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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1For the Vendidad, being the book of purification; was to the priest the chief of the legal Nasks, and this is most ' Tahmuras’ Fragm. LVIII; Fragm. to Vd. VII, 43. ®* The quotations in the Pahlavi Nirangistén may be referred to the Kasktsrav. INTRODUCTION, IIL. XXXVIi likely the reason to which we owe its preservation. As to the Gathas, they were already to the Zoroastrians of the Sassanian age just what they are to the Parsis of to-day: their paramount sanctity was the same as it is now, and their extent was the same, as appears from the fact that the three Gathic Nasks which were developed around the GAthas, or artificially attached to them, are composed each of twenty-two Fargards, answering one by one to the twenty-two G4thas of our Yasna. Therefore the many losses that the Sassanian Avesta underwent in the last twelve centuries did not bear on the essential parts; and the loss, however considerable it may be, is neither absolute, as much of the matter survived under a Pahlavi garb, nor perhaps irreparable, as the Zend finds made in the Pahlavi literature afford a hape -for fresh and more important recoveries, when that deep quarry, only half opened, has been worked out through all its strata. . § 7. It is not only the general outlines of the Sassanian Avesta we find sketched in the Dinkart ; it furnishes us also with a history of its formation!, which may be summed up as follows :— The twenty-one Nasks were formed by Ahura Mazda himself out of the twenty-one words of the Ahuna Vairya. They were brought by Zoroaster to king Vistasp. Two copies of the complete scriptures were written by order of the king: one was deposited in the treasury at Shapig4n, the other in the Record Office*. When Alexander invaded Persia, the copy in the Record Office was burnt, and the one in Shapigdén was carried off by the Greeks, who had it translated into their own language. One of the Parthian kings, Valkhash, ordered all the scattered remnants of the Avesta, which had been preserved, either in manuscript or by oral tradition, to be searched for and collected. 1 In two different concordant documents, one at the end of Dinkart III (West, 1. 1. pp. xxx and xxxi), the other in the beginning of Dinkart IV (ibid. 412-415). 2 dez-f nipist, ‘the fortress for books:’ cf. the Hebrew p> np. XXXVili VENDIDAD. The founder of the Sassanian dynasty, Ardashir (211- 241), called to his court the high-priest Tansar, gave him the commission to gather and complete the scattered fragments, and invested his work with official authority. Ardashir’s son, Shahpdhr I (241-272), ordered the documents relating to profane sciences (medicine, astronomy, geography, philosophy), which were scattered amongst the Hindus and the Greeks, to be collected and embodied in the Avesta.
2Ardashir’s son, Shahpdhr I (241-272), ordered the documents relating to profane sciences (medicine, astronomy, geography, philosophy), which were scattered amongst the Hindus and the Greeks, to be collected and embodied in the Avesta. At last Shahpdhr II, son of Auhrmazd (309-379), to check the sects that were distressing the religion, ordered a general disputation between them: the champion of orthodoxy, Adarb4d, son of Mahraspand, submitting himself to a fire-ordeal, went through it victoriously, and the king proclaimed : ‘ Now we have seen the true religion on earth, we will not suffer any false religion,’ and he acted accordingly. § 8. This account may be divided into two parts, one extending from the origin to the time of Alexander, the other relating to the restoration of the Avesta after the Greek invasion. These two accounts differ widely in character, the first being vague and legendary, the second being precise in its data and its dates, referring also to an historical period. We shall here have to do only with the second document, of which the import is that the Avesta is a collection that was formed on three occasions out of old fragments: the first edition emanating from a Parthian king, Valkhash: the second from the first Sassanian king, Ardashir Babagén (211-241); the third and last from king Shahpohr I (241-272). Let us consider each of these three times, one by one. § 9. One may be surprised, at first sight, by the part ascribed to an Arsacide prince in this religious evolution }. Most Byzantine, Parsi, and Muhammedan writers agree that it was the Sassanian dynasty which raised the Zoroastrian religion from the state of humiliation into which the Greek invasion had made it sink, and, while it gave the 1 Spiegel, Eranische Alterthumskunde III, 7832, n. 1. INTRODUCTION, III. XXXIX signal for a revival of the old national spirit, made Mazdeism one of the corner stones of the new establishment !. Therefore it seems strange to hear that the first step taken to make Mazdeism a state religion was taken by one of those very Philhellenic Parthian princes, who were fully imbued with Greek ideas and manners. Yet this view must not be accepted unreservedly. Ardashir is nowhere mentioned as professing a religion different from that of his predecessors. In the struggle between Ardavan and Ardashir, there was no religious interest at stake, but only a political one ; and we are expressly told by Hamza ? that Ardashir and his adversaries belonged to the same confession. Nay, we shall see that one of the charges brought against him, by his adversaries, was his wanton infraction of the Zoroastrian laws. There is therefore nothing that makes it impossible to admit that in the time and at the court of a Parthian prince a Zoroastrian movement may have originated.
3Nay, we shall see that one of the charges brought against him, by his adversaries, was his wanton infraction of the Zoroastrian laws. There is therefore nothing that makes it impossible to admit that in the time and at the court of a Parthian prince a Zoroastrian movement may have originated. § 10. There were four kings at least? who bore the name of Valkhash: the most celebrated and best known of the four was Vologeses I, the contemporary of Nero. Now that Zoroastrianism prevailed with him, or at least around him, we see from the conduct of his brother Tiridates, who was a Magian (Magus)‘; and by this term we must not understand a magician °, but a Zoroastrian priest. That he was a priest appears from Tacitus’ testimony ®; that he was a Zoroastrian is shown by his scruples about the wor- 1S. de Sacy, Mémoires sur quelques antiquités de la Perse. Cf. Magoudi, Hy, 125. 3 Hamzae Ispahensis Annales, ed. Gottwaldt, p. 31 (in the translation). % Perhaps five (see de Longpérier, Mémoire sur la Numismatique des Arsacides, p. 111). * ‘Magus ad eum Tiridates venerat’ (Pliny, Nat. Hist. XXX, 6). § Pliny very often confounds Magism and Magia, Magians and Magicians. We know from Pliny, too, that Tiridates refused to initiate Nero into his art; but the cause was not, as he assumes, that it was ‘a detestable, frivolous, and vain art,’ but because Mazdean law forbids the holy knowledge to be revealed to laymen, much more to foreigners (Yast IV, 10; cf. Philostrati Vita Soph. I, 10). * «Nec recusaturum Tiridatem accipiendo diademati in urbem venire, nisi sacerdotii religione attineretur’ (Ann. XV, 24). xl VENDIDAD. ship of the elements. When he came from Asia to Rome to receive the crown of Armenia at the hands of Nero, he avoided coming by sea, and rode along the coasts?, ‘ because the Magi are forbidden to defile the sea*.’ This is quite in the spirit of later Zoroastrianism, and savours much of Mazdeism. That. Vologeses himself shared the religious scruples of his brother appears from his answer to Nero, who insisted upon his coming to Rome also: ‘Come yourself, it is easier for you to cross such immensity of sea %.’ What we know moreover of his personal character qualifies him for taking the initiative in a religious work. He seems to have been a man of contemplative mind rather than a man of action, which often excited the anger or scorn of his people against him ; he had the glory of breaking with the family policy of Parthian kings by giving his brothers a share in the empire, instead of strangling them (Tacitus, Annales, XV, 1,2). At that time the East was in religious fermentation ; Christianity was in its infancy ; gnostic sects were rife: moreover religion was fast becoming part of politics. Vologeses was called by the people of Adiabene against their king Izates, who had turned Jew (Josephus, Antiq. XX, 4, 2) and himself offered the help of his cavalry to Vespasian against Jerusalem.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1For the Vendidad, being the book of purification; was to the priest the chief of the legal Nasks, and this is most ' Tahmuras’ Fragm. LVIII; Fragm. to Vd. VII, 43. ®* The quotations in the Pahlavi Nirangistén may be referred to the Kasktsrav. INTRODUCTION, IIL. XXXVIi likely the reason to which we owe its preservation. As to the Gathas, they were already to the Zoroastrians of the Sassanian age just what they are to the Parsis of to-day: their paramount sanctity was the same as it is now, and their extent was the same, as appears from the fact that the three Gathic Nasks which were developed around the GAthas, or artificially attached to them, are composed each of twenty-two Fargards, answering one by one to the twenty-two G4thas of our Yasna. Therefore the many losses that the Sassanian Avesta underwent in the last twelve centuries did not bear on the essential parts; and the loss, however considerable it may be, is neither absolute, as much of the matter survived under a Pahlavi garb, nor perhaps irreparable, as the Zend finds made in the Pahlavi literature afford a hape -for fresh and more important recoveries, when that deep quarry, only half opened, has been worked out through all its strata. . § 7. It is not only the general outlines of the Sassanian Avesta we find sketched in the Dinkart ; it furnishes us also with a history of its formation!, which may be summed up as follows :— The twenty-one Nasks were formed by Ahura Mazda himself out of the twenty-one words of the Ahuna Vairya. They were brought by Zoroaster to king Vistasp. Two copies of the complete scriptures were written by order of the king: one was deposited in the treasury at Shapig4n, the other in the Record Office*. When Alexander invaded Persia, the copy in the Record Office was burnt, and the one in Shapigdén was carried off by the Greeks, who had it translated into their own language. One of the Parthian kings, Valkhash, ordered all the scattered remnants of the Avesta, which had been preserved, either in manuscript or by oral tradition, to be searched for and collected. 1 In two different concordant documents, one at the end of Dinkart III (West, 1. 1. pp. xxx and xxxi), the other in the beginning of Dinkart IV (ibid. 412-415). 2 dez-f nipist, ‘the fortress for books:’ cf. the Hebrew p> np. XXXVili VENDIDAD. The founder of the Sassanian dynasty, Ardashir (211- 241), called to his court the high-priest Tansar, gave him the commission to gather and complete the scattered fragments, and invested his work with official authority. Ardashir’s son, Shahpdhr I (241-272), ordered the documents relating to profane sciences (medicine, astronomy, geography, philosophy), which were scattered amongst the Hindus and the Greeks, to be collected and embodied in the Avesta.
2Ardashir’s son, Shahpdhr I (241-272), ordered the documents relating to profane sciences (medicine, astronomy, geography, philosophy), which were scattered amongst the Hindus and the Greeks, to be collected and embodied in the Avesta. At last Shahpdhr II, son of Auhrmazd (309-379), to check the sects that were distressing the religion, ordered a general disputation between them: the champion of orthodoxy, Adarb4d, son of Mahraspand, submitting himself to a fire-ordeal, went through it victoriously, and the king proclaimed : ‘ Now we have seen the true religion on earth, we will not suffer any false religion,’ and he acted accordingly. § 8. This account may be divided into two parts, one extending from the origin to the time of Alexander, the other relating to the restoration of the Avesta after the Greek invasion. These two accounts differ widely in character, the first being vague and legendary, the second being precise in its data and its dates, referring also to an historical period. We shall here have to do only with the second document, of which the import is that the Avesta is a collection that was formed on three occasions out of old fragments: the first edition emanating from a Parthian king, Valkhash: the second from the first Sassanian king, Ardashir Babagén (211-241); the third and last from king Shahpohr I (241-272). Let us consider each of these three times, one by one. § 9. One may be surprised, at first sight, by the part ascribed to an Arsacide prince in this religious evolution }. Most Byzantine, Parsi, and Muhammedan writers agree that it was the Sassanian dynasty which raised the Zoroastrian religion from the state of humiliation into which the Greek invasion had made it sink, and, while it gave the 1 Spiegel, Eranische Alterthumskunde III, 7832, n. 1. INTRODUCTION, III. XXXIX signal for a revival of the old national spirit, made Mazdeism one of the corner stones of the new establishment !. Therefore it seems strange to hear that the first step taken to make Mazdeism a state religion was taken by one of those very Philhellenic Parthian princes, who were fully imbued with Greek ideas and manners. Yet this view must not be accepted unreservedly. Ardashir is nowhere mentioned as professing a religion different from that of his predecessors. In the struggle between Ardavan and Ardashir, there was no religious interest at stake, but only a political one ; and we are expressly told by Hamza ? that Ardashir and his adversaries belonged to the same confession. Nay, we shall see that one of the charges brought against him, by his adversaries, was his wanton infraction of the Zoroastrian laws. There is therefore nothing that makes it impossible to admit that in the time and at the court of a Parthian prince a Zoroastrian movement may have originated.
3Nay, we shall see that one of the charges brought against him, by his adversaries, was his wanton infraction of the Zoroastrian laws. There is therefore nothing that makes it impossible to admit that in the time and at the court of a Parthian prince a Zoroastrian movement may have originated. § 10. There were four kings at least? who bore the name of Valkhash: the most celebrated and best known of the four was Vologeses I, the contemporary of Nero. Now that Zoroastrianism prevailed with him, or at least around him, we see from the conduct of his brother Tiridates, who was a Magian (Magus)‘; and by this term we must not understand a magician °, but a Zoroastrian priest. That he was a priest appears from Tacitus’ testimony ®; that he was a Zoroastrian is shown by his scruples about the wor- 1S. de Sacy, Mémoires sur quelques antiquités de la Perse. Cf. Magoudi, Hy, 125. 3 Hamzae Ispahensis Annales, ed. Gottwaldt, p. 31 (in the translation). % Perhaps five (see de Longpérier, Mémoire sur la Numismatique des Arsacides, p. 111). * ‘Magus ad eum Tiridates venerat’ (Pliny, Nat. Hist. XXX, 6). § Pliny very often confounds Magism and Magia, Magians and Magicians. We know from Pliny, too, that Tiridates refused to initiate Nero into his art; but the cause was not, as he assumes, that it was ‘a detestable, frivolous, and vain art,’ but because Mazdean law forbids the holy knowledge to be revealed to laymen, much more to foreigners (Yast IV, 10; cf. Philostrati Vita Soph. I, 10). * «Nec recusaturum Tiridatem accipiendo diademati in urbem venire, nisi sacerdotii religione attineretur’ (Ann. XV, 24). xl VENDIDAD. ship of the elements. When he came from Asia to Rome to receive the crown of Armenia at the hands of Nero, he avoided coming by sea, and rode along the coasts?, ‘ because the Magi are forbidden to defile the sea*.’ This is quite in the spirit of later Zoroastrianism, and savours much of Mazdeism. That. Vologeses himself shared the religious scruples of his brother appears from his answer to Nero, who insisted upon his coming to Rome also: ‘Come yourself, it is easier for you to cross such immensity of sea %.’ What we know moreover of his personal character qualifies him for taking the initiative in a religious work. He seems to have been a man of contemplative mind rather than a man of action, which often excited the anger or scorn of his people against him ; he had the glory of breaking with the family policy of Parthian kings by giving his brothers a share in the empire, instead of strangling them (Tacitus, Annales, XV, 1,2). At that time the East was in religious fermentation ; Christianity was in its infancy ; gnostic sects were rife: moreover religion was fast becoming part of politics. Vologeses was called by the people of Adiabene against their king Izates, who had turned Jew (Josephus, Antiq. XX, 4, 2) and himself offered the help of his cavalry to Vespasian against Jerusalem.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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