Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/258

 234 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, equally gave room to the aspersions of his enemies, 1_ and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier *^. The latter represent him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of private citizens'^. As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne, and challenged the noble task of delivering the Persians from the oppression under which they groaned above five centuries since the death of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great battles. In the last of these their king Artaban was slain, and the spirit of the nation was for ever broken *. The autho- rity of Artaxerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. Two younger branches of the royal house of Arsaces were confounded among the prostrate satraps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present ne- cessity, attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vassals, towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia ; but this little army of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, by the vigilance of the conqueror ^ who boldly assumed the double diadem, and the title of king of kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul the ambition of restoring, in their full splendour, the religion and em- Reforma- pirc of Cyrus. magian^re- ^' I^"""g ^^^ ^^ng servitude of Persia under the ligion. Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the nations of <= The tanner's name was Babec ; the soldier's, Sassan : from the former Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babegan ; from the latter all his de- scendants have been styled Sassanides. ^ D'Herbelot, Bibliotji^que Orientale : Ardshir. ^ Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxx j Herodian, 1. vi. p. 207 j Abulpharagius, Dynast, p. 80. f See Moses Chorenensis, 1. ii. c. 65 — 71.