Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/623

 EMPIRE.] PERSIA 595 manently occupied by the Scythian tribes, who gave it the name of Sacastane (Sistan), for that name appears in Isidore of Charax (1 B.C.), which implies that the Scythian occupa tion was even then of long standing. Finally, the coins reveal the existence of Arsacids who were rival kings to Artabanus I. and Mithradates II., and perhaps borrow from individual successes against the Scythians the proud titles which so strongly contrast with the really wretched condition of the empire. One of these pretenders, Arsaces Euergetes Dicaios Philhellen, resumes the style &quot;king of kings,&quot; which had lapsed since Mithradates I. ; and his title &quot;the just,&quot; which seems to be imitated from the Bactrian Heliocles, suggests that he may have come with the Scythians from the land where Heliocles once reigned. Meanwhile it would appear that the men of Seleucia, driven to desperation, had seized the tyrant Euhemerus and put him to a cruel death. 1 Artabanus, when they sought his pardon, threatened to put out the eyes of every man of Seleucia, and was prevented only by his death, in battle with the Tochari, after a very short reign, thra- His son and successor, Mithradates II. the Great, 2 was tes II. th e res torer of the empire. 3 We are briefly told that he valiantly waged many wars with his neighbours, added many nations to the empire, and had several successes against the Scythians, so avenging the disgrace of his predecessors. His successes, however, must have been practically limited to the recovery of lost ground, and the eastern frontier was not advanced. It has been common to connect with his successes the appearance of Parthian names among the Indo-Scythian princes of the Cabul valley ; but this must be false, for even Candahar (U-ghe-shan-li), which lies so much farther west, is repre sented by the Chinese as an independent kingdom in the middle of the 1st century B.C. On the other hand, Mithra dates, if not the first to conquer Mesopotamia, was the first to fix the Euphrates as the western boundary of the empire, and towards the end of his reign he was strong enough to interfere with the concerns of Great Armenia and place Tigranes II. on the throne in a time of disputed succes sion (94), accepting in return the cession of seventy Armenian valleys. Now, too, the Parthians, as lords of Mesopotamia, came for the first time into contact with Home, and in 92, when Sulla came to Cappadocia as proprietor of Cilicia, he met on the Euphrates the ambas sador of Mithradates seeking the Roman alliance. 4 This embassy was no doubt connected with the Parthian schemes against Syria ; Mithradates about this time was at war with Laodice, queen of Gommagene or some neigh bouring part; and her cousin, Antiochus X., 5 who supported her, fell in battle with the Parthians. A few years later Strato, tyrant of Beroea, called in the Arab phylarch Azizus and the Parthian governor of Mesopotamia, Mithradates Sinaces, against Demetrius III., who reigned at Damascus. The Seleucid was compelled to surrender with his whole army and ended his life as a captive at the Parthian court. Mithradates the Great seems to have died just after this event ; there is no reason to suppose that he lived to see the disasters which followed so close on his great successes. 1 In Diod., Exc. Vat., p. 107, there can be little doubt that eviov is a corruption of Bi^epou. 2 On coins Arsaces Theos Euergetes Epiphanes Philhellen. 3 The time of his accession follows approximately from the date 123 on a coin of his rival, Arsaces Nicephorus. 4 The ambassador allowed Sulla to take the place of honour, and on his return was punished for this by death. 5 The queen rCov TaXiK^dv of Jos., Ant., xiii. 13, 4 (Leyden MS. the usual text has &quot; queen of Gilead &quot;), is doubtless the Laodice Thea Philadelphos, daughter of Antiochus VIII. of Syria, who, as Mommsen has shown (A/YM/i. Arch. Inst. At/ten., i. 32), was ancestress of the later sovereigns of Commagene. The word in Josephus is not perhaps a corruption of Commagene but of some neighbouring place say Artabanus II. was tke next monarch, 6 but after him the 128-66. style of king of kings was taken by the Armenian Tigranes, one of the most dangerous foes Parthia ever had. In Tigranes 86 it was still a reason for choosing Tigranes as king of Al&amp;gt; - of part of Syria that he was in alliance with Parthia &quot;&quot; (Just., xl. 1, 3), but very soon the latter state was so ruined by civil and foreign war that it was no match for Armenia (Plut., Lucullus, 36). Of the details in this history we know only the last act. In 77 the Arsacid Sinatruces 7 returned from the land of the Sacaraucae to take the throne at the age of eighty, and reigned seven years. There were probably other usurpers ; the silence of the coins does not prove the contrary, but rather that the times were so bad that no money was struck, a case of which Parthian numismatics offer other examples. Tigranes conquered Media primarily, that is, Atropatene but he also entered Great Media and destroyed the city of Adrapanan, 7 miles west of Ecbatana, &quot; the castle of those who have their seat in Batana &quot; (Ecbatana), 8 i.e., of a line of the Arsacids, for, though Mithradates I. had had his seat in Hyrcania, Phraates II. and his successors down to Mithradates III. held their court in Media (Diod., Exc. Vat., p. 603). The seventy valleys which had been the price of his throne were restored to Tigranes, and he also ravaged the country of Arbela and Nineveh, and compelled the cession of Adiabene, hitherto a Parthian dependency, and of Mesopotamia, with the fortress of Nisibis. This last war was against Sinatruces, 9 and was probably going on in 73 when Mithradates Eupator of Pontus made a vain appeal for help to both combatants (Memnon, in Photius, p. 234 b, 27). Phraates III. succeeded his father Sinatruces a little Phraates before the arrival of Lucullus in the East in 70, 10 and in IIJ - C9 refused a second invitation to give help against Rome which Mithradates and Tigranes addressed to him jointly, the latter offering to reward him by giving up all that he had taken from the Parthians. His hatred of Tigranes made him more disposed to alliance with Rome ; and after a period of hesitating neutrality Phraates accepted the overtures of Pompey and prepared to invade Armenia (66), guided by the younger Tigranes, who had quarrelled with his father and taken refuge in Parthia, where he wedded the daughter of the king. Tigranes the elder fled to the mountains ; and, after forming the siege of Artaxata, which proved tedious, Phraates turned home ward, leaving young Tigranes with part of the army to continue the war. The latter, who alone was no match for his father, fled after an utter defeat to Pompey, who was Pompey just preparing to invade Armenia, and to whom the elder in Ar - Tigranes presently surrendered at discretion. The Roman, meuia - however, gave him very good terms, altogether abandon ing his son s cause and even casting him into chains. In Trogus, Prol., 41, the sentence &quot; successores deinde eius Artabanus et Tigranes cognomine Deus a quo subacta est Media et Mesopotamia dictusque in excessu Arabioe situs&quot; is wrongly referred (after Vaillant) to Mithradates I. of Parthia. It can really refer only to the famous Tigranes, and in that case must have originally belonged to Prol., 42, having dropped out by homoioteleuton, and been restored from the margin in a false place. Artabanus II. , therefore, followed Mithradates II., and his probably are the base coins of Arsaces Euergetes Epi phanes Philhellen, which according to Gardner, p. 38, seem to belong to this time. 7 On coins Arsaces Autocrator Philopator Epiphanes Philhelleu. 8 Isid. Char., in Geog. Gr. Min., i. 250. 9 Sallust, Hist., iv. fr. 19, 3. 10 So Memnon, ir Photius, p. 239 a, 13, confirmed by Phlegon, ibid., p. 84 a, 15. These sources, being independent, have more weight than Appian, Mithr., 104, and Dio Cassius, xxxvi. 45, who speak of the arrival of Pompey. Phraates III. is the &quot;king of kings, Arsaces Dicaios Epiphanes Theos Eupator Philhellen,&quot; whose coins Gardner wrongly ascribes to Mithradates III. &quot;VYe have express testimony that Phraates was styled &quot; king of kings &quot; and had the epithet &quot;Theos &quot; (Plut., I J o&amp;gt;2&amp;gt;., 38 ; Dio Cass., xxxvii. 6 ; Phlegon, v.t sup..