avor the tolerant and eclectic spirit which animated the Court
of Ctesiphon. The perpetual fire, kindled, as it was, from heaven, was
carefully tended and preserved on the fire-altars of the Persian holy
places; the Magian hierarchy was held in the highest repute, the kings
themselves (as it would seem) not disdaining to be Magi; the ideas--even
perhaps the forms--of Ormazd and Ahriman were familiar to all;
image-worship was abhorred the sacred writings in the Zend or most
ancient Iranian language were diligently preserved and multiplied; a
pompous ritual was kept up; the old national religion, the religion of
the Achaemenians, of the glorious period of Persian ascendency in Asia,
was with the utmost strictness maintained, probably the more zealously
as it fell more and more into disfavor with the Parthians.

The consequence of this divergence of religious opinion between the
Persians and their feudal lords must undoubtedly have been a certain
amount of alienation and discontent. The Persian Magi must have been
especially dissatisfied with the position of their brethren at Court;
and they would doubtless use their influence to arouse the indignation
of their countrymen generally. But it is scarcely probable that this
cause alone would have produced any striking result. Religious sympathy
rarely leads men to engage in important wars, unless it has the support
of other concurrent motives. To account for the revolt of the Persians
against their Parthian lords under Artaxerxes, something more is needed
than the consideration of the religious differences which separated the
two peoples.

First, then, it should be borne in mind that the Parthian rule must have
been from the beginning distasteful to the Persians, owing to the rude
and coarse character of the people. At the moment of Mithridates's
successes, the Persians might experience a sentiment of satisfaction
that the European invader was at last thrust back, and that Asia had
re-asserted herself; but a very little experience of Parthian rule was
sufficient to call forth different feelings. There can be no doubt that
the Parthians, whether they were actually Turanians or no, were, in
comparison with the Persians, unpolished and uncivilized. They showed
their own sense of this inferiority by an affectation of Persian
manners. But this affectation was not very successful. It is evident
that in art, in architecture, in manners, in habits of life, the
Parthian race reached o