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Vologases I of Parthia (in Persian: Balash or Valakhsh) ruled the Parthian Empire
Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
 from about 51 to 78. Son of Vonones II
Vonones II of Parthia

Vonones II of Parthia ruled the Parthia briefly in 51. During the reign of his brother Gotarzes II of Parthia he was governor of Medes, and was raised to the throne on Gotarzes' death....
 by a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 concubine, he succeeded his father in 51 AD. He gave the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus II
Pacorus II of Parthia

Pacorus II of Parthia ruled the Parthia from about 78 to 105. A son of Vonones II of Parthia and brother of Vologases I of Parthia, he was given the kingdom of Media Atropatene by the latter after his succession to the throne....
, and occupied Armenia
Kingdom of Armenia

The Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to AD 387 and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea seas....
 for another brother, Tiridates
Tiridates I of Armenia

Tiridates I was Kingdom of Armenia beginning in AD 53 and the founder of the Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia, the Armenian line of the Arsacid Dynasty....
. This led to a long war with the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 (54–63), which was ably conducted by the Roman general Corbulo
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was a Ancient Rome general....
.

The power of Vologases was weakened by an attack of the Dahae
Dahae

The Dahae , or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language....
 and Sacae nomads, a rebellion of the Hyrcanians, and the usurpation of his son Vardanes II
Vardanes II of Parthia

Vardanes II of Parthia was the son of Vologases I of Parthia and briefly ruler of part of the Parthia. He rebelled against his father from about 55 to 58 and must have occupied Ecbatana, for he issued coins from the mint there, bearing the likeness of a young beardless king wearing a diadem with five pendants....
.






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Vologases I of Parthia (in Persian: Balash or Valakhsh) ruled the Parthian Empire
Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
 from about 51 to 78. Son of Vonones II
Vonones II of Parthia

Vonones II of Parthia ruled the Parthia briefly in 51. During the reign of his brother Gotarzes II of Parthia he was governor of Medes, and was raised to the throne on Gotarzes' death....
 by a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 concubine, he succeeded his father in 51 AD. He gave the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus II
Pacorus II of Parthia

Pacorus II of Parthia ruled the Parthia from about 78 to 105. A son of Vonones II of Parthia and brother of Vologases I of Parthia, he was given the kingdom of Media Atropatene by the latter after his succession to the throne....
, and occupied Armenia
Kingdom of Armenia

The Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to AD 387 and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea seas....
 for another brother, Tiridates
Tiridates I of Armenia

Tiridates I was Kingdom of Armenia beginning in AD 53 and the founder of the Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia, the Armenian line of the Arsacid Dynasty....
. This led to a long war with the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 (54–63), which was ably conducted by the Roman general Corbulo
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was a Ancient Rome general....
.

The power of Vologases was weakened by an attack of the Dahae
Dahae

The Dahae , or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language....
 and Sacae nomads, a rebellion of the Hyrcanians, and the usurpation of his son Vardanes II
Vardanes II of Parthia

Vardanes II of Parthia was the son of Vologases I of Parthia and briefly ruler of part of the Parthia. He rebelled against his father from about 55 to 58 and must have occupied Ecbatana, for he issued coins from the mint there, bearing the likeness of a young beardless king wearing a diadem with five pendants....
. According to Josephus
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
, he was prevented from attacking the vassal king of Adiabene
Adiabene

Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian people semi-independent monarchy in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbil . Its rulers converted to Judaism in the 1st Century....
 by an invasion of the eastern nomads. At last, a peace was concluded, by which Tiridates was acknowledged as king of Armenia
Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
, but had to become a vassal of the Romans; he went to Rome, where Roman emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
 Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
 gave him back the diadem; from that time an Arsacid dynasty
Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia

The Arsacid Dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 54 AD to 428 AD. Formerly a branch of the Iranian Parthian Arsacids, they became a distinctly Armenian dynasty....
 ruled in Armenia under Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 supremacy.

Vologases was satisfied with this result, and honored the memory of Nero (Suetonius
Lives of the Twelve Caesars

De vita Caesarum commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman Emperor of the Roman Empire written by Suetonius....
 Nero, 57), though he stood in good relations with Vespasian
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
 also, to whom he offered an army of 40,000 archers in the war against Vitellius
Vitellius

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, born Aulus Vitellius and commonly known as Vitellius , was a Roman Emperors who reigned from 16 April 69 to 22 December of the same year....
. Soon afterwards the Alans
Alans

The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatians people, Eurasian nomads of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian language and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian language....
, a great nomadic tribe beyond the Caucasus
Caucasus

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is home to Europe's highest mountain ....
, invaded Media and Armenia; Vologases applied in vain for help to Vespasian
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
. It appears that the Persian losses in the east also could not be repaired; Hyrcania remained an independent kingdom. Vologases died in about 78 and was succeeded by his son Vologases II
Vologases II of Parthia

Vologases II of Parthia was the son of Vologases I of Parthia and ruled the Parthia from about 77 to 80. Little is known about him. It seems that Vologases II was defeated and deposed by his uncle, Pacorus II of Parthia ....
.

Vologases and the Iranian Revival

His reign is marked by a decided reaction against Hellenism
Hellenization

Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon....
. He was influential in reverting the Hellenization by going back to Iranian customs and traditions of Achamenids time. He replaced the Greek alphabet with previously used Aramaic script. On some of his coins the initials of his name appear in Aramaic letters. He reverted the Greek names of Iranian cities to Iranian names.

According to Zoroastrian texts, Vologases ordered the collection of the ancient Avestan texts. One some of his coins a fire temple can be seen and this tradition continued for several hundred years to the end of Sassanians.

He built cities including Vologesocerta (Balashkert or Balashgerd or Balashkard, literally Balash built it) in the neighborhood of Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
 with the intention of drawing to this new town the inhabitants of Seleucia on the Tigris
Seleucia on the Tigris

Seleucia was one of the great cities of the world during Hellenistic and Roman Empire times. It stood in Mesopotamia, on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the smaller town of Opis ....
. Another town founded by him is Vologesias on a canal of the Euphrates
Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
, south of Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 (near Hirah).