[74] The title runs in Greek (_C. I. Gr._ 4675), Μάσδασνος (Mazda-servant, treated as a proper name) θεὸς Ἀρταξάρης βασιλεὺς βασιλέων Ἀριανῶν ἐκ γένους θεῶν; with which closely agrees the title of his son Sapor I. (_ib._ 4676), only that after Ἀριανῶν there is inserted καὶ Ἀναριανῶν, and so the extension of the rule to foreign lands is brought into prominence. In the title of the Arsacids, so far as it is clear from the Greek and Persian legends of coins, θεός, βασιλεὺς βασιλέων, θεοπάτωρ (= ἐκ γένους θεῶν) recur, whereas there is no prominence given to the Arians and, significantly, to the “Mazda-servant”; by their side appear numerous other titles borrowed from the Syrian kings, such as ἐπιφάνης, δίκαιος, νικάτωρ, also the Roman αὐτοκράτωρ. [75] Frawardin, Ardhbehesht, etc. (Ideler, _Chronologie_, ii. 515). It is remarkable that essentially the same names of the months have maintained themselves in the provincial calendar of the Roman province Cappadocia (Ideler, i. 443); they must proceed from the time when it was a Persian satrapy. [76] Such is the account of the trustworthy Dio, lxxviii. 1; the version of Herodian, iv. 11, that Artabanus promised his daughter, and at the celebration of the betrothal allowed Antoninus to cut down the Parthians present, is unauthenticated. [77] If there is any truth in the mention of the Cadusians in the biography, c. 6, the Romans induced this wild tribe, not subject to the government in the south-west of the Caspian Sea, to fall at the same time upon the Parthians. [78] The subsequently received chronology puts the beginning of the Sassanid dynasty in the Seleucid year 538 = 1st Oct. A.D. 226-7, or the fourth (full) year of Severus Alexander, reigning since spring 222 (Agathias, iv. 24). According to other data king Ardashir numbered the year from the autumn A.D. 223-4 as his first, and so doubtless assumed in this the title of great-king (Nöldeke, _Tabari_, p. 410). The last dated coin as yet known of the older system is of the year 539. When Dio wrote between 230 and 234, Artabanus was dead and his adherents were overpowered, and the advance of Artaxares into Armenia and Mesopotamia was expected. [79] The emperor remained probably in Palmyra; at least a Palmyrene inscription, _C. I. Gr._ 4483, mentions the ἐπιδημία θεοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου.