Note 326 — Chapter I

Ardeshir Babegan was the first king, and founder of the IVth dynasty of Persian kings, called the Sasssáníáns, or the Khosroes. His father was Sassan, a descendant of another Sassan, the son of Bahman Isfendiar, the 6th king of the IId Persian dynasty, called the Kayánian. The latter Sassan was reduced to a low station, having become the shepherd of Babek, a wealthy man, whose daughter he married;—he had by her a son named Ardeshir, who took the name of his maternal grandfather (which is to be noted as an Indian custom): hence he was called Babegan. He is identified with the Artaxerxes of the Greeks, a contemporary of the Roman emperor Commodus (A. D. 180-193). The epoch of his reign is one of the most uncertain points of Persian history. It may be fixed from the year 200 to 240 of the Christian era.—A. T.