The earliest references to Parthia are probably from the Achaemenid period, during which it was a Persian satrapy under the name of Parthava, one of its first satraps being Hystaspes, the father of Darius the Great. Later in the IV c. BC Parthia was conquered by Alexander the Great and after his death remained a part of the Seleucid Empire. About the middle of the III c. BC, it was invaded by the nomadic tribe Parni, which later grew into Parthians. Their whereabouts are obscure, but it is commonly assumed that they were descendants of the Scythian tribe Massagatae (Ma-Sacae in Old Persian). Taking advantage of the Seleucids' preoccupation in western affairs, the Parthians revolted and gained their independence in 247 BC under their leader Arshak, who became king Arsaces I and founded the ruling house of the Arsacids. All Parthian monarchs until the demise of the empire came from it. Having thus settled in Parthava, the Parthians waited for a decent opportunity to extend their domain, which came in the beginning of II c. BC after king Antiochus III the Great (223 BC - 189 BC) was soundly defeated by the Romans in Asia Minor and Seleucid power declined. Under Mithridates I (171 BC - 138 BC), the Parthians expanded into Media and in a ruthless war conquered Babylonia in 142 BC, the Seleucid king Demetrius Nicator being taken captive. After the dynastic quarrels that followed, the new Syrian king Antiochus VII tried to re-conquer the lost provinces. Initially he had some success, taking Media and occupying Babylonia, but after that suffered heavy defeat and lost his life (130 BC).
At about that time the Parthians had problems on their eastern frontier as well. Having conquered Bactria in the middle of II BC, they faced intrusion by the Sacae in 128 BC, only two years after the war with Antiochus was over. In the battle that followed the Parthians were defeated and their king was murdered. In the following decades, however, they managed to divert the Sacae to the Punjab, which the latter took from the Indo-Greek dynasty which had come after the Mauryans. There they prospered and later formed the Kushan kingdom.
The first encounter between the Parthians and the Romans happened in 96 BC, when the Roman general Sulla arrived at the Euphrates to settle border disputes. He was met by a Parthian emissary, and the two parties agreed to make the great river the border between their empires, the Seleucid Empire having been devoured by the two. Further relations between the Parthians and the Romans were to be difficult, but for now they acted as allies, especially in the Armenian war with Tigranes. About 70 BC he had revolted successfully from Parthian rule and conquered western Parthian provinces, as well as Syria and Phoenicia, establishing himself as the most powerful monarch in Upper Asia. He confronted the Romans, however, and suffered defeat. The Parthians, who were acting as Roman allies during the war, regained their lost satrapies. At about that time, the Parthian Empire reached its greatest extent, spreading from India to the Euphrates and from the Oxus River to the Persian Gulf.
The first Roman assault on Parthia was made by the triumvir Marcus Crassus in 53 BC, who was crushed at the Battle of Carrhae, where Roman standards fell to the enemy and the general was murdered. Further attacks by Mark Antony in 36 BC showed that the Parthian army was quite capable of successfully confronted the invincible Roman legions. Being mostly a nomadic people, the Parthians relied heavily on cavalry (although they made good use of infantry as well), which was two types - Clibanarii and Horse Archers. The former were heavily-armoured noblemen, whose two-meter long iron spears were a scourge for enemy infantry. They were set in motion to finish off the enemy with their mighty charge only after the opponent's lines had been disturbed by the Horse Archers. The famous Parthian Horse Archers (see picture) used little armour, but their powerful bows caused great damage to the opposing soldiers. They practiced the so called "Parthian shot", false retreat before the enemy followed by a swift unexpected charge. They could also fire at the enemy while retreating. Thus the Romans were largely repelled by these eastern barbarians, so strange to them.
The Parthians spoke a northwest dialect of Middle Persian, called Parthian or Arsacid Pahlavi, very similar to that of Media. It was the spoken language of the empire, while Koine, the Macedonian form of Greek, served as an official language on documents, coins and elsewhere. In the early stages of their empire, the Parthians were indeed strongly influenced by Greek ideas. Several Parthian monarchs posed as defenders of Hellenism and added the title "Philhellene", in addition to the usual "brother of the sun and the moon", to their names. The Greeks of the empire, living in the cities founded by Alexander and the Seleucids, consequently enjoyed many privileges.
"Parthian architecture was characterised by the use of sun-dried or kiln-baked bricks, with vaults to roof the buildings" (http://parthia.com). Being largely a nomadic people, as mentioned above, the Parthians did not have a permanent capital - sometimes it was Hecatompylos or Nisa in their homeland, still other times it was Ecbatana in Media, Ctesiphon, or Seleucia-on the Tigris. They were mainly preoccupied with agriculture and horticulture, developing canal-building, from which came a lot of their wealth. The other major source of income was The Silk Road, which linked Rome to the west with India and China to the east. The Parthians administered it carefully and took taxes from the merchants. This largely accounted for their great prosperity and abundance.
The Parthians left no written accounts of their history. The very little we know about them has come from Roman and Greek sources. They tell us that the Parthians followed Zoroastrianism, but other cults, especially the one to the old Iranian solar deity of Mithras, were also very popular. From them they passed on to the Roman Empire, where they were largely appreciated. Another "contribution" the Parthians made to Rome was the plague. It was in fact the last "Parthian shot", for during most of the I and II c. AD Parthian power declined continually. The wealthy landlords of the Iranian plateau grew more and more independent, and so did the dependent kingdoms and client states. As a result the Kushans in the east and the Romans in the west conquered considerable Parthian territories. The latter between AD 114 and AD 117 under emperor Trajan took the capital Ctesiphon, as well as Armenia, Assyria and Mesopotamia, penetrating as far to the east as Susa. Only the unexpected revolts in Syria and Egypt and the sudden death of Trajan saved the Parthians from utter catastrophe. But when the Roman troops of emperor Lucius Vero were besieging Seleucia in AD 165, they were suddenly attacked by an unknown violent disease and forced to retreat. This time they took their dangerous foe home with them. Lucius Vero himself died of the plague, while in the next century the Roman population dropped by as much as a third because of it.
The Romans never conquered Parthia, despite their frequent campaigns. The aging empire was overcome by Ardashir, a young Persian noble, who revolted in Persis and killed the Parthian king Artabanus IV in battle in AD 224. This was the end for the Arsacids, in the next three years Ardashir took over all of their kingdom, thus establishing the Sassanian dynasty of Persia, which was to rule until the Arab conquest in the VII c. AD. The last Parthian king, Vologases VI, issued his last dated coin in AD 228. |
