Chosroes II

(Xospons), Khusrud (WYSW9N) on coins,* Kesra (Spo) in Arabic, Khusru

( ayes) in modern Persian, Khosroy in Armenian, Kasré in Georgian, Hucrava in Zend; a name said to be applied in the Zendavesta, as well as in the Shah Nameh, to the great Cyrus, and which reappears in Sanskrit as Sushravas, the exact equivalent of the Greek evKAEnS, "famous." The Hebrew YIWMN or YIWNN, Achashrosh or Achashverosh (Ahasuerus) points to identification with the Khskayarsha of the cuneiform inscriptions, the well-known Xerxes, a name that is once given by Malelas to the great Chosroes (Mal. p. 441), though there are dificulties in the way of this. Another desperate attempt to sputter out the guttural, Phthasuarsas, is found in Theophanes (A.M. 6016). The name is certainly not a corruption of Kurush (Cyrus), nor can Kurush be a corruption of it, but the great king of that name may have borne this surname. (See for most of the facts Sir H. Rawlinson, in the Asiatic Journal, vol. x. p. 90; xi. (1849), pp. 112, 120; Benfey, Sansk. Dict. p. 965). It seems to be in some sense a title common to Persian kings, as descended from Cyrus. Their throne is described in the Shah Nameh by terms which Mohl translates le tréne des Chosroes. It was not, however, the common royal name of any line, as Arsaces was of the Parthians, but was borne individually by several monarchs, There was a great Arsacid king of the name in the time of TRAJAN, and another who opposed the rise of the Sassanid Ardeshir and his dynasty about A.D. 230, and twice in later times we read of a Chosroes descended from this Ardeshir, but not more closely connected with the reigning line, being set on the throne of Persia in a time of anarchy, A.D. 430 and A.D. 630 [ISDEGERDES], but we are here concerned mainly with two Christian Arsacid princes in Armenia, A.D. 316- 3825 or 345-354, and A.D. 384-391, and with two great Sassanid monarchs, A.D. 531-579, and A.D. 591-628, who, if not themselves ever, as some say, Christians, at any rate had Christian wives, and exercised no little influence on the fortunes of the church.

For the history of the Arsacid or Parthian dynasty, which ruled the East from the beginning of the 2nd century before Christ, and of the Sassanid or revived Persian dynasty that supplanted it at the beginning of the 3rd century after Christ, see the articles ARSACES and SassaNIDAB, in the Dictionary of Classical Biography, or for a fuller treatment the volumes by Rawlinson on the Sixth and Seventh Oriental Monarchies.