1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Parthia

​PARTHIA, the mountainous country S.E. of the Caspian Sea,which extends from the Elburz chain eastwards towards Herat,and is bounded on the N. by the fertile plain of Hyrcania(about Astrabad) at the foot of the mountains in the corner ofthe Caspian and by the Turanian desert; on the S. by the greatsalt desert of central Iran. It corresponds to the modernKhorasan. It was inhabited by an Iranian tribe, the Parthava ofthe inscriptions of Darius; the correct Greek form is Παρθυαῖοι.Parthia became a province of the Achaemenian and then ofthe Macedonian Empire. Seleucus I. and Antiochus I. foundedGreek towns: Soteira, Charis, Achaea, Calliope (Appian, Syr.57; Plin. vi. 15; cf. Strabo xi. 516); the capital of Parthia isknown only by its Greek name Hecatompylos (“The Hundred-gated”)from the many roads which met there (Polyb. x. 28), and was, according to Appian, founded by Seleucus I. (cf. Curtiusvii. 2). In 208 many Greek inhabitants are found in the towns ofParthia and Hyrcania (Polyb. x. 31, 11).

When about 255 B.C. Diodotus had made himself king ofBactria (q.v.) and tried to expand his dominions, the chieftainof a tribe of Iranian nomads (Dahan Scyths) east of the Caspian,the Parni or Aparni, who bore the Persian name Arsaces, fledbefore him into Parthia.^[1] Here the satrap Andragoras appearsto have shaken off the Seleucid supremacy, as he struck gold andsilver coins in his own name, on which he wears the diadem,although not the royal title (Gardner, Numism. Chronicle, 1879-1881).In Justin xii. 4, 12, Andragoras is wrongly made satrapof Alexander, of Persian origin, and ancestor of Arsaces. He wasslain by Arsaces (Justin xli. 4), who occupied Parthia and becamethe founder of the Parthian kingdom. The date 248 B.C. givenby the list of the Olympionicae in Euseb. Chron. i. 207, and inhis Canon, ii. 120 (cf. Appian, Syr. 65; Justin, xli. 4, giveswrongly 256 B.C.), is confirmed by numerous Babylonian tabletsdated simultaneously from the Seleucid and Arsacid eras (cf.Mahler, in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlands,1901, xv. 57 sqq.; Lehmann Haupt in Beiträge zur altenGeschichte, 1905, v. 128 sqq.). The origin and early history ofthe Parthian kingdom, of which we possess only very scantyinformation, is surrounded by fabulous legends, narrated byArrian in his Parthica (preserved in Photius, cod. 58, and Syncellus,p. 539 seq.). Here Arsaces and his brother Tiridatesare derived from the royal house of the Achaemenids, probablyfrom Artaxerxes II.; the young Tiridates is insultedby the prefect Agathocles or Pherecles; in revenge the brotherswith five companions (corresponding to the seven Persiansof Darius) slay him, and Arsaces becomes king. He is killedafter two years and succeeded by his brother Tiridates,who reigns 37 years. There is scarcely anything historicalin this account, perhaps not even the name Tiridates, for,according to the older tradition, Arsaces himself ruled formany years. The troubles of the Seleucid empire, and the warof Seleucus II. against Ptolemy III. and his own brother AntiochusHierax, enabled him not only to maintain himself in Parthia,but also to conquer Hyrcania; but he was constantly threatenedby Diodotus of Bactria (Justin xli. 4). When, about 238 B.C.,Seleucus II. was able to march into the east, Arsaces fled to thenomadic tribe of the Aspasiacae (Strabo xi. 513; cf. Polyb. x.48). But Seleucus was soon recalled by a rebellion in Syria, andArsaces returned victorious to Parthia; “the day of this victoryis celebrated by the Parthians as the beginning of theirindependence” (Justin xli. 4). Arsaces was proclaimed king atAsaak in the district of Astauene, now Kuchan in the upper Atrek(Attruck) valley (Isidor. Charac.), and built his residence Dara ona rock in a fertile valley in Apavarktikene (Justin xli. 5; Plin.vi. 46), now Kelat still farther eastward; the centre of his powerevidently lay on the borders of eastern Khorasan and the Turaniandesert. The principal institutions of the Parthian kingdom ​were created by him (cf. Justin xli. 2). The Scythian nomadsbecame the ruling race; they were invested with large landedproperty, and formed the council of the king, who appointed thesuccessor. They were archers fighting on horseback, and in theircavalry consisted the strength of the Parthian army; the infantrywere mostly slaves, bought and trained for military service, likethe janissaries and mamelukes. But these Scythians soonamalgamated with the Parthian peasants. They adopted theIranian religion of Zoroaster (in the royal town Asaak an eternalfire was maintained), and “their language was a mixture ofScythian and Median” (i.e., Iranian). Therefore their languageand writing are called by the later Persians “Pehlevi,” i.e.Parthian (Pehlevi is the modern form of Parthawa) and themagnates themselves Pehlevans, i.e. “Parthians,” a termtransferred by Firdousi to the heroes of the old Iranian legend.But the Arsacid kingdom never was a truly national state; withthe Scythian and Parthian elements were united some elementsof Greek civilization. The successors of Arsaces I. even foundedsome Greek towns, and when they had conquered Babyloniaand Mesopotamia they all adopted the epithet “Philhellen.”

To Arsaces I. probably belong the earliest Parthian coins; theoldest simply bear the name Arsaces; others, evidently struckafter the coronation in Asaak, have the royal title (βασιλέωςἈρσάκου). The reverse shows the seated archer, or occasionallyan elephant; the head of the king is beardless and wears a helmetand a diadem; only from the third or fourth king they begin towear a beard after the Iranian fashion. In honour of the founderof the dynasty all his successors, when they came to the throne,adopted his name and officially (e.g. on the coins) are almostalways called Arsaces, whereas the historians generally use theirindividual names.

Of the successors of Arsaces I. we know very little. His son,Arsaces II., was attacked by Antiochus III., the Great, in 209,who conquered the Parthian and Hyrcanian towns but at lastgranted a peace. The next king, whom Justin calls Priapatius,ruled 15 years (about 190–175); his successor, Phraates I.,subjected the mountainous tribe of the Mardi (in the Elburz).He died early, and was succeeded not by one of his sons butby his brother, Mithradates I., who became the founder of theParthian empire. Mithradates I. (c. 170–138) had to fight hardwith the Greeks of Bactria, especially with Eucratides (q.v.); atlast he was able to conquer a great part of eastern Iran. Soonafter the death of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (163) he conqueredMedia, where he refounded the town of Rhagae (Rai near Teheran)under the name of Arsacia; and about 141 he invaded Babylonia.He and his son Phraates II. defeated the attempts of DemetriusII. (139) and Antiochus VII. (129) to regain the eastern provinces,and extended the Arsacid dominion to the Euphrates.

For the later history of the Parthian empire reference shouldbe made to Persia: Ancient History, and biographical articles onthe kings. The following is a list of the kings, as far as it ispossible to establish their succession.

The names of pretenders not generally acknowledged are putin brackets.