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Ardashir I (Artaxerxes, Artaxares, Artashastra) was the founder of the Sassanian Empire of Persia and king from around 226 until around 240.
Ardashir was born in the late second Century CE. He inherited a tribal kingship of the Fars province, Persis, in 208. He rapidly extended his territory, defeating his Parthian overlords (specifically Artabanus V a.k.a Ardavan V) at Hormizdagan in 224AD, and occupying their capital Ctesiphon. In 228, he brought the Parthian Empire which had held sway over the region for 400 years to its demise. He made Zoroastrianism again the state religion.
Ardeshir claimed that he had descended from ancient Persian Akhemenid Kings, Cyrus the Great of Persia and Darius I of Persia the Great.
But the Sassanid era began in earnest in 228AD. Ardashir began to create a vast empire which included those lands of the old Achaemenid Persian empire east of the Euphrates River. He established his capital at Firouzabad, first by constructing the Ghal'eh Dokhtar, and then the Palace of Ardeshir in Fars.
Towards the end of his reign, Ardashir renewed the war against Rome.
There is a Persian legend which says his son and successor Shapur was his son with an Arsacid princess, though the legend lacks historical evidence.
Ardashir was succeeded by his son Shapur I (king from 241 to 272). A stone inscription of Shapur tells that Ardashir's father was a local king named Papak (Babak). "the Mazdayasnian, the god Sapores, king of kings of the Aryans [Iranians] and non-Aryans, of divine descent, son of the Mazdayasnian, the god Artaxares, king of kings of the Aryans, grandson of the god-king Papak."
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