[46] General Cunningham, Survey, vol. ii. p. 64.
[47] This point is worthy of note in that eminent scholars used to maintain that the names were practically identical. Cf. Vivien de St. Martin, Les Huns Blancs, 1849, p. 64.
[48] These notes on the Ephthalites are taken principally from M. Drouin’s excellent Mémoire sur les Huns Ephthalites dans leur rapports avec les rois Perses Sassanides, privately printed in Louvain, 1895.
[49] Their chiefs originally bore the title of Shen-Yü, which in the reign of Tulun (A.D. 402) was changed to Khākān, an ancient title which we now encounter for the first time in history.
[50] The best accounts of the Sāsānide dynasty are to be found in Nöldeke’s admirable translation of the portion of Tabari’s annals dealing with that period—Geschichte der Araber und Perser zur Zeit der Sāsāniden, Leyden 1879, and his Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte, Leipzig, 1887. From these sources we have derived most of our details, and will therefore give no further references.
[51] Or Artabanus.
[52] Some authorities maintain that this city was founded by Shāpūr II. about 340.
[53] Gūr means “wild ass.” The king, who is one of the favourites of Persian tradition, received this sobriquet on account of his passion for hunting wild asses. He usurped the crown.
[54] The Sāsānides were fire-worshippers, disciples of Zoroaster.
[55] This pass is traversed by the famous Georgian Military Road connecting Vladikavkaz with Tiflis.