ter Parthian monarchs, show at once a renaissance.
The head is well cut; the features have individuality and expression;
the epigraph is sufficiently legible. Still more is his sculpture
calculated to surprise us. Artaxerxes represents himself as receiving
the Persian diadem from the hands of Ormazd; both he and the god are
mounted upon chargers of a stout breed, which are spiritedly portrayed;
Artabanus lies prostrate under the feet of the king's steed, while under
those of the deity's we observe the form of Ahriman, also prostrate,
and indeed seemingly dead. Though the tablet has not really any great
artistic merit, it is far better than anything that remains to us of
the Parthians; it has energy and vigor; the physiognomies are carefully
rendered; and the only flagrant fault is a certain over-robustness in
the figures, which has an effect that is not altogether pleasing. Still,
we cannot but see in the new Persian art--even at its very beginning--a
movement towards life after a long period of stagnation; an evidence
of that general stir of mind which the downfall of Tartar oppression
rendered possible; a token that Aryan intelligence was beginning to
recover and reassert itself in all the various fields in which it had
formerly won its triumphs.

The coinage of Artaxerxes, and of the other Sassanian monarchs, is
based, in part upon Roman, in part upon Parthian, models. The Roman
aureus furnishes the type which is reproduced in the Sassanian gold
coins, while the silver coins follow the standard long established
in Western Asia, first under the Seleucid, and then under the Arsacid
princes. This standard is based upon the Attic drachm, which was adopted
by Alexander as the basis of his monetary system. The curious occurrence
of a completely different standard for gold and silver in Persia during
this period is accounted for by the circumstances of the time at which
the coinage took its rise. The Arsacidae had employed no gold coins,
but had been content with a silver currency; any gold coin that may
have been in use among their subjects for purposes of trade during
the continuance of their empire must have been foreign money--Roman,
Bactrian, or Indian; but the quantity had probably for the most part
been very small. But, about ten years before the accession of Artaxerxes
there had been a sudden influx into Western Asia of Roman gold, in
consequence of the terms of the treaty concluded between Artabanus
and Macrinus (A