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Parthia was a civilization situated in the northeast of modern Iran, but at its height covering all of
Iran proper, as well as regions of the modern countries of
Iraq,
Azerbaijan,
Armenia,
Georgia, eastern
Turkey, eastern
Syria,
Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan,
Tajikistan,
Pakistan,
Kuwait, the
Persian Gulf coast of
Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain and the
United Arab Emirates.
Parthia was led by the
Arsacid dynasty, who reunited and ruled over the
Iranian plateau, taking over the eastern provinces of the
Greek Seleucid Empire, beginning in the late
3rd century BCE, and intermittently controlled
Mesopotamia between ca 150 BCE and 224 CE. It was the second native dynasty of ancient Iran . Parthia was the arch-enemy of the
Roman Empire in the east; and it limited Rome's expansion beyond
Cappadocia .
The Parthian empire lasted five centuries, longer than most Eastern Empires. After the
Scythian-Parni
nomads had settled in Parthia and had built a small independent kingdom, they rose to power under king
Mithradates the Great . The end of this long lasted empire came in 224 CE, when the empire was loosely organized and the last king was defeated by one of the empire's vassals, the Persians of the
Sassanid dynasty.
Origins
- See also: Seven Parthian clans
The Parthians were members of the Parni tribe, a
nomadic people of
Iranian origin, who originally spoke an Eastern Iranian language and entered the
Iranian plateau from
Central Asia. They were consummate horsemen, known for the 'Parthian shot': turning backwards at full gallop to loose an arrow directly to the rear. Later, at the height of their power, Parthian influence reached as far as Ubar in
Arabia, the nexus of the
frankincense trade route, where Parthian-inspired ceramics have been found. The power of the early Parthian empire seems to have been overestimated by some ancient historians, who could not clearly separate the powerful later empire from its more humble obscure origins.
Little is known of the Parthians; their own literature has not survived. Consequently Parthian history is largely derived from foreign histories, controlled by the evidence of
coins and inscriptions; even their own name for themselves is debatable due to a lack of domestic records. Several Greek authors, of whom we have fragments, including Apollodorus of Artemita and Isidore of Charax, wrote under Parthian rule. Their power was based on a combination of the guerilla warfare of a mounted nomadic tribe, with organisational skills sufficient to build and administer a vast empire - even though it never matched in power the Persian empires that preceded and followed it. Vassal kingdoms seem to have made up a large part of their territory , and Hellenistic cities enjoyed a certain autonomy; their craftsmen received employment by some Parthians.
The Parthian Empire
Initially, ca. 250 BCE, a king named
Arsaces established his
dynasty's independence from
Seleucid rule in remote areas of northern Iran in what is today known as Turkmenistan, where his descendants of the same name ruled until
Antiochus III the Great briefly made them submit to Seleucid authority again in 206 BCE.
It was not until the 2nd century BCE that the Parthians were able to profit from the continuing erosion of the Seleucid Empire, gradually capturing all its territories east of Syria. Once the Parthians had gained
Herat, the movement of trade along the
Silk Road to China was effectively choked off and the
post-Alexandrian Hellenistic
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was doomed.
The Seleucid monarchs attempted to "hold the line" against the Parthian expansion;
Antiochus IV Epiphanes spent his last years on a campaign against the newly emerging Iranian states. After his death in 164 BCE, the Parthians took advantage of the ensuing dynastic squabbles to make even greater gains.
In 139 BCE, the Parthian king
Mithridates I captured the Seleucid monarch
Demetrius II Nicator, holding him captive for ten years while his troops overwhelmed
Mesopotamia and
Media.
By 129 BCE the Parthians were in control of all the lands right to the
Tigris, and established their winter encampment on its banks at
Ctesiphon, downstream from modern
Baghdad. Ctesiphon was then a small suburb directly across the river from Seleucia on the Tigris, the most Hellenistic city of western Asia. Because of their need of the wealth and trade provided by Seleucia, the Parthian armies limited their incursions to harassment, allowing the city to preserve its independence. In the heat of the Mesopotamian summer, the Parthian army would withdraw to the ancient Persian capitals of
Susa and
Ecbatana .
Government
After the conquest of Media,
Assyria, Babylonia and
Elam, the Parthians had to organize their empire. The former elites of these countries were Greek, and the new rulers had to adapt to their customs if they wanted their rule to last. As a result, the cities retained their ancient rights and civil administrations remained more or less undisturbed. An interesting detail is coinage: legends were written in the Greek alphabet, a practice that continued until the 2nd century CE, when local knowledge of the language was in decline and few people knew how to read or write the Greek alphabet.
Another source of inspiration was the
Achaemenid dynasty that had once ruled the
Persian Empire. Courtiers spoke Persian and used the
Pahlavi script; the royal court traveled from capital to capital, and the
Arsacid kings styled themselves "king of kings". It was an apt title, as in addition to his own kingdom the Parthian monarch was the overlord of some eighteen vassal kings, such as the rulers of the city state
Hatra, the kingdom of Characene and the ancient kingdom of
Armenia.
The empire was, overall, not very centralized. There were several languages, many peoples, and a number of different economic systems. The loose ties between the separate parts of the empire were a key to its survival. In the 2nd century CE, the most important capital, Ctesiphon, was captured no less than three times by the Romans , but the empire survived because there were other centers of power. On the other hand, the fact that the empire was a mere conglomeratation of kingdoms, provinces and city-states did at times seriously weaken the Parthian state. This was a major factor in the halt of the Parthian expansion after the conquests of Mesopotamia and
Persia.
Local potentates played important roles, and the king had to respect their privileges. Several noble families had votes in the Royal council; the
Suren-Pahlav Clan had the right to crown the Parthian king, and every aristocrat was allowed and expected to retain an army of his own. When the throne was occupied by a weak ruler, divisions among the nobility became dangerous.
The constituent parts of the empire were surprisingly independent. For example, they were allowed to strike their own coins, a privilege which in antiquity was very rare. As long as the local elite paid tribute to the Parthian king, there was little interference. The system worked well: towns like Ctesiphon, Seleucia, Ecbatana,
Rhagae, Hecatompylos, Nisâ, and Susa flourished.
Tribute was one source of royal income; another was tolls. Parthia controlled the Silk Road, the trade route between the
Mediterranean Sea and China.
Parthian language
Contact with China
The Chinese explorer
Zhang Qian, who visited the neighbouring countries of
Bactria and
Sogdiana in 126 BCE, made the first known Chinese report on Parthia. In his accounts Parthia is named "Anxi" , a transliteration of "
Arsacid", the name of the Parthian dynasty. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthia as an advanced urban civilization, which he equates to those of
Dayuan and
Daxia .
- "Anxi is situated several thousand li west of the region of the Great Yuezhi . The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. They have walled cities like the people of Dayuan , the region contains several hundred cities of various sizes. The coins of the country are made of silver and bear the face of the king. When the king dies, the currency is immediately changed and new coins issued with the face of his successor. The people keep records by writing on horizontal strips of leather. To the west lies Tiaozhi and to the north Yancai and Lixuan ." .
Following Zhang Qian's embassy and report, commercial relations between China, Central Asia, and Parthia flourished, as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BCE: "The largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members... In the course of one year anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent out." .
The Parthians were apparently very intent on maintaining good relations with China and also sent their own embassies, starting around 110 BC: "When the
Han envoy first visited the kingdom of Anxi , the king of Anxi dispatched a party of 20,000 horsemen to meet them on the eastern border of the kingdom... When the Han envoys set out again to return to China, the king of Anxi dispatched envoys of his own to accompany them... The emperor was delighted at this." .
In 97 CE the Chinese general
Ban Chao went as far west as the
Caspian Sea with 70,000 men and established direct military contacts with the Parthian Empire.
Parthians also played a role in the
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism from Central Asia to China. An Shih Kao, a Parthian nobleman and
Buddhist missionary, went to the Chinese capital
Luoyang in 148 CE where he established temples and became the first man to translate Buddhist scriptures into
Chinese.
Conflicts with Rome
In 53 BCE, the Roman general Crassus invaded Parthia, but was defeated at the
Battle of Carrhae by a Parthian commander called
Surena in the Greek and Latin sources, most likely a member of the
Suren-Pahlav Clan. This was the beginning of a series of wars that were to last for almost three centuries.
The Parthian armies included two types of
cavalry: the heavily-armed and armoured
cataphracts and lightly armed but highly-mobile mounted archers. For the Romans, who relied on heavy
infantry, the Parthians were too hard to defeat, as both types of cavalry were much faster and more mobile than foot soldiers. On the other hand, the Parthians found it difficult to occupy conquered areas as they were unskilled in
siege warfare. Because of these weaknesses, neither the Romans nor the Parthians were able to completely defeat each other.
In the years following the battle of Carrhae the Romans were divided in civil war between the adherents of
Pompey and those of
Julius Caesar and hence unable to campaign against Parthia. Although Caesar was eventually victorious against Pompey and was planning a campaign against Parthia, his subsequent murder led to another civil war. The Roman general Quintus Labienus, who had supported Caesar's murderers and feared reprisals from his heirs,
Mark Antony and
Octavian , sided with the Parthians and eventually became the best general of king
Pacorus I. In 41 BCE Parthia, led by Labienus, invaded Syria,
Cilicia, and
Caria and attacked
Phrygia in
Asia Minor. A second army intervened in
Judaea and captured its king Hyrcanus II. The spoils were immense, and put to good use: King
Phraates IV invested them in building up Ctesiphon.
In 39 BCE, Antony retaliated, sending out the old warhorse general Publius Ventidius Bassus and several of Caesar's crack, veteran legions to secure the conquered territories. Pacorus and Labienus were killed in action, and the
Euphrates again became the border between the two nations. Hoping to avenge the death of Crassus, Antony invaded Mesopotamia in 36 BCE with the Legion VI Ferrata and other units. He had cavalry with him, but it turned out to be unreliable, and the Romans were happy simply to reach Armenia, having suffered great losses against the Parthians.
Antony's campaign was followed by a break in the fighting between the two empires as Rome was again embroiled in civil war. When Octavian defeated Mark Antony, he ignored the Parthians, being more interested in the west. His son-in-law and future successor
Tiberius negotiated a peace treaty with Phraates .
At the same time, around the year 1 CE, the Parthians became interested in the valley of the
Indus, where they began conquering the petty kingdoms of Gandara. One of the Parthian leaders was
Gondophares, king of
Taxila; according to an old and widespread
Christian tradition, he was baptized by the apostle Thomas. While it may sound far-fetched, the story is not altogether impossible: adherents of several religions lived together in Gandara and the
Punjab, and there may have been an audience for a representative of a new
Jewish sect.
War broke out again between Rome and Parthia in the 60s CE. Armenia had become a Roman vassal kingdom, but the Parthian king Vologases I appointed a new Armenian ruler. This was too much for the Romans, and their commander
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo invaded Armenia. The result was that the Armenian king received his crown again in Rome from the emperor
Nero. A compromise was worked out between the two empires: in the future, the king of Armenia was to be a Parthian prince, but his appointment required approval from the Romans.
Expansion to South Asia
Main article:
Indo-Parthian KingdomAlso during the 1st century BCE, the Parthians started to make inroads into eastern territories that had been occupied by the
Indo-Scythians and the
Yuezhi. The Parthians gained control of parts of
Bactria and extensive
South Asian territories in modern day
Pakistan, after defeating local rulers such as the
Kushan Empire ruler
Kujula Kadphises, in the
Gandhara region.
Around 20 CE, Gondophares, one of the Parthian conquerors, declared his independence from the Parthian empire and established the
Indo-Parthian Kingdom in the conquered territories.
Decline and fall
The Armenian compromise served its purpose, but nothing in it covered the deposition of an Armenian king. After 110 CE, the Parthian king
Vologases III dethroned the Armenian ruler, and the Roman emperor
Trajan decided to invade Parthia in retaliation. War broke out in 114 CE and the Parthians were severely beaten. The Romans conquered Armenia, and in the following year, Trajan marched to the south, where the Parthians were forced to evacuate their strongholds. In 116 CE, Trajan captured Ctesiphon, and established new provinces in Assyria and Babylonia.
Rebellions soon broke out due to the continuing loyalty of the population to Parthia. At the same time, the
diasporic Jews revolted and Trajan was forced to send an army to suppress them. Trajan overcame these troubles, but his successor
Hadrian gave up the territories . Nonetheless, it was clear that the Romans had learned how to defeat the Parthians.
Parthian weaknesses also contributed to the disaster. In the first century CE, the Parthian nobility had become more powerful due to concessions by the Parthian king granting them greater powers over the land and the peasantry. Their power now rivaled the king's, while at the same time internal divisions in the
Arsacid family had rendered them vulnerable.
But the end was not near, yet. In 161 CE king
Vologases IV declared war against the Romans and reconquered Armenia. The Roman counter-offensive was slow, but in 165 CE, Ctesiphon fell, and the Parthians were only saved by the outburst of a catastrophic epidemic which temporarily crippled the two empires. The Roman emperors
Lucius Verus and
Marcus Aurelius added northern Mesopotamia to their realm , but as it was never secure enough for them to demilitarize the region between the Euphrates and Tigris. It remained an expensive burden.
The deciding blow came thirty years later. King
Vologases V had tried to reconquer Mesopotamia during another Roman civil war , but was repulsed when general
Septimius Severus counter-attacked. Again, Ctesiphon was captured , and large spoils were brought to Rome. According to a modern estimate, the gold and silver were sufficient to postpone a
European economic crisis for three or four decades, and the consequences of the looting for Parthia were dire.
Parthia, now impoverished and without any hope to recover the lost territories, was demoralized. The kings were forced to concede greater powers to the nobility, and the vassal kings began to waver in their allegiance. In 224 CE, the Persian vassal king
Ardašir revolted. Two years later, he took Ctesiphon, and this time it meant the end of Parthia, replaced by a third Persian Empire, ruled by the
Sassanid dynasty.
Parthian rulers
References
- Hill, John E. 2004. The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu. Draft annotated English translation.
- Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue ?? by Yu Huan ??: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation.
Notes
See also
External links
