PART I. – A people of the Iranian group, dwelling between the Caspian Sea and the central Persian desert (northern part of present-day Khurasan): the Parthava of Darius’ inscriptions, the Iāpāvāto of the Greeks. They enter
into history in the 3rd century B.C., emerging from the ruins of the great empire of Alexander, which succeeded the Persian. The Parthians were at least partially identified with the Persians (v.), and Roman writers of the Empire considered them as such. The first was Arsaces, who, after killing (248–247 B.C.) the satrap Andragoras, representative of the Seleucids of Syria, founded the Parthian Kingdom, beginning the Arsacid dynasty which governed its fortunes until A.D. 224.
Repeated attempts by the Seleucids to subjugate the young Kingdom, or at least to curb its westward expansion (already Seleucus II in 238 B.C.), were in vain, especially under Mithridates, brother and successor of Phraates I, who in his long reign (174–136 B.C.) conquered Media, Elymais, Persia, Babylonia, and also Adiabene (Assyria), and in 142 was proclaimed King of Kings, an ancient title of the Persian emperors. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (164 B.C.) died on a campaign against the Parthians; in another campaign, Demetrius II (140 B.C.) was defeated and taken prisoner. Antiochus VII in 130 B.C. attacked Phraates II, son and successor of Mithridates, to free his brother Demetrius and drive the Parthians from the eastern provinces of the Kingdom; after initial successes and the liberation of Demetrius, in 129, while he was wintering at Ecbatana and his troops were somewhat dispersed, he was defeated by the Parthians and killed in that campaign. Antiochus had the aid of a Jewish contingent, commanded by John Hyrcanus himself, who soon after returned to Jerusalem. During the fratricidal war between Antiochus VIII and Antiochus IX (111–95 B.C.), the Parthians pushed toward the Mediterranean. Under Phraates II (64–57 B.C.) they came into contact with Roman arms, against which they always boldly stood their ground, led by able generals who bore the title of Surena. Under Orodes II (56–37 B.C.), son of the former, the Parthians inflicted upon the Romans, under Crassus, proconsul of Syria who lost his life there, the severe defeat of Carrhae (53 B.C.), capturing the standards and numerous prisoners; at that time they dominated all Mesopotamia and transferred their capital to Ctesiphon. In 50 B.C., the Surena being suppressed through the king’s jealousy and the prince Pacorus slain in battle, the Parthians retreated to the Euphrates. Soon, however, during the civil wars that shook Rome, the Parthians advanced menacingly; an army led by Q. Labienus invaded Asia Minor, another under the command of the king’s eldest son, Pacorus, and the satrap Bazzafranes, swept through Syria-Palestine (40 B.C.), while Antony abandoned his legions to follow Cleopatra to Egypt. The Parthians, masters of Galilee, were used by Antigonus (v.), the last of the Hasmoneans, to dethrone Hyrcanus, who remained for some time a prisoner of the Parthians in Babylonia, while Orodus fled and obtained the kingdom and the high priesthood (40–37 B.C.). But in 39 B.C., Publius Ventidius repulsed the Parthians into the gorges of the Taurus and drove them from Syria, defeating them definitively in September 38 B.C. Orodus, with the help of the Romans, was thus able (37 B.C.) to secure the kingdom granted him in 40 by Antony and Octavian. The campaign of Antony against the Parthians (36 B.C.) having ended almost before it began, a period of peace ensued. Phraates IV, successor of Orodus, sent to Augustus (20 B.C.) the Roman standards captured from Crassus, restored the prisoners, and had his own sons educated in Rome. With Artabanus III (A.D. 10–40) hostilities resumed, on account of Armenia. Tiberius sent Germanicus to support his protégé Zenon against the Parthians. Later, Vologaeses I placed his brother Tiridates on the Armenian throne, and the latter refused to seek investiture from Rome. Nero sent Domitius Corbulo (A.D. 59), who defeated Tiridates and occupied all Armenia; but Vologaeses I attacked and defeated the Romans, leaving them under the command of Caesennius Paetus. Only the return of Corbulo (A.D. 62) enabled the Romans to impose honorable terms (A.D. 63).
Thus in A.D. 66 Tiridates, with his sons and accompanied by 3,000 horsemen, went to Rome, where from Nero, with solemn pomp in the Forum, he received the investiture of the Kingdom of Armenia. The journey was not made by sea, because as Zoroastrians (Magi) they were hindered by religious scruples (Tacitus, Ann., 15, 29; Pliny, Nat. hist., 30, 2, 16; Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom., 63, 5). The investiture marked the beginning of a Parthian dynasty in Armenia, which lasted 362 years. It is incomprehensible how it could be suggested (E. Klostermann, E. Herzfeld) that the account of the said journey, with the investiture ceremony, inspired the Gospel narrative of the coming of the Magi to Bethlehem. Apart from chronological difficulties, there is not a single element that could support or explain such an influence (G. Messina, I Magi a Betlemme, Rome 1933, pp. 6 ff.).
Art. 2, 9 speaks of a Jewish diaspora in the homeland; one may think of the presence of converts to Christianity returning from the extraordinary Pentecost they had witnessed. Famous are the campaigns against the Parthians (114–116) of the emperor Trajan (the Patrician); while he was at Ctesiphon, the Jewish revolt in Mesopotamia broke out, energetically suppressed by L. Quietus. But even Trajan was forced to retreat and died in Cilicia. The campaigns of Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus met with the same outcome; the latter sacked Ctesiphon in A.D. 199. During these wars the Parthians, for political reasons, welcomed many Christians who were fleeing from the Empire because of persecutions. The opposite would occur after the juridical recognition of the Church by Constantine: the Sassanid dynasty, dominated by the Magi, would ferociously persecute the Christians.
The last splendor of the Arsacid dynasty came with Artabanus V; Caracalla, while marching against him, was killed at Edessa (A.D. 214) and the army, led by Macrinus, was twice defeated and forced to make peace. The rebellion of Ardashir (A.D. 224), a Persian who occupied Ctesiphon, began the new Persian dynasty called Sassanid, from Sasan, Ardashir’s grandfather.