S

"The Sasanian dynasty had its inception in a town situated near ancient Persepolis, Istakhr or Stakhr, the capital of the Persis. Little remains above ground of the buildings of Istakhr, which once included an important fire sanctuary of Anahita, the Iranian goddess of water and fertility, but also a goddess of war. [1] The office of chief priest of the sanctuary seems to have been linked with the secular administration of the region of Istakhr, and both functions seem to have been hereditary in a family which traced its origins to a legendary 'Sasan', a distant descendant of the Achaemenid dynasty. From this family came Ardashir, whose name is a Middle Persian version of the Old Persian name Artaxerxes. Ardashir defeated Artaban, the last Parthian king, in 224 and, in a reign which lasted until 241, firmly established the rule of the Sasanians by reorganizing the Persian empire and by associating with him in the latter part of this reign his vigorous and capable son Shapur. The origin of the dynasty determined its religious and conservative character and also expressed itself in a greater stress on links with Achaemenid tradition than seems to have been the case in the time of the Arsacids. Such evidence of connections with earlier periods of Iranian greatness could probably be used as a political asset in the contest with the Arsacids, whose origin in Central Asia, far from the Persian heartland of Fars, was probably not forgotten. " [Sasanians]