Parthian Empire
An Iranian empire under the Arsacid dynasty (c. 247 BCE–224 CE) that expelled the Seleucids and was Rome's principal rival in the east for centuries.
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- Period
- c. 247 BCE – 224 CE
- Founder
- Arsaces I
- Capital
- Ctesiphon
- Notable battle
- Carrhae (53 BCE) vs. Rome
Detail
The Parthian (Arsacid) Empire was founded by Arsaces I, leader of the Parni tribe of the Scythian Dahae confederation, in the mid-third century BCE (c. 247 BCE) with a revolt in the satrapy of Parthia against the Seleucids. The Arsacids gradually took the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia, becoming one of the two superpowers of antiquity opposite Rome—a rivalry symbolized by the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE, where the Parthian general Surena crushed the Roman Crassus. Their political structure was semi-feudal and decentralized, with powerful great Parthian noble houses; heavy cavalry (cataphracts) and mounted archers were their signature in war. Ctesiphon was the principal capital, and Iranian culture revived alongside Hellenistic elements. Weakened by internal strife and grinding wars with Rome, the dynasty fell in 224 CE when Ardashir I of the Sasanian house defeated the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V.
Related entities
Also appears in
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica, "Arsacids"
- Josef Wiesehöfer, Ancient Persia
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(1)