Parthians (Hastings' Dictionary)

This nationality is mentioned only in Ac 2%, in which assage the descendants of Jews that had settled in Parthia and afterwards returned to Jerusalem are clearly intended (see v.°). The Parthians in- habited a mountainous district, situated south of the Caspian Sea, having on its north H Teania, on its south Carmania, on its west Media, and on its east Ariana, Justin (bk. xli.) describes them as Scythian exiles, the word Parthian meaning ‘refugee’ in their language.

The tract where they located themselves is a very fertile one, and is watered by a number of small streams that flow down from the mountains, liable to sudden and violent floods on the melting of the snow thereon, but of exceedingly small volume in summer-time. The principal mountains were the Labus or Labutas (identified with the Sobod Koh), the Parachoathras (Elburz), and the Masdor- anus.

It was divided into several districts, of which Camisene on the north, Parthyene on the south-west of Camisene, Choarene on the west, Apavarticene on the south, and Tabiene along the borders of Carmania Deserta, were the principal. From the second of these divisions, Parthyene, the country is regarded as having received its name. In ancient times it was, to all appearance, much more densely populated than now, as, according to Fraser (Khorassan, p.

245), the tract contains the ruins of many large and Spey, handsome cities ; and Ptolemy relates that it had 25 large towns. The capital of the district was Heca- tompylos, and Darius Hystaspis (Behistun In- scription) refers to two other cities—Vispauzatis, where a battle took place, and Patigrabana. It is doubtful iiehier any credence can be given to the various stories of the origin of the Parthians.

Moses of Chorene calls them descend- ants of Abraham by Keturah, and John of Malala agrees with Strabo (xi. 9, sec. 2), Arrian (Fr. 1), and Justin (xli. 1-4), in regarding them as Scythians brought by Sesostris from Scythia when he re- turned from that country and settled in a district of Persia. The first authentic information about them, however, is given by Darius Hystaspis, who speaks of them as inhabiting the tract with which they are generally associated.

However faithful they may have been to their suzerain in the cen- turies preceding the rule of the great Persian, on the accession of Darius they evidently joined with the Hyrcanians in support of the pretender Fravartis. Darius’ father, ystaspes, went against them with those who were faithful to his son’s cause, and defeated the allied army of the rebels at Vispauzatis, on the 22nd of the month Viyakhna.

To all appearance, however, the Parthians and Hyrcanians were far from being beaten, and Hystaspes was in want of reinforcements. Darius PARTHIANS PARTICULAR, PARTICULARLY 681 therefore at once sent to him an army of Persians | members of his family in opposition to him. from Raga. took the field against the allies, and a second battle was fought at Patigrabana, on the lst of Garma- pee the result being a second victory for the ersians. ‘Thereafter,’ says Darius, ‘ was the land mine.

This did I in Parthia.’ According to Herodotus (iii. 93), the Parthians were in the 16th satrapy of the Persian empire as divided by Darius, aa they had along with them the Chorasmians, the Sogdians, and the Areians. This united prema had to pay to the royal trea- sury a sum of 300 talents of silver. In the war of Xerxes against the Greeks, according to Herodotus (vii. 66), the Parthians were in the same division as the Bactrians, and had the same commander as the Chorasmians.

To all appearance they remained faithful to the Persians to the end, serving with them at Arbela against Alexander, to whom, how- ever, they made but a feeble resistance when he passed through their country on his way to Bactria (Arr. Exp. Aleg. iii. 8). After the death of Alexander they formed part of the domain of the Seleucid, but revolted about B.C. 256, under Arsaces, who founded the native dynasty known as the Arsacide.

This dynasty contained no fewer than thirty-one kings, and lasted from about B.C. 248 until about A.D. 226, when Sassan founded upon its ruins the dynasty of the Sassanid. The family of the Arsacide, however, continued to exist in Armenia as an inde- pendent dynasty. Having founded the empire of the Parthians, which was to overshadow that of the Romans, Arsaces devoted himself to the development of his kingdom, and founded, in the mountain Zapaor- tenon, the city of Dara.

His son Tiridates is eupposed to have defeated Seleucus. Arsaces III. (ArtabanusI.) came into conflict with Antiochus II. Arsaces V. (Phraates I.) subdued the Mardi, and, notwithstanding that he had many sons, following an old Persian custom, he left his throne to his brother Arsaces vi. (Mithridates I., B.c. 164-139). This king is renowned as having greatly extended the limits of his kingdom.

Having subdued the Medes, the Elymeans, the Persians, and the Bactrians, he enlarged his dominions into India, beyond the conquests of Alexander. He also over- came the king of Syria, and added Babylonia and Mesopotamia to his empire, which now had the Ganges as its eastern and the Euphrates as its western boundary. Other great rulers down to the Christian era are the 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th of the name (Phraates Π., Mithridates I., Phraates Π|., Mithridates ΠΙ.

, Orodes 1, and Phraates Iv.) Additional accounts of the earlier rulers will probably be obtained from the astro- nomical tablets of Babylonia, which often give details of historical events, the material for dates, and the names of distinguished personages with their doings. In the end the Parthians possessed the rule of the greater part of Western Asia, from India to the Tigris, and from Chorasmia to the shores of the Indian Ocean.

Their long wars with the Romans are well known, and their peculiar method of fizhting enabled them to make a more successful resistance to the advance of the Roman armies than any other Eastern race. The greater and more organized power at last gained the upper hand, however, and Arsaces Xv. (Vhraates IV.), who reigned from B.C. 37 to A.D. 13, delivered to Augustus his five sons, with their wives and chil- dren, who were all sent to Rome. Arsaces XIX. (Artabanus 111.}, who began to reign in A.

D. 16, was the ruler of the country at the period referred to in Ac 2%. He had a chequered career, and came into conflict with the Romans, who set up other With these Hystaspes once more | Though twice obliged to quit his kingdom, he was twice recalled, and was succeeded, in A.D. 43, by his son Gotarzes. The subjection of the country was continued by Trajan, Antoninus, and Cara- calla; and the new Sassanian native dynasty of Persia, under the command of Artaxerxes L.

, son of its founder, an end to Parthian rule A.D. 226. Like the Boers in 8. Africa, the Parthians early learned the importance of accurate shooting, and they became celebrated in the use of the bow, which was apparently their chief weapon. It is also noteworthy that they were good horsemen ; and these two facts enabled them, like their more modern imitators, to harass their opponents and cause them loss.

It was apparently on account of this that they were enabled to retrieve, in the reign of Hadrian, losses that they had suffered under Trajan. The fact that they were all mounted gave them an enormous advantage in the matter of mobility, which is now recognized as an all- important feature in operations in the field of battle.

Indeed, the Roman writers of the period of the defeat and destruction of Crassus near Carrhae (Haran), attribute to them great military prowess, for which they became renowned. Even whilst their horses were going at full speed, they shot their arrows with wonderful precision, tlius prevent- ing an enemy from following them in their flight. In art and civilization they were inferior to the Persians and the Greeks, whose heirs, in a sense, they were.

Notwithstanding this, however, their decorative designs sometimes possess a simple excellence of their own that reminds one of similar designs of the Greeks, by whom, indeed, they must have been greatly influenced, as is indicated by the figures on the arch at Takht-i-Bostan, by the designs on the reverses of their coins, and by the fact that the inscriptions on the last are in the Greek language. They would thus seem to have adopted a gloss from that nation whom they con- quered.

hat they were not a literary people may be gathered from the circumstance that their language is still practically unknown to us, the Parthians having produced no literature that could preserve it. Nevertheless, it is at least probable that they were not so regardless of literature as they have been thought, for Justin states that Mithridates 1.

, having conquered several nations, athered from every one of them whatsoever he ound best in its constitution, and framed from the whole a body of most excellent laws for the overnment of his empire. If this be true, he must have been one of the wisest rulers of his time. Among the cities founded by the Parthian dynasty, Dara has already been mentioned, and the tfounda- tion of Ctesiphon is also attributed to them (Ammianus, xxiii. 6).

This city is described by Strabo as the winter residence of the Parthian kings (Zpit. xi. 32). Its ruins are even now the wonder of the beholder. T. G. PINCHEs.