Parthians

“ THE racial origin of the earliest Parthians is largely a matter of conjecture, since our few authorities differ widely from one another as to who they were and whence they came, and archaeological and anthropological evidence is not yet forth­coming. ”

“ 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 b.c. Achaemenian and early Greek refer­ences to the "Parthians" refer, therefore, to earlier inhabitants of Parthava, not to the Parthians with whom we are dealing. ”

“ Individual groups may have penetrated into the heart of the Parthian empire, perhaps even as far as Mesopotamia; but the majority of the Sacae were turned back by the exertions of the Parthians, and thus the Roman orient was spared their ravages. The explanation for the close interrelation in later times between the Sacae and the Parthians lies in the contacts which occurred as the hordes moved slowly southward toward India, contacts which must also explain the Parthian cultural influences at Taxila in India. ”

“ When the Parthians began the attack, their slaves and clients, riding about on the flanks of the Romans, galled them with their arrows: and the horsemen in front, using their long spears, kept driving the Romans into a narrow compass, except those who, to avoid death from the arrows, made a desperate attempt to rush upon the Parthians; wherein they did the enemy little damage, but met with a speedy death by great and mortal wounds; for the Parthians drove their spears, heavy with iron, against the horsemen; and, from the force of the blow, they often went even through two men. ”

“ It would be easy for them to reduce under their sway all the barbarous races on the skirts of their empires, and to hold them in subjection by a flexible system of administration and government. The Roman infantry was the best in the world, and in steady hand-to-hand fighting must be allowed to be unrivalled. The Parthians surpassed all nations in the number of their cavalry and in the excellency of their archers. ”

“ They generally discharged their arrows backwards, holding the bow behind the shoulder; a mode of attack more dangerous to a pursuing enemy than to one in order of battle. The Parthians first appeared in history as subject to the great Persian empire. After the death of Alexander the Great, Parthia formed part of the Syrian kingdom, but revolted under Antiochus II., and constituted itself into an independent kingdom under the Arsacidæ, 250 B.C., a race of kings who exercised the most completely despotic authority ever known. ”

“ Warned by his guide that this was the work of the Parthians, Antony ordered his men into battle array, a task scarcely accomplished when the Romans were enveloped by enemy cavalry. Charges by light-armed troops simply caused the Parthians to withdraw momentarily, but attacks by the Celtic horsemen were effective. ”

“ By September 20 Cicero had information that the Parthians had passed through Commagene and were in Cyrrhestica. Cassius with all of his troops was in Antioch, [24] where he was shortly afterwards surrounded by the Parthians. [25] At this time there was no news as to the whereabouts of M. Calpurnius Bibulus, governor of Syria, then on his way from Rome. Parthian patrols soon penetrated beyond the frontiers of Cilicia, and a considerable body of their cavalry was annihilated by some squadrons of Roman horse and a praetorian cohort stationed on garrison duty at Epiphanea. ”

“ About the same time, that, by an ignominious treaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side Mount Tarus, they were driven by the Parthians, 1001 an obscure horde of Scythian origin, from all the provinces of Upper Asia. The formidable power of the Parthians, which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes; the founder of a new dynasty, which, under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia till the invasion of the Arabs. ”

“ With thirteen hundred horsemen, five hundred archers, and eight cohorts (about four thousand men) , the young Publius drove the enemy before him with ease until, caught far from all support, the Parthians turned upon him. ”

“ Such a movement would necessarily have thrown the entire previous population of those parts into commotion, and would probably have precipitated them upon their neighbors. It accounts satisfactorily for the pressure of the northern hordes at this period on the Parthians, Bactrians, and even the Indians; and it completely explains the crisis in Parthian history, which we have now reached, and the necessity which lay upon the nation of meeting and, if possible, overcoming, an entirely new danger. ”

“ The Parthians prove incapable of creating a firm, united organization, such as the Achaemenids before them, and the Sassanids after them gave to their empire. The kings themselves were toys in the hands of the magnates and the army who, tenaciously as they clung to the anointed dynasty of the Arsacids, were utterly indifferent to the person of the individual Arsacid. Every moment they were ready to overthrow the reigning monarch and to seat another on his throne. ”

“ The death of the leader decides in the East, almost to a certainty, the issue of a contest. We cannot doubt that the Parthians, having lost their monarch, were repulsed; that the expedition failed; and that the situation of affairs became once more at least as threatening as it had been before Artabanus made his attempt. Two Parthian monarchs had now fallen within the space of a few years in combat with the aggressive Scyths—two Parthian armies had suffered defeat. ”

“ Instead of seeking the more dangerous kinds of wild beasts in their native haunts, and engaging with them under the conditions designed by nature, the Parthians were generally content with a poorer and tamer method. ”

“ The Parthians now showed themselves to the besiegers in gallant array and insultingly threatened them, on which Antonius, not wishing to let despondency and dejection abide in his army by their being quiet and to increase, took ten legions and three prætorian cohorts of heavy-armed men and all the cavalry, and led them out to forage in the hope that the enemy would thus be drawn on, and that a regular battle would ensue. ”

“ Antony was sufficiently in control of the situation at home to begin a new campaign against the Parthians. [81] He had sent Publius Ventidius Bassus in advance into Asia in 40 b.c., [82] and this officer surprised Labienus with only a small body of local troops, for his Parthian allies were not present at that time. Labienus, unable to offer battle, was forced into Syria, where he was evidently cornered. Both the Romans and the troops of Labienus awaited reinforcements; for the former these were heavy-armed men, for the latter the Parthians. ”

“ When Alexander invaded Persia, the Parthians submitted to his authority, like other cities of Asia. After his death, they fell successively under the power of Eumenes, Antigonus, Seleucus Nicanor, and Antiochus. At length, in consequence of the rapacity of Antiochus’s lieutenant, whose name was Agathocles, Arsaces, a man of great military powers, raised a revolt, and subsequently founded the Parthian empire, about two hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. ”

“ The Parthians, who had ruled over Persia for nearly four hundred years,’ had preferred country to city life, tents to buildings, and had not themselves erected a single edifice of any pretension during the entire period of their dominion. ”

“ The victory gained by Tiridates over Callinicus put an end to these doubts. It proved to the world at large, and also to the Parthians themselves, that they had nothing to fear—that they were strong enough to preserve their freedom. Considering the enormous disproportion between the military strength and resources of the narrow Parthian State and the vast Syrian Empire—considering that the one comprised about fifty thousand and the other above a million of square miles; that the one had inherited the wealth of ages and the other was probably as poor as any province in Asia ”

“ The Parthians found it politic to assimilate their supremacy to that of the Greeks whom they had displaced; and thus to attract to themselves the influence which had so recently been predominant throughout Iran. They, therefore, distinguished themselves by the epithet of "Philhellen," and continued to impress their coins in Greek characters with that affix, even after the Romans had become most potent in the East. By degrees, however, the memory of the Greek dominion faded, and before the middle of the second Christian century orientalism was completely re-established. ”

“ XXVIII. Though the Parthians during the night discovered that the Romans were making their escape, they did not pursue, but at daybreak they came upon those who were left in the camp, to the number of four thousand, and massacred them; and they rode about the plain and overtook many who were there rambling about. Four complete cohorts, while it was still dark, under the command of Varguntinus the legate, got separated from the rest [Pg 80] and lost their way, and, being surrounded by the Parthians on an eminence, they fought till they were all killed, with the exception of twenty men. ”

“ In addition to mere numbers, the Parthians possessed the compound bow and complete scale armor for man and horse, arms of offense and defense against which the Roman legions had never before been matched. ”

“ Varguntinus, the lieutenant, while it was yet dark, had broken off from the main body with four cohorts which had strayed out of the way; and the Parthians, encompassing these on a small hill, slew every man of them excepting twenty, who with their drawn swords forced their way through the thickest, and they admiring their courage, opened their ranks to the right and left, and let them pass without molestation to Carrhae. ”

“ Scale armor was first developed in Iran and spread rapidly eastward into China and more slowly westward through Parthia to the later Roman army. [53] In direct contrast to the Parthians were the Romans, armored foot soldiers, equipped for close fighting, each man protected by a shield and by a javelin (pilum) which he hurled before closing in with his short sword. In cavalry the army was weak, for the Romans as yet depended on their allies to supply this branch of the service; the lesson taught at Carrhae eventually caused the expansion of the Roman mounted forces. ”

“ For Surena had hid his main force behind the first ranks, and ordered them to hide the glittering of their armor with coats and skins. But when they approached and the general gave the signal, immediately all the field rung with a hideous noise and terrible clamor. For the Parthians do not encourage themselves to war with cornets and trumpets, but with a kind of kettle-drum, which they strike all at once in various quarters. ”

“ And after cutting off his ears, that he might be disqualified for the priesthood, he gave him to the Parthians to lead into captivity; for he scrupled to put him to death, as he was a relation of his own. ”

“ It is curious to note the identity between the tactics of the Parthians and those of the hordes of Chingiz and Tīmūr. The usual charge of bad faith is brought by the Romans against their terrible enemies. ”

“ At that time some of his victorious army, seeing that the subdued provinces were rich and fruitful, deserted their companies and of their own accord remained in various parts of Asia.
From their name or race Pompeius Trogus says the 48 stock of the Parthians had its origin. Hence even to-day in the Scythian tongue they are called Parthi, that is, Deserters. And in consequence of their descent they are archers—almost alone among all the nations of Asia—and are very valiant warriors. ”

“ Moreover, the Parthians were, probably, better able than their adversaries to endure the hardships and severities of a campaign in the cold season. Parthia is a cold country, and the winters, both of the great plateau of Iran and of all the mountain tracts adjoining it, are severe. The climate of Syria is far milder. Moreover, the troops of Antiochus had, we are informed, been enervated by an excessive indulgence on the part of their leader during the marches and halts of the preceding summer. ”

“ The rule of the Parthians.When the Romans in the last age of the republic came into immediate contact with Iran as a consequence of the occupation of Syria, they found in existence the Persian empire regenerated by the Parthians. ”

“ Much in the manners and arrangements of the Parthians is alien from Iranian habits, and reminds us of the customs of nomadic life; they transact business and eat on horseback, and the free man never goes on foot. It cannot well be doubted that the Parthians, whose name alone of all the tribes of this region is not named in the sacred books of the Persians, stand aloof from Iran proper, in which the Achaemenids and the Magians are at home. ”

“ Under succeeding kings, especially under the sixth of the line, Mithridates I. (not to be confused with the Mithridatic dynasty in Pontus) , the kingdom of Parthia was swollen by conquest to a great empire, covering almost the whole territory of the earlier Persian empire, excepting in Asia Minor and Syria. On the rise of the Roman power, the Parthians successfully disputed with it the domination of the east, in several wars (see ROME: B. C. 57-52) , none of which were advantageous to the Romans, until the time of Trajan. G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy: Parthia. ”

“ Parthian (Pehlevi is the modern form of Parthawa) and the magnates themselves Pehlevans, i.e. “Parthians,” a term transferred by Firdousi to the heroes of the old Iranian legend. But the Arsacid kingdom never was a truly national state; with the Scythian and Parthian elements were united some elements of Greek civilization. The successors of Arsaces I. even founded some Greek towns, and when they had conquered Babylonia and Mesopotamia they all adopted the epithet “Philhellen.”
To Arsaces I. probably belong the earliest Parthian coins; the oldest simply bear the name Arsaces ”