one among many of those salutary shocks which, in the political as in
the natural world, are needed from time to time to stimulate action and
prevent torpor and apathy.

CHAPTER III.

_Reign of Artaxerxes I. Stories told of him. Most probable account of
his Descent, Rank, and Parentage. His Contest with Artabanus. First War
with Chosroes of Armenia. Contest with Alexander Severus. Second War
with Chosroes and conquest of Armenia. Religious Reforms. Internal
Administration and Government. Art. Coinage. Inscriptions._

Around the cradle of an Oriental sovereign who founds a dynasty there
cluster commonly a number of traditions, which have, more or less, a
mythical character. The tales told of the Great, which even Herodotus
set aside as incredible, have their parallels in narratives that were
current within one or two centuries with respect to the founder of the
Second Persian Empire, which would not have disgraced the mythologers
of Achaemenian times. Artaxerxes, according to some, was the son of a
common soldier who had an illicit connection with the wife of a Persian
cobbler and astrologer, a certain Babek or Papak, an inhabitant of the
Cadusian country and a man of the lowest class. Papak, knowing by his
art that the soldier's son would attain a lofty position, voluntarily
ceded his rights as husband to the favorite of fortune, and bred up as
his own the issue of this illegitimate commerce, who, when he attained
to manhood, justified Papak's foresight by successfully revolting from
Artabanus and establishing the new Persian monarchy. Others said that
the founder of the new kingdom was a Parthian satrap, the son of a
noble, and that, having long meditated revolt, he took the final plunge
in consequence of a prophecy uttered by Artabanus, who was well skilled
in magical arts, and saw in the stars that the Parthian empire was
threatened with destruction. Artabanus, on a certain occasion, when he
communicated this prophetic knowledge to his wife, was overheard by one
of her attendants, a noble damsel named Artaducta, already affianced to
Artaxerxes and a sharer in his secret counsels. At her instigation
he hastened his plans, raised the standard of revolt, and upon the
successful issue of his enterprise made her his queen. Miraculous
circumstances were freely interwoven with these narratives, and a result
was produced which staggered the faith even of such a writer as Moses of
Chorene, who, desiring to confin