Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/145

 PARTHIA 135 whom contradictory accounts are given by the ancient historians. According to one account, he was a Bactrian who would not submit to Diodotus, and going into Parthia induced the natives to revolt and make him their king. An- other account says he was a Parthian of high rank, who, having been grossly insulted by the Greek satrap, killed him and headed a success- ful revolt. A third version says that Arsaces was a Scythian chief, who with a predatory band entered Parthia, drove out the Greeks, and made himself king with the consent of the natives, who hailed him as a deliverer. This version is accepted as most probable by George Rawlinson, the latest historian of Par- thia. Whatever his origin or however he ac- quired his power, Arsaces met with no oppo- sition from Antiochus, and would have quickly established his rule but for malcontents, prob- ably of Greek descent, in his new kingdom. He struggled with them for two years, and fell in battle in 247 or 246. He was succeeded by his brother, who in addition to his own name, Tiridates, took that of Arsaces, as did all the Parthian kings down to the fall of the empire under Arsaces XXXIV. (or XXX.). Arsaces II. reigned upward of 30 years, consolidated the monarchy, enlarged its boundaries by the conquest of Hyrcania, and made it a united and powerful nation. He repelled a formidable army which the Syrian king Seleucus Callinicus led to Parthia in 237, the victory over which was long celebrated by the Parthians as the second beginning of their independence. Ar- saces III., whose proper name was Artabanus, and whose reign began about 214, conquered Media, an aggression which led to immediate reprisals by the Syrian king Antiochus III., who with a vast army retook Media, advanced into Parthia, and occupied Hecatompylos with- out opposition. He then invaded Hyrcania and captured several towns. The record of what followed has perished with the lost books of Polybius. It is only known that after a strug- gle of several years Antiochus retired about 206, having made a treaty acknowledging the independence of Parthia. For a considera- ble period after this Parthian history is almost a blank. Phraates I. (Arsaces V.), an active and warlike king, conquered several provinces from the Syrian monarchy. After a reign of seven years he was succeeded by his brother Mithridates I. (Arsaces VI.), the most distin- guished of the Parthian kings. During his long reign (174-136) the kingdom expanded by his conquests into a great empire, extending from the Euphrates to the Indus, and including, be- sides Parthia proper, Bactria, Aria, Margiana, Hyrcania, Media, Persia, and Babylonia. Mith- ridates met with little opposition from the Syrian kings whose eastern provinces he ap- propriated, because those monarchs were too much absorbed by civil war in Syria to attend to anything else. But at length Demetrius II. so far suppressed his domestic enemies as to deem it prudent to undertake a campaign against the Parthians, who had now passed the Euphrates and were threatening Syria it- self. He was received as a deliverer by the Greeks who occupied the cities, and who hated the Parthian conquerors; and with their aid and that of disaffected Persians and Bactrians, he won many battles at first, but was finally defeated in a great battle in which his army was destroyed and himself taken prisoner. Soon after this victory Mithridates died, and was succeeded by his son Phraates II. "(Arsa- ces VII.). Antiochus Sidetes, the brother of Demetrius, had become king of Syria on the captivity of the latter, and in 129 undertook to rescue the captive king and to chastise the Parthians. He accordingly crossed the Eu- phrates with a vast army, which at first met with some success, but was at last totally de- feated and destroyed, Antiochus himself be- ing killed. The Parthian king Phraates did not long survive his victory; he became in- volved in a war with the Scythian nomads on his northern frontier, and was defeated and slain by them in 127. His successor Artaba- nus II. (Arsaces VIII.) met with the same fate about three years later. Mithridates II., called the Great by ancient writers, repelled the Scythian hordes and added to the em- pire many provinces on its northern side. He also invaded Armenia, which brought him into contact with the Romans. He probably died about 89, after a reign of 35 years. A period of civil war seems to have followed, during which negotiations with the Romans were carried on with regard to Armenia, and a sort of alliance was formed between the Roman general Pompey and a Parthian king named Phraates III., who was assassinated by his sons Mithridates and Orodes about 60. Mithridates became king, but was deposed and put to death by Orodes about 55. In that year Crassus became consul at Rome, and being appointed to the command of the East an- nounced his intention of conquering Parthia. After a reconnoissance in force beyond the Eu- phrates in 54, he entered on his great campaign in 53 with a powerful army, which was totally defeated by the surena or general of Orodes near Carrhas in Mesopotamia. Crassus escaped from the battle, but was soon after entrapped into a conference and put to death. Of his army three fourths were killed or captured. The victorious Parthians now invaded Syria, which had become a Roman province ; but as their force was chiefly cavalry, they could not capture any of the cities, and were easily ex- pelled from the country by Cassius the pro- consul. Subsequently Orodes took part in the civil war that followed the death of Caasar, by sending a body of cavalry to the aid of Brutus and Cassius ; and in 40, having the aid of a Roman soldier of much experience, Labi- enus, one of the defeated party, he sent a great force to invade Syria under the joint com- mand of Labienus and his own son Pacorus. The Parthians under Pacorus overran Syria,