Page:Political History of Parthia.pdf/48

2 after they entered the Iranian plateau. Their cus­toms give us more extensive and more certain infor­mation, but nothing beyond what we already know from classical writers. Love of the hunt and of hard drinking, extensive use of the bow, especially as a weapon on horseback, are all suggestive of the no­madic or seminomadic life of the steppe country.

Early historians paid little attention to the Parthians; when the western world came into contact with them their story had been much obscured by time. They were reported to have been a division of the Parni, who in turn were one of a group of tribes known to the Greeks as the Dahae. We first meet them on the banks of the Ochus (Tejend) River, although this was probably not their original home­land. These people would not be known as Parthians until they moved southward into the Persian province of Parthava, an event which took place sometime before 250 Achaemenian and early Greek refer­ences to the "Parthians" refer, therefore, to earlier inhabitants of Parthava, not to the Parthians with whom we are dealing.

That as early as the seventh century the As-