successors
amounted to no more than twenty years in the aggregate. Sapor had been
engaged in perpetual wars, had spread the terror of the Persian arms on
all sides, and ruled more gloriously than any of his predecessors. The
kings who followed him were pacific and unenterprising; they were almost
unknown to their neighbors, and are among the least distinguished of the
Sassanian monarchs. More especially does this character attach to the
two immediate successors of Sapor II., viz. Artaxerxes II. and Sapor
III. They reigned respectively four and five years; and their annals
during this period are almost a blank. Artaxerxes II., who is called by
some the brother of Sapor II., was more probably his son. He succeeded
his father in A.D. 379, and died at Ctesiphon in A.D. 383. He left a
character for kindness and amiability behind him, and is known to
the Persians as Nihoukar, or "the Beneficent," and to the Arabs as Al
Djemil, "the Virtuous." According to the "Modjmel-al-Tewarikh," he
took no taxes from his subjects during the four years of his reign, and
thereby secured to himself their affection and gratitude. He seems to
have received overtures from the Armenians soon after his accession, and
for a time to have been acknowledged by the turbulent mountaineers as
their sovereign. After the murder of Bab, or Para, the Romans had set
up, as king over Armenia, a certain Varaztad (Pharasdates), a member
of the Arsacid family, but no near relation of the recent monarchs,
assigning at the same time the real direction of affairs to an Armenian
noble named Moushegh, who belonged to the illustrious family of the
Mamigonians. Moushegh ruled Armenia with vigor, but was suspected of
maintaining over-friendly relations with the Roman emperor, Valens, and
of designing to undermine and supplant his master. Varaztad, after a
while, having been worked on by his counsellors, grew suspicious of him,
and caused him to be executed at a banquet. This treachery roused the
indignation of Moushegh's brother Manuel, who raised a rebellion against
Varaztad, defeated him in open fight, and drove him from his kingdom.
Manuel then brought forward the princess Zermandueht, widow of the late
king Para, together with her two young sons, Arsaces and Valarsaces,
and, surrounding all three with royal pomp, gave to the two princes the
name of king, while he took care to retain in his own hands the real
government of the country. Under these circumstances he natu