THE RISE OF THE SASANIANS

The rise of the Sasanian dynasty can be understood as the successful struggle of a minor ruler of Persis (today Fārs province) not only against his Parthian overlord, but also against a multitude of neighbouring rulers. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the pre–Sasanian history of Persis is almost a total blank save for what is known from coins struck by local dynasts. At least one local kingdom had existed in the heart of Persis since the breakup of Seleucid power in Iran, if not earlier, from shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. The ruins of Persepolis and Pasargadae alone would have been a standing reminder of the past glory of the area, even if knowledge of a great empire for the most part had been forgotten. The names (such as Darius and Artaxerxes) on the coins of the local rulers who held sway here before the rise of the Sasanians testify to a certain continuity of Achaemenian traditions, if not to an actual descent in a side line from the royal Achaemenian family itself. The history of the immediate predecessors of Ardashir is thus virtually unknown and the few items of information about them are conflicting.

Most scholars have assumed, following the Arabic history by Tabarī, that Sāsān was the grandfather and Pāpak the father of Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian dynasty. The trilingual inscription (Greek Parthian and Middle Persian) of Shāpūr I, on the Ka'ya-yi Zardusht at Naqshi-i Rustam, however, does not say that Sāsān was the father of Pāpak.