Page:Political History of Parthia.pdf/251

Rh ly mentioned in inscriptions from Palmyra as the destination of the Palmyrene caravans. With the diversion of trade to this new center, the increasing importance of the more purely Parthian Ctesiphon across the river, and the destruction wrought by successive Roman invasions, the decline of the old royal city of Seleucia grew progressively more rapid in the second century after Christ.

The most important of the early trade routes was the great road which led to the Land of the Two Rivers across the Iranian plateau from the borders of China. Chinese traders met the westerners at a place called the "Stone Tower," tentatively identified as Tashkurgan on the upper Yarkand River. When the road reached Bactria, the presence of the Kushans forced a wide detour southward through Arachosia and Aria. From Rhages (Rayy) the road led west­ ward to Ecbatana (Hamadan). From Ecbatana, however, goods continued to pass to Syria via the Fertile Crescent or across the desert via Dura-Euro-