Eduard Meyer

“ The Persian supremacy, however, was not based upon the power of the empire, but only on the discord of the Greeks. Shortly after the edict by which the king had proclaimed his alliance with Thebes, and the conditions of the general peace which he was going to impose upon Greece, his weakness became evident, for since 366 all the satraps of Asia Minor (Datames, Ariobarzanes, Mausolus, Orontes, Artabazus) were in rebellion again, in close alliance with Athens, Sparta and Egypt. The king could do little against them ”

“ This victory enabled the Greek allies of Persia (Thebes, Athens, Argos, Corinth) to carry on the Corinthian war against Sparta, and the Spartans had to give up the war in Asia Minor. But it soon became evident that the only gainers by the war were the Athenians, who in 389, under Thrasybulus, tried to found their old empire anew (see Delian League) . At the same time Evagoras attempted to conquer the whole of Cyprus, and was soon in open rebellion. ”

“ In 448 the war with Athens was terminated by the treaty concluded by Callias (but see Callias and Cimon) , by which the Athenians left Cyprus and Egypt to the Persians, while Persia gave up nothing of her rights, but promised not to make use of them against the Greek cities on the Asiatic coast, which had gained their liberty (Ed. Meyer, Forschungen zur alt. Gesch. ii. 71 ff.) . In the Samian and the Peloponnesian wars, Artaxerxes remained neutral, in spite of the attempts made by both Sparta and Athens to gain his alliance. ”

“ He was the real founder of the Parthian empire, which was of very limited extent until the final decay of the Seleucid empire, occasioned by the Roman intrigues after the death of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (165 B.C.) , enabled Mithradates I. and his successors to conquer Media and Babylonia. Tiridates adopted the name of his brother Arsaces, and after him all the other Parthian kings (who by the historians are generally called by their proper names) , amounting to the number of about thirty, officially wear only the name Arsaces. ”

“ A war with Rome seemed inevitable. But that party among the Parthian magnates which was hostile to Artabanus applied to Tiberius for a king of the race of Phraates. Tiberius sent Phraates’s grandson, Tiridates III., and ordered L. Vitellius (the father of the emperor) to restore the Roman authority in the East. By very dexterous military and diplomatic operations Vitellius succeeded completely. Artabanus was deserted by his followers and fled to the East. Tiridates, who was proclaimed king, could no longer maintain himself, because he appeared to be a vassal of the Romans ”

“ After great preparations the king came in person, but again the attack on Egypt was repelled by the Greek generals of Nectanebus (346) . One or two years later Artaxerxes, at the head of a great army, began the siege of Sidon. The Sidonian king Tennes considered resistance hopeless, and betrayed the town to the Persian king, assisted by Mentor, who had been sent with Greek troops from Egypt to defend the town. Artaxerxes repressed the rebellion with great cruelty and destroyed the town. ”

“ The Arsacidian empire was overthrown in A.D. 226 by Ardashir (Artaxerxes) , the founder of the Sassanid empire, whose conquests began about A.D. 212. The name Arsaces of Persia is also borne by some kings of Armenia, who were of Parthian origin. ”

“ Ardashir associated with himself on the throne his son Shapur, who successfully continued his work.
Under the tombs of Darius I. at Persepolis, on the surface of the rock, Ardashir has sculptured his image and that of the god Ahuramazda (Ormuzd or Ormazd) . Both are on horseback; the god is giving the diadem to the king. Under the horse of the king lies a defeated enemy, the Parthian king Artaban ”

“ These two gods belonged to the old popular religion of the Iranians, but had until then been neglected by the true Zoroastrians; now they were introduced into the official worship much in the way in which the cult of the saints came into the Christian religion. ”

“ F. Stolze and J. C. Andreas, Persepolis, pl. 116; Marcel Diculafoy, L’Art antique de la Perse, 1884–1889, v. pl. 14) . A similar inscription and sculpture is on a rock near Gur (Firuzabad) in Persia. On his coins he has the same titles (in Pahlavi) . ”