I believe there is an important additional piece of evidence for the religious importance of Artaxerxes II and for his adherence to Zoroastrianism that has been overlooked by Boyce and other scholars.
I believe the hitherto unexplained epithet Mnemon enables us to establish the basic identification of Ardasir-Bahman with Artaxerxes II. The mythical Bahman and the historical Artaxerxes II were fused into a single prototype in an imaginative reconstruction of history by Ardasir, the founder of the Sasanian empire.
Ankelsaria 1956: 297-98).(2) My hypothesis is that the "*Artaxsahr who is called Vahuman," and the spelling of whose name is curiously archaized, is the Artaxerxes II surnamed Mnemon (Vahuman).
We find evidence for the attachment of the eclectic Artaxerxes II to Vohu Manah in the spread of the worship of Omanus/Vohu Manah in Cappadocia and Pontus where, three centuries later, Strabo still saw wooden statues of Omanus ([Greek text omitted]) being carried in processions (Boyce and Grenet 1991: 270).
It is, however, possible that Artaxerxes II assumed the theophoric epithet Vahuman some half a century earlier.
Ardasir was not entirely original in claiming descent from Artaxerxes II in mythical disguise.
If my hypothesis is accepted, further confusion of Artaxerxes I (and through him of Cyrus the Great) with Artaxerxes II would not be difficult to explain.
This tradition is corroborated in the Nisa documents, which mention a vineyard (artaxsahrakan), which, according to Diakonoff and Livshits (1960: 20), "was probably named in honor of the legendary ancestor of the Arsacids, Artaxerxes II." What is even more intriguing is the claim by the great king Antiochus I of Commagene (69-31 B.C.E.) to descend from Artaxerexes II through his daughter (see Boyce 1990: 24).
-366 A ii 8, referring to the reign of Artaxerxes II.
Artaxerxes II: on the fragments of royal inscriptions from Babylon, see F.
2), from the reign of Artaxerxes (perhaps Artaxerxes II), mentioning two persons called "servant (qallu) of G.