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So far, you might think that this is all pretty predictable stuff: kings have always shown themselves dominating animals, and overdressed. But as we'll see, this is much more than a conventional display of prowess and privilege. For the Sasanian kings were more than just secular rulers. They were agents of God, and Shapur's full titles emphasise his religious role: "the good worshipper of God, Shapur, the King of Iran and non-Iran, of the divine race of God, the King of Kings". The god here is of course the god of Zoroastrianism, the religion of the state. Historian Tom Holland tells us about the great prophet and poet Zoroaster:
也許你覺得這一切不足為奇。國王的形象從來都是裝飾華貴的，動物也永遠對他俯首帖耳。但這幅圖的意義遠遠超出了普通的財富與權力展示。因為薩珊國王不只是俗世的統治者，也是神的代言人。沙普爾的完整封號表現出他的宗教身份：“神的虔誠信徒，沙普爾，統管伊朗與非伊朗，神之后裔，萬王之王?！边@里的神當然就是國教瑣羅亞斯特教的神。 歷史學家湯姆?霍蘭德向我們介紹了偉大的詩人及先知瑣羅亞斯特：
"Zoroaster is the very first prophet, in the sense that you would describe Moses or Mohammed as a prophet.
如果你對先知的定義是摩西或穆罕默德，那么瑣羅亞斯特便是人類的第一位先知。
No one is entirely sure when, or indeed if, he lived, but if he really did exist then he probably lived in Central Asian steppes in around 1000 BC. And gradually, over the course of the centuries and then the millennia, his teachings became the focus for what we could probably call a Zoroastrian church.
他的生卒年不詳，甚至有人認為他不曾真正存在過。但如果真有這個人存在，他一定生活在公元前一千年的中亞。經過千百年的發展，他的教誨成為瑣羅亞斯特教的核心。
And this increasingly became the state faith of the Iranian people, and therefore of the Sasanian Empire when it was established.
瑣羅亞斯特教逐漸成為伊朗人的國教，在薩珊帝國成立之后，又被立為帝國的國教。
"The teachings of Zoroaster will sound very familiar to anyone who has been brought up as a Jew, or a Christian or a Muslim. Zoroaster is the first prophet to teach that the universe is a battleground between rival forces of good and evil. He is the first to teach that time will not go round in an endless cycle, but will come to an end-that there will be an end of days; there will be a day of judgement.
凡是猶太教、基督教或伊斯蘭教家庭出身的人，對瑣羅亞斯特的基本教義都不會陌生?，嵙_亞斯特是第一位提出宇宙是善惡兩種勢力斗爭的戰場的先知，也是他首次提出時間并非永無止境的循環, 終會有世界末日，人類將面臨最終審判日。
