ssuming the title of BAG and
ALHA, "god," and taking, in the Greek version of their legends, the
correspondent epithet of _OEOE_

CHAPTER IV.

_Death of Artaxerxes I. and Accession of Sapor I. War of Sapor with
Manizen. His first War with Rome. Invasion of Mesopotamia, A.D. 241.
Occupation of Antioch. Expedition of Gordian to the East. Recovery by
Rome of her lost Territory. Peace made between Rome and Persia. Obscure
Interval. Second War with Rome. Mesopotamia again invaded, A.D. 258.
Valerian takes the Command in the East. Struggle between him and Sapor.
Defeat and Capture of Valerian, A.D. 260. Sapor invests Miriades with
the Purple. He takes Syria and Southern Cappadocia, but is shortly
afterwards attacked by Odenathus. Successes of Odenathus. Treatment of
Valerian. Further successes of Odenathus. Period of Tranquillity. Great
Works of Sapor. His Scriptures. His Dyke. His Inscriptions. His Coins.
His Religion. Religious Condition of the East in his Time. Rise into
Notice of Mani. His Rejection by Sapor. Sapor's Death. His Character._

[Illustration: CHAPTER-4]

Artaxerxes appears to have died in A.D. 240. He was succeeded by his
son, Shahpuhri, or Sapor, the first Sassanian prince of that name.
According to the Persian historians, the mother of Sapor was a daughter
of the last Parthian king, Artabanus, whom Artaxerxes had taken to wife
after his conquest of her father. But the facts known of Sapor throw
doubt on this story, which has too many parallels in Oriental romance
to claim implicit credence. Nothing authentic has come down to us
respecting Sapor during his father's lifetime; but from the moment that
he mounted the throne, we find him engaged in a series of wars, which
show him to have been of a most active and energetic character. Armenia,
which Artaxerxes had subjected, attempted (it would seem) to regain
its independence at the commencement of the new reign; but Sapor easily
crushed the nascent insurrection, and the Armenians made no further
effort to free themselves till several years after his death.
Contemporaneously with this revolt in the mountain region of the north,
a danger showed itself in the plain country of the south, where Manizen,
king of Hatra, or El Hadhr, not only declared himself independent, but
assumed dominion over the entire tract between the Euphrates and the
Tigris, the Jezireh of the Arabian geographers. The strength of Hatra
was great, as had been proved by Trajan