tation in
which Artaxerxes was born. We have seen that Agathias (writing ab. A.D.
580) called him the supposititious son of a cobbler. Others spoke of
him as the child of a shepherd; while some said that his father was "an
inferior officer in the service of the government." But on the other
hand, in the inscriptions which Artaxerxes himself setup in the
neighborhood of Persepolis, he gives his father, Papak, the title of
"King." Agathangelus calls him a "noble" and "satrap of Persepolitan
government;" while Herodian seems to speak of him as "king of the
Persians," before his victories over Artabanus. On the whole, it is
perhaps most probable that, like Cyrus, he was the hereditary monarch
of the subject kingdom of Persia, which had always its own princes under
the Parthians, and that thus he naturally and without effort took the
leadership of the revolt when circumstances induced his nation to rebel
and seek to establish its independence. The stories told of his humble
origin, which are contradictory and improbable, are to be paralleled
with those which made Cyrus the son of a Persian of moderate rank, and
the foster-child of a herdsman. There is always in the East a tendency
towards romance and exaggeration; and when a great monarch emerges from
a comparatively humble position, the humility and obscurity of his first
condition are intensified, to make the contrast more striking between
his original low estate and his ultimate splendor and dignity.

The circumstances of the struggle between Artaxerxes and. Artabanus are
briefly sketched by Dio Cassius and Agathangelus, while they are related
more at large by the Persian writers. It is probable that the contest
occupied a space of four or five years. At first, we are told, Artabanus
neglected to arouse himself, and took no steps towards crushing the
rebellion, which was limited to an assertion of the independence of
Persia Proper, or the province of Fars. After a time the revolted
vassal, finding himself unmolested, was induced to raise his thoughts
higher, and commenced a career of conquest. Turning his arms eastward,
he attacked Kerman (Carmania), and easily succeeded in reducing that
scantily-peopled tract under his dominion. He then proceeded to menace
the north, and, making war in that quarter, overran and attached to
his kingdom some of the outlying provinces of Media. Roused by these
aggressions, the Parthian monarch at length took the field, collected
an army con