The first Sasanian shahanshahs founded or renovated some cities in different Iranian regions. It is clear from the first Sasanian inscriptions that "altering the names", renovating or rebuilding of new cities were done in regions that had been conquered by Sasanian troops and were considered part of the royal property (). Those "royal cities" of the Sasanian era were the centers of military garrisons in newly taken lands and later became the centers of newfound official divisions and abodes of government agents. Therefore, the increase in the number of "royal cities" equaled with the growth of royal ; thus, instead of the autonomous cities of the Parthian era that were usually in western regions of the land and governed more of less extensive regions independently from the central government, came the "royal cities" in the early Sasanian era that were considered the garrison centers of the central government. Each of those regions were constructed to center a rural district under the rule of a "Shahrab" and the taxes of those regions were sent directly to the empire. On the other hand, beside the royal fields (), wide lands ruled by noble landlords and local grandees also existed and the shahanshah did not have direct control over them and the taxes of those lands were paid to the royal treasury by indirect channels. That was why it became the internal goal and financial policy of Ardashir and his descendants to increase the number of royal districts and the regions attached (); though the dichotomy of taxation between the royal lands () with direct taxes to the royal treasury and the lands ruled by grandees and noble landlords with indirect taxes to the royal treasury continued until the fiscal reforms at the time of Kavadh I and Khosrow I.