SHAPOUR. 
383 
Majesty in other countries, to exalt the predominant power of their 
universal ruler, the Padishah Buzurk. 
Artaxerxes, like many other founders of Eastern dynasties 
Gengiiiz,* * * § Timur,' f Nadir Shah,J might ground his rebellion 
on the plausible pretext of the ingratitude of his sovereign; but while 
he supplanted the Arsacides in the empire, he recognised their 
superior interest in the affections of the people; and assumed their 
epoch, their language, and their name ;§ that his subjects might regard 
themselves rather as transferred to a different heir, than as subjugated 
to a new and unconnected race of conquerors. He accordingly styles 
himself Arsaces, in the coin preserved by Vaillant, and destined 
probably for the Western and Mesopotamian provinces: and Sapor 
continued the designation, though in the coins circulated in the 
Eastern Persia, which De Sacy|| has decyphered, both Princes con¬ 
firm to the corresponding genius of the country, relinquish the Greek 
and restore the native language, revive the symbols of the worship of 
fire, and connect themselves there also with the original prejudices of 
the people. - . e. 
Possibly the title thus adopted by the first Princes of the Sassa- 
nides, was retained even to the middle of the fourth century; for 
Ammianus Marcellinus describes the family on the throne of 
Persia as Arsacides ;<[[ an assertion which Gibbon seems to contra- 
diet as very careless and inaccurate, but which may perhaps be 
reconciled with the truth of history, by supposing, that even when the 
ancient line of the Parthian Kings had ceased to reign for more, than 
one hundred years, the house of S ass an retained their title of 
* Petit de la Croix, p. 37. 
+ Institutes, p. 25, 27. 
f Frazer’s Life, p. 81. of Artaxerxes, see Gibbon, vol.i. p. 201, 4to* 
§ Vaillant. 
|| De Sacy, Memoire sur les Medailles des Sassanides, p. 166 
5 In Gibbon, vol. i. p. 238. 
