House of Sasan, such as the phrase "since the gods gave glory and rulership to the family of Sasan", which indicates that Narseh saw Sasan as his ancestor. Conclusions in modern scholarship The modern historian Marek Jan Olbrycht suggests that Sasan was an Indo-Parthian prince who married a Persian princess and gave birth to Ardashir. In order to not be seen as a foreign dynasty, however, Ardashir and Shapur I minimized the role of Sasan. Pabag was seemingly the father-in-law and possibly adoptive father of Ardashir. Biography Pabag ruled a small principality in the area of Khir, south of the Bakhtegan Lake. He was a vassal of Gochihr, the Bazrangid king of the Persian capital of Istakhr, who was in turn a vassal of the Arsacid King of Kings. With the permission of Gochihr, Pabag sent Ardashir to the fortress of Darabgerd to serve under its commander, Tiri. Pabag reportedly served as a priest of the fire-temple of Anahita in Istakhr, which served as a rallying point of the local Persian soldiers, who worshipped the Iranian goddess. The Arsacid Empire, then ruled by Vologases V (), was at this time in decline, due to wars with the Romans, civil wars and regional revolts. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus () had invaded the Arsacid domains in 196, and two years later did the same, this time sacking the Arsacid capital of Ctesiphon. At the same time, revolts occurred in Media and Pars. The Iranologist Touraj Daryaee argues that the reign of Vologases V was "the turning point in Arsacid history, in that the dynasty lost much of its prestige." The kings of Persis were now unable to depend on their weakened Arsacid overlords. Indeed, in 205 or 206, Pabag rebelled and overthrew Gochihr, taking Istakhr for himself. According to al-Tabari, it was at the urging of Ardashir that Pabag rebelled. However, Daryaee considers this statement unlikely, and states that it was in reality the eldest son Shapur that helped Pabag to capture Istakhr, as demonstrated by the latter's coinage which has portraits of both them. Pabag subsequently appointed Shapur as his heir. This was much to the dislike of Ardashir, who had become the commander of Darabgerd after the death of Tiri. In an act of defiance, Ardashir left for Ardashir-Khwarrah, where he fortified himself, preparing to attack his brother Shapur after Pabag's death. Pabag died a natural death sometime between