Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/238

 200 INDO- GREEK AND INDO- PARTHIAN DYNASTIES equally skilled in the management of their steeds and the use of the bow. These two nations, so widely different in history and manners, the Bactrians, with a thousand cities, and the Parthians, with myriads of moss-troopers, were moved at almost the same moment, about the middle of the third century B. c., to throw off their allegiance to their Seleukidan lord, and assert their independence. The exact dates of these rebellions can- not be determined, but the Bactrian revolt seems to have been the earlier, and there is reason to believe that the Parthian struggle continued for several years, and was not ended until after the death of Antiochos Theos in 246 B. c., although the declaration of Parthian autonomy seems to have been made in 248 B. c. The Bactrian revolt was a rebellion of the ordinary Oriental type, headed by Diodotos, the governor of the province, who seized an opportunity to shake off the authority of his sovereign and assume the royal state. The Parthian movement was rather a national rising, led by a chief named Arsakes, who is described as being a man of uncertain origin but undoubted bravery, and inured to a life of rapine. Arsakes slew Andragoras, the Seleukidan viceroy, declared his independence, and so founded the famous Arsakidan dynasty of Persia, which endured for nearly five centuries (248 B. c. to 226 A. D.). The success of both the Bactrian and Par- thian rebels was facilitated by the war of succession which disturbed the Seleukidan monarchy after the death of Antiochos Theos.