persepolis.__N
3 Agathias, ii. 27.
4 Dion Ca∙1s. lxxx. 4; Herodian1 vi. 2 and 4; Zonaras, xii, 15.
s vi. 5, foil.