The Parthians ruled from 247 BCE to 224 CE creating a vast empire that stretched from the Mediterranean in the west to India and China in the east. East of the Caspian Sea there emerged from the steppe of Central Asia a nomadic Scythian tribe called the Parni.
Later called the Parthians and taking over the Seleucid Empire and fending off the Romans, they established themselves as a superpower in their own right. With a unique and extremely successful fighting style, the vast area they conquered put them in contact with goods and cultural influences from different parts of their empire.
From these influences, the Parthians not only blended architectural styles to make their own Parthian architecture but they also created their own unique Parthian art and dress.
Parthian Expansion
Preoccupied with rivalries with other Hellenistic states in the Mediterranean region, the Seleucids were unable to organize a campaign in the east until the end of the 230s.
Even then, rebellions in Asia Minor soon forced the king Seleucus II to return west with little achieved. It would be two decades before the next Seleucid effort to regain these eastern regions, under Antiochus the Great.
This led to a treaty by which the Parthians and Greco-Bactrians nominally recognized the Seleucids as their overlords, but in reality retained their independence.
The Seleucid kings soon slackened their grip on the east again. The Parthians, under their king, Mithridates I (reigned c. 164-132 BCE), conquered the neighboring kingdom of Media in c. 148 BCE.
Soon after this they brought the eastern Seleucid capital of Seleucia, in southern Mesopotamia, under their control. Mithridates had himself crowned there.
In Phraates II’s reign (139-128 BCE) the Seleucids made a final attempt to regain their eastern provinces, but this met with disaster when the Seleucid king, Antiochus VII, was killed (129 BCE).
The Parthians were unable to rest of their laurels.
A nomadic people from the steppes of central Asia, the Scythians, had come to dominate the central Asian steppes north of Iran, and then conquered the kingdom of Bactria (c. 150 BCE) and then founded large empires in Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent.
They posed a grave threat to Parthian power in eastern Iran.
Both Phraates II and his successor Artabanus I (127-23 BCE) lost their lives whilst fighting against them, but gradually they were pushed back.
Mithridates II
Mithridates II (reigned 123-87 BCE) was a vigorous ruler who reduced several kingdoms in Mesopotamia – Characene, Adiabene, Gordyene, and Osrhoene – to vassal status.
Then he deposed the king of Armenia, replacing him with his own son, Tigranes. He also annexed some Armenian territory. Mithridates assumed the traditional Iranian imperial title “King of Kings”, and established a new capital for his empire, Ctesiphon.
This was a short distance away from the old Seleucid capital of Seleucia, which itself was very near the ancient city of Babylon.
Around 115 BCE the Parthian court was visited by ambassadors from the Chinese emperor Wudi, and the two states reached an agreement on opening up the trade route across central Asia which would later become famous as the Silk Road.
This would significantly boost long-distance trade within the empire and enrich the treasury of the Parthian kings.
New challenges
The Parthians’ conquests had taken their kings from ruling a comparatively small-scale, feudal society on the margins of civilization, to governing a large, multinational empire of world significance. This dramatic expansion exacerbated tensions between kings and nobles.
These had already been present before the conquests began and would never really be properly resolved, weakening the Parthian empire throughout its existence.
It was not so long before that the Parthians had been a semi-nomadic people on the steppes of central Asia. In such groups the authority of kings and chiefs was respected – so long as they retained the support of their nobles.
In the tough conditions of the steppes this meant providing effective leadership in war. In the very different circumstances of running a large state, keeping this support was not so straightforward.
The Parthians now ruled numerous Hellenistic cities, thriving centers of Greek civilization. These had originally been planted by Alexander the Great and his Seleucid successors, and were scattered throughout Iran and in particular Mesopotamia.
To win the support of these cities (and perhaps to lessen their own dependency on their troublesome nobility), the Parthian kings allowed them to continue to exercise the autonomy which they had enjoyed under the Seleucids.
The Hellenistic cities prospered under their new Parthian rulers. More than any other element within Parthian society they benefited from the opening of the Silk Road, and from the expansion of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean during Parthian times.
Moreover, the nobility had chaffed under the masterful style of rule of both Mithridates I and Mithridates II, and towards the end of the latter’s reign disorders seem to have broken out.
A series of power struggles resulted in a succession of obscure kings sitting briefly on the Parthian throne. The empire was thus weakened to the extent that the Armenians were able to retake territory lost to Mithridates II.