ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEsignificant ways this attitude was symbolized was in the image of the
state as a guarded garden.^6
But late Sasanian theories went beyond mere centralization and
hierarchic organization to a universalism expressed by a. preference
for organizing things by fours. The official fourfold Sasanian class
system, administrative bureaus, and quarters of the empire were sym-
bols of the four quarters of the universe, as were the four conjunctions
of stars and crescents placed at ninety-degree angles around the cir-
cumference of late Sasanian coins. The image of the state as a throne
with four legs associated with Hurmizd IV (579-90) conveys the same
idea.^7 The Sas ani an empire was universal, and its ruler was a universal
emperor in the ancient style. More than that, Sasanian absolutism was
founded on the concept of an impartial, blind, indeed merciless justice
that was associated with astrology and the god of Time (Zurviin) and
on the relationship between fatalism and authoritarian rule.^8
In fact, the bond of the state was a concept of administrative ethics
that amounted to equity. The reputation of the ruler for impartial
authoritarian justice was intended to preserve the state by protecting
the weak from the strong and by discouraging oppression by corrupt
officials. Traditional versions of Sasanian royal policy again quote
Ardashir I: "We shall devote ourselves entirely to the maintenance of
justice, to the spread of virtue and to the establishment of a lasting
glory; fertility shall be restored to the earth, and our people shall be
governed with benevolence .... My justice shall be the same for the
powerful and for the weak, for the small and the great."9
Further, the state enforcement of religiously sanctioned law provided
a theoretical basis for the interdependence between the official Magian
priesthood and the Sasanian state. Once more, according to Ardashir
I: "Kingship preserves itself by religion and religion strengthens itself
by kingship,"lo or religion and monarchy are twin brothers-neither6 Dinawari, Kitiib al-akhbiir at-tiwiii (Leiden, 1912), pp. 114-15; Tha'iilibi, Ghurar,
pp. 722-32.
7 A. Scher, "Histoire nestorienne (Chronique de Seert)," 11(1), PO 7(1950), 195;
Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 991. For the corresponding fourfold division of the heavens, see
R. C. Zaehner, Zurvan, a Zoroastrian Dilemma (Oxford, 1955), pp. 147-48, 163,351.
For the universal significance of Sas ani an astral symbolism and its ancient Babylonian
background, see H. P. l'Orange, Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the
Ancient World (Oslo, 1953), pp. 22-23, 25,41-42.
8 Zaehner, Zurvan, p. 58.
9 Mas'iidi, Muruj adh-dhahab wa-ma'iidin al-jawhar (Beirut, 1966), I, 285.
10 Tha'iilibi, Ghurar, p. 483. For the parallel passage in Book Ill, chapter 58 of the
Denkart, see Kanga, "Kingship," pp. 222-23.