History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] THE SASSANIANS. 9

es SS names of Ardeshir Babekan, Shapur, and Naoshirvan. The first of these was the restorer of the mighty empire which, created by Cyrus, had been lost by Darius Codomanus after his defeat by Alexander the Great. Ardeshir was famed for his wisdom and goodness as well as for his bravery. He governed his kingdom on the principles of strict justice, and 1t was in his reign that the ancient religion of Zoroaster, which had been greatly corrupted, was restored to its pristine purity.

Shapur is famous in history for his successes over the Roman armies under the Emperor Valerian, whom he took prisoner (4.p. 260). History has informed us how the Emperor Julian was defeated im his attempt to invade Persia itself with the view of avenging the humiliation the Romans had suffered under Valerian, and how he was compelled to sign an ignominious treaty, by which he restored to Shapur the five provinces on the other side of the Tigris and the strongest forts in Mesopotamia, and abandoned Armenia to the King of Persia, by whom it was subsequently subjugated.

Naoshirvan, the last of the Persian monarchs of note, had a glorious reign of forty-eight years, beginning from A.D. 531. In the thirteenth year of Justinian Naoshirvan undertook his first expedition against the Romans, in which he captured and destroyed Antioch, He waged war against them on several