such as to bring, at a future day, the blessings
of those whom God has confided to our parental care upon both your
memory and mine!"

There is reason to believe that Artaxerxes, some short time before
his death, invested Sapor with the emblems of sovereignty, and either
associated him in the empire, or wholly ceded to him his own place. The
Arabian writer, Macoudi, declares that, sated with glory and with
power, he withdrew altogether from the government, and, making over
the administration of affairs to his favorite son, devoted himself to
religious contemplation. Tabari knows nothing of the religious motive,
but relates that towards the close of his life Artaxerxes "made Sapor
regent, appointed him formally to be his successor, and with his own
hands placed the .crown on his head." [PLATE XII.] These notices would,
by themselves, have been of small importance; but force is lent to them
by the facts that Artaxerxes is found to have placed the effigy of Sapor
on his later coins, and that in one of his bas-reliefs he seems to be
represented as investing Sapor with the diadem. This tablet, which is
at Takht-i-Bostan, has been variously explained, and, as it is
unaccompanied by any inscription, no certain account can be given of it;
but, on the whole the opinion of those most competent to judge seems
to be that the intention of the artist was to represent Artaxerxes
(who wears the cap and inflated ball) as handing the diadem to
Sapor--distinguished by the mural crown of his own tablets and
coins--while Ormazd, marked by his customary _baton_, and further
indicated by a halo of glory around his head, looks on, sanctioning and
approving the transaction. A prostrate figure under the feet of the
two Sassanian kings represents either Artabanus or the extinct Parthian
monarchy, probably the former; while the sunflower upon which Ormazd
stands, together with the rays that stream from his head, denote an
intention to present him under a Mithraitic aspect, suggestive to the
beholder of a real latent identity between the two great objects of
Persian worship.

[Illustration: PLATE 12.]

The coins of Artaxerxes present five different types. [PLATE XI., Fig.
1.] In the earliest his effigy appears on the obverse, front-faced, with
the simple legend AETaHsnaTE (Artaxerxes), or sometimes with the longer
one, BaGi ARTaiiSHaTR MaLKA, "Divine Artaxerxes, King;" while the
reverse bears the profile of his father, Papak, looking to the