e himself to what was strictly true and
certain, could find no more to say of Artaxerxes's birth and origin
than that he was the son of a certain Sasan, and a native of Istakr, or
Persepolis.

Even, however, the two facts thus selected as beyond criticism by Moses
are far from being entitled to implicit credence. Artaxerxes, the son
of Sasan according to Agathangelus and Moses, is the same as Papak
(or Babek) in his own and his son's inscriptions. The Persian writers
generally take the same view, and declare that Sasan was a remoter
ancestor of Artaxerxes, the acknowledged founder of the family, and not
Artaxerxes' father. In the extant records of the new Persian Kingdom,
the coins and the inscriptions, neither Sasan nor the gentilitial term
derived from it, Sasanidae, has any place; and though it would perhaps
be rash to question on this account the employment of the term Sasanidae
by the dynasty, yet we may regard it as really "certain" that the father
of Artaxerxes was named, not Sasan, but Papak; and that, if the term
Sasanian was in reality a patronymic, it was derived, like the term
"Achaemenian," from some remote progenitor whom the royal family of the
new empire believed to have been their founder.

The native country of Artaxerxes is also variously stated by the
authorities. Agathangelus calls him an Assyrian, and makes the Assyrians
play an important part in his rebellion. Agathias says that he was born
in the Cadusian country, or the low tract south-west of the Caspian,
which belonged to Media rather than to Assyria or Persia. Dio Cassius,
and Herodian, the contemporaries of Artaxerxes, call him a Persian;
and there can be no reasonable doubt that they are correct in so doing.
Agathangelus allows the predominantly Persian character of his revolt,
and Agathias is apparently unaware that the Cadusian country was no part
of Persia. The statement that he was a native of Persepolis (Istakr) is
first found in Moses of Chorene. It may be true, but it is uncertain;
for it may have grown out of the earlier statement of Agathangelus, that
he held the government of the province of Istakr. We can only affirm
with confidence that the founder of the new Persian monarchy was a
genuine Persian, without attempting to determine positively what Persian
city or province had the honor of producing him.

A more interesting question, and one which will be found perhaps to
admit of a more definite answer, is that of the rank and s