Iran, the state in which the movement of establishing the new Sasanian government began, had lost its fame by third century A.D. Since old times, a new city named Istakhr had risen beside the ruins of Takht-e Jamshid, an Achaemenid capital which was burnt by troops of Alexander III of Macedon. Although the land's local shahs picked themselves famous Achaemenid names like Dara (Darius) and Ardashir in order to preserve old traditions, that was almost the only remaining instance of the ancient magnificence and greatness. The local governors of Pars that considered themselves the rightful heirs of the Achaemenids, had accepted submitting to the Parthians during the four and a half century of the latters' reign and always waited for a chance to retake the Achaemenid glory. They considered the Parthians primordial usurpers who had taken the formers' right by force.