Iranian Parthian Empire 247BC -224AD ( امپراتوری اشکانیان) RISE AND FALL - Full History

[Music] the parthian empire viewed itself as the successor to the achaemenid empire the empire's foundation was carved out by an iranian warrior nomad and his tribe and it would last almost 500 years they would rise to become the perfect foil for rome's eastern ambitions as the wars they fought prevented each from expanding in the other's direction this is the rise of parthia [Music] a clouded dream on an earthly night hangs upon the crescent moon a voiceless song in an ageless light and then it draws me far away where deep in the desert twilight sand melts in pools of the sky when darkness lays down her crimson cloak your lamps will call me home [Music] it has been 80 years since alexander's forces swept through the achaemenid empire and gave chase to darius iii he had initially sought to avoid direct contact with the macedonian greeks and when he did finally stand his ground to confront them they would crush his resolve and send him fleeing from the battlefield alexander would again give chase and at gagamella darius would make what was to be his last stand there on the brown flat fields of what is now herbal iraq he felt he could present a final and victorious strategy as before though alexander would not only defeat the persians he would route them from the field completely leading the flight was darius and his inner circle however this time those who surrounded him would not remain loyal they chose instead to follow their own selfish agendas two of these besses and the barzanis would assassinate darius and throw his body into a common ox cart the barzanis would surrender himself to alexander but bessus who now took to proclaiming himself as artaxerxes v would be captured and then promptly executed by alexander darius meanwhile would be afforded a king's burial in the city of persepolis alexander's greek empire would go on to annex the remaining territory in persia before he and his men headed to india and then his own death just a few years later alexander's greek empire would stretch even further west and east than the achaemenid however it would be a short-lived empire whose death throes would follow not long after alexander's own death he left no recognized heir for succession and instead his former friends and generals would fight a series of battles in what was known as the wars of the deodoki a conflict that started the year after alexander's death and would continue on for roughly 40 bloody years what was once the vast but short-lived greek empire would be splintered into multiple possessions and ruled by many of these same men despite having married into iranian families the majority of iranian peoples in the lands of the seleucid empire viewed the seleucids simply as foreign occupiers however these ancient lands would give rise again to another iranian empire one that would in time strike free the hellenistic shackles from outside of the dust storm kicked up by these deodoki battles a restless tribe of iranian nomadic peoples led by a warrior king would spring up to challenge the empire left by the greek invaders and once again an empire built by iranian people would rule over these ancient lands we start our series with the history of that tribe and its journey of conquest they would transition from nomadic tribesmen to a monarchy before taking the final step into empire building during the achaemenid empire the region was known as the satrapy of parthia after the fall of darius and the empire the region would be ruled by the seleucid kings they were a macedonian dynasty that ruled one of the larger fragments of alexander's empire the portion covering land from bactria and sogdia to the aegean coast of asia minor would be known initially as the kingdom of seleucus nikita and was founded by its namesake he was one of the deodoki and while the seleucid empire as it came to be known would entwine itself with the cultures of the iranian peoples through conquest marriage and heredity it was an empire founded by the hellenistic conqueror alexander and then held on to by these deodoki after his death parthia benefited from two natural barriers to its north the mighty karakum desert which occupied about 70 percent of what we now know as the modern nation of turkmenistan and the copet dag mountain range to its northwest hircania to the west media to its east margiana and finally to its south aria which centered on the present-day city of herat in 245 bce the seleucus atrophy of parthia under the rule of its sat trap androgorus would take up arms against the young seleucid king seleucus the second kalinicus he had just been seated on the seleucud throne during the confusion of this uprising the aforementioned tribe called the parney would sweep in from their mountain valley homeland in time their homeland of the fergana valley and its surroundings would see the rise of another future warrior king babour but that is a story told elsewhere on the channel the parni were led by their king archuses and were the last remaining tribe of what had been a confederacy known as the dahe confederacy the other two tribes the zanthi and passouri have few remaining sources and were all but dissolved by the time of king archisees our seas took full advantage of the uprising against the salukis to further his own expansion ambitions and in 238 bc he swept into parthia at the head of the parney and overthrew andra goris the seleucus satrip killing him in the process that same year he would be crowned in a sock and he would make hecatompulus his capital the pani practiced a form of iranian polytheism and would over the next decade and century adopt another northwestern iranian language parthian as their own just as they would begin to refer to themselves as parthians in time their polytheism would also give way to zoroastrianism and its influence would be evident even in the names of arcessie's successors however after his crowning he would institute other changes that would further separate his now kingdom from the hellenistic salukis one of the first of these was noted on the first coins that he would issue they showed him visually dressed in akameenid garb as opposed to the coins of the seleucids and referred to him with the achaemenid title held by its supreme generals administratively arsocies would lay the foundation of government in a manner very reminiscent of the achievements he would also continue to expand his territory which at this time was still a kingdom and not the empire it would one day become next for him was to conquer hercanya in 235 bce in 231 the salukis who had recovered administratively after the unrest from a few years earlier attempted to regain control during the reign of seleucus ii his ambition to restore both hercania and parthia under seleucid dominance but unrest back in asia minor to the west stayed his hand and he elected instead to go there by 228 bce the bactrian ruler dioditus had conquered the homelands of the parney and expelled them from the bactrian territory arsyse gathered his forces and he moved to confront dioditus however as he was moving towards him he received word of the seleucids under seleucus ii moving towards his territory to avoid fighting a war on two fronts arsocies concluded a hastily arranged peace treaty with diodus he was also unable to stop the seleucid momentum and would end up having to flee he left parthia seeking refuge with the nomadic tribes to the north the seleucid conquest though would turn out to be short-lived as pressures again in the western seleucid territories would force seleucus to leave parthia it's been surmised that arcesses fled perhaps as part of a strategy knowing the seleucus would not have the resources to track him given their other territorial challenges arsys would sweep back into parthia and reclaim his territories and even some additional territory to the south during his last years arsys spent great effort to fortify the towns in his kingdom and he structured a governmental system as well as levying soldiers and building defensive strategically placed fortresses throughout his territories he would also found yet another town nisa which is located in what is now a small town in turkmenistan arseses would also see coins minted that provide much of the present ruling line information we have about the parthians as mentioned previously his coins purposely featured achaemenid type aesthetics which were an effort to separate his kingdom from the foreign seleucids nissa would also be the location of his mint where the coins would be made in both silver and bronze archisees would rule until 217 bce when he would die and be succeeded by his son arseses the second arsocy's legacy however would carry on long after his death the parthians lit a permanently lit fire in his honor in the city of a sock that he had founded the fire would stay lit for more than two centuries and his name would have appended to it the honorific of father of the nation which subsequent parthian rulers would continue to use arses's son would also continue to rule the parthian territory his father had conquered until 209 bce when the ambitious seleucid king antiochus iii known as the great would recapture parthia arcesis ii would meet antiochus in battle after antiochus who would already capture the parthian capital at hekatompulus moved to tagay they would meet at mount labis where archisis was defeated and forced to accept a peace settlement the terms would be that arseses would have to accept feudatory status and his kingdom would become a vassal state of the seleucids who would then move their troops back west it would be a while before the seleucids and parthians would again meet in battle as rome the young republic was beginning to exert pressure on its neighbors including the seleucus western borders arsocies would reign until 191 bce before dying and would be succeeded by a relative named priapatius he would have three sons who would all rule and considerably expand the parthian empire now these ashes have grown cold we open the old book these tattered pages recount the tales of the fallen of empires long gone and words without warmth let us together breathe deep the scent of history listen then to these words carried on that breath the tails are the tails of us all again yet again we are history relived and that is all without end and that is all during the chaos fueled by internal uprisings in the seleucid empire an iranian tribe of nomads the parney and their king archuses swept into parthia and killed it satrap andragorus when arsa ii died in 191 bce the leadership transferred to priapatius there is speculation that he who was the arched king between 191 and 176 was the son of arsessies ii however there was no real evidence to support this we do know based on coins struck during the period that priapatius took over leadership of the region of parthia and that they were still under seleucid influence during that time with his death his son frahatis took over leadership of parthia he wasted little time in raising an army and invading territory south of the caspian sea the mountainous area home to an iranian tribal people known as the emardians and while they had little in terms of worldly possessions they knew well the ways of war the emmardians were part of the seleucid empire under its passive ruler seleucus iv philippa tour who sent no reinforcements or aid in any form he had been fighting wars along his western borders the omaridians though would put up fierce resistance and most scholars feel that he considered their subjugation by the parthians of little to no consequence the omarians put up valiant resistance and whether fighting from their towns and villages or from the forests and valleys of their mountainous homeland their tactics were more guerrilla than formal and what they lacked in modern weaponry they made up for with courage and tenacity in the end though they would prove no match for the parthians who would apply patience and persistence in equal measure to their superior numbers and weaponry next ferhati sought to annex additional lands adjacent to the region the core of his kingdom was experiencing a severe famine so the reasons for expansion were numerous he placed his sights firmly on media ragyana which was a long strip of land west of the caspian gates land traditionally assigned to media it was strategic not just for its geographical location but for its extremely fertile lands the numerous mountain valleys fed by a massive network of natural waterways including rivers creeks and lakes known as albors a name taken from sacred zoroastrian texts and meaning mountain rampart in ancient persian the width of the region was fairly narrow as it sat between the caspian sea and the great inner iranian deserts its length though was more formidable at over 200 kilometers for hotties however would not live to see the invasion take place he was aware that his end was imminent and he took measures to ensure the succession furthered the ambitions and plans he had laid out he also would break with custom as he did not make his eldest son nor any of the others his immediate successor choosing instead to have leadership passed to his brother mithridates he trusted his brother more than any of those same sons and even the coins he had minted referenced the bond that the brother shared theirs was a joint vision of the future of parthia and to them it was of the utmost importance they wanted to grow and strengthen the kingdom and both felt that media would be the next step in achieving that aim there are rare individuals born at just the right time and right place who have single-handedly changed history for the better or the worse it can be argued though that as far as parthia was concerned mithridates would change its course for the better he would be the first monarch in many generations that the persians in persis would again provide the name great his name in persian miura d'atta coming from the ancient iranian sun god mithra and it would mean literally given unto by mithra he had been involved in frahati's invasion of ammarian lands and had co-planned media as a future target but for now he set his sights on the greco-bactrians to his east he wanted to ensure that he did not follow the seleucid model of focusing on the west while the east was unstable and bubbling with revolt the greco-bactrians had been waging wars with their immediate neighbors the sagdians the drangions and the indians and their new ruler eucritis had usurped the throne less than honorably and as a result there was much opposition internally to his rule one such source of opposition came at the hands of the aryans who lived in and around the area of present-day herat in afghanistan it is believed that mithridates supported them either way we know that between 163 and 155 he invaded the greco-bactrian lands seizing arya margiana and the entire western portion of bactria he's believed to have made it a vassal state but kept eucritis as his vassal puppet his newly minted coins which portrayed an elephant on the backside was likely as a result of this victory in bactria after these victories mithridates could turn his attention back towards the west and media he adopted the strategy of acquiring first the lands where seleucid uprisings had taken place in either 148 or 147 he invaded media and captured the once important documented city of equitana next up was media atropatine which lay to the southwest of the caspian capturing these lands would ensure the entire southern shores of the caspian would be firmly under parthian control with media atropatine conquered in 141 he went on to seize babylonia the once large seleucid empire was being systematically annexed peace by bloody peace to add insult to injury he would hold his investiture ceremony in salukia which was the functioning capital and located on the west bank of the tigris river opposite tessaphon this region roughly corresponds to the area of present-day metro baghdad the ceremony featured a parade in which he had a statue of the mesopotamian god marduk holding hands with the high goddess ishtar mithridates also started part of the tradition of having multiple capitals and royal residences which would in the empire's later years help ensure rome's progress east had minimal effect at toppling parthian rule at least for much of the conflict between the two superpowers mithridates established royal residences there in salukia and the other newly captured cities of equitana and tessaphon as well as nisa where arsacid kings would be buried the seleucids were unable to retaliate as they were occupied elsewhere trying to stem incessant rebellion one of their generals dioditus trifan was leading an uprising in the capital antioch in 142 by 140 the seleucids were finally able to counter the parthians when mithra deities was forced to leave for the east as a group of iranian nomads not unlike what the parni were called the saka were attacking there the seleucids were now being led by demetrius ii nikita and while successful at capturing portions of mesopotamia the parthians would react swiftly and manage to capture demetrius himself mithridates however treated his captive well for appearance sake at least even marrying one of his daughters to him his plan was to incorporate the seleucid lands into the expanding parthian realm the vassal region of el mays had supported the salukis in the intervening chaos of the last years so mithridates reconquered the region capturing its two largest cities mithridates also ensured that the kings in paris were given extended autonomy while the specifics of the relationship were unknown to us we do know that their coins minted at the time show a connection and apartheian influence domestically mithridates spent resources on transforming the city of nisa as a religious ode to the arsacid family dynasty within his lifetime he managed to transform parthia from a small vassal kingdom into a major political power in the region upon his death his son frahatis ii would take the mantle of leadership he was just 15 upon his father's death and would adopt the title of great king instead of king of kings as a result the initial transition period saw his mother co-lead with him darian one was given kingship in paris in 130 bce the seleucids under antiochus vii attacked in the west in order to try again to recapture lost territories the seleucids however had been relegated to territory in and near present-day syria antiochus first attacked babylon but was repelled he tried again and failed but on the third attempt was successful he offered the parthians peace in the form of a heavy tributary payment and asked them to retreat back to their core lands fraudies however refused deeming the offer far too steep and unreasonable antiochus and his army had since their victory in babylon not been kind to the local population in fact they were abusive and demanded resources to feed and house soldiers their treatment was so poor that when frahati's attacked in the winter the local population rallied behind him and the parthians antiochus vii would either commit suicide or be killed in the battle this effectively ended salute could rule beyond the euphrates frahati's released demetrius ii nikita to serve as his vassal king over what was left of seleuca territory he would accompany the body of antiochus which frahatis had placed in a silver coffin and had allowed to have a royal burial frahatis had likely still wanted to physically invade what was left of seleuca territory but as was often the case with rulers of all sides in the region enemies were at the borders the nomadic saka and allies were again massing on the eastern borders having destroyed the greco-bactrian lands left in the east and they now threatened parthia in the required haste to confront those nomads frahatis was forced to take many of the same seleucid soldiers he had just captured as expected they refused to fight for him and he lost and would himself be killed in the battle the wheel of time turns for better or worse and it will keep on turning as lights die and forests give way to grasslands or deserts storms call and skies break turn it will the wheel of time is not hope it is not empathy the wheel of time simply is but so long as it turns people may hope people may care and as one empire's light fades another empire's light grows brighter and so the wheel of time turns when frahatis the second died fighting the nomadic saga on his eastern borders the crown would pass to his uncle his uncle artabinus was already in his late middle ages upon ascension his period on the throne from 127 to 124 123 would represent a period of decline for the parthians he would also be the last of the parthian nobility to rule at the crossroads between hellenistic influence and iranian customs making a comeback as with his predecessors his minted coins would show him to still wear the greek dye atom but maintain the iranian beard he would start his short reign fighting the very same nomadic tribes that his nephew had fought even agreeing to pay them tribute to force allah in the fighting while in the east hispausenese an iranian prince declared an independent kingdom in a region of southern mesopotamia he would call his kingdom charisin artabinus deemed the threat from the nomadic tribes as more important and he would continue to focus on them instead during a particularly brutal battle against the uezzi he would suffer a critical wound to his arm which could not be treated and he would die some short hours later his death would mark a turning point for his son mithridates ii would not only turn the tide back for parthian influence he would turn it into a superpower however the parthian lands that he inherited were still in decline and he faced the continuing onslaught of the tribes in the east in addition to the pressures of the various deodokey kingdoms still vying for influence in the west the last few parthian kings had been killed fighting the nomadic tribes so mithridates made a decision to start there and ensure that they pose no further threat during his reign his spousanese who had declared independence in his newly founded kingdom of charisin did not think his kingdom would survive wars against the parthians or the other regional powers he therefore quickly came to terms with mithridates he had seized babylon in 127 which he also turned over to mithridates with the understanding that the rest of the kingdom would continue under his rule and then the rule of his heirs he also returned the wooden throne of arsocies to mithridates as a gift to the god bell having secured this region of mesopotamia mithridates turned his attention towards elime which the parthians had lost when it was seized by an alamite king by the name of pitit upon artabinus's death mithridades had raised two large armies he kept one in the east to keep the advance of the nomadic tribes in check and the other he took with him to elie may he was able to overrun the territory and capture susa pitted though had fled with what remaining troops he had to the far ends of his lands with mithridates in hot pursuit he forced his enemies troops yet further into a narrowing valley in the region unable to retreat further pittet and his troops hoped to have time to prepare adequately for the parthian assault they knew would be coming however the parthians were beginning to employ the tactics that would serve them so well later against what would become their main foe the roman republic from lands far beyond their western borders the tactic to strike fast and hard with a charging archer cavalry unit and then retreat while simultaneously continuing to assault the pursuers with arrows and then repeat this in subsequent waves the tactic could be employed during all stages of battle even when driven to almost defeat this tactic could and often did turn the tide and deliver the parthians victory this battle against pittid's troops however would not require multiple waves their first assault proved the decisive one as it sowed chaos among the defenders who were quickly routed but had nowhere to retreat there was no time even to surrender as the parthians had already begun to overrun them entirely few would survive mithridates would then essentially unopposed return and re-annex ellie mae mithridades was much more than just a good military commander he had considerable strategic insight at the level required to run an empire aware of the strategic position of the lands of armenia which lay between asia minor the caucasus and the iranian core homelands he again began to use the argumented title of king of kings and he struck coins that would now fully represent himself as a non-hellenistic ruler with a bit of creative historical fiction they would begin the myth creation linking their line with that of the achaemenids and in 120 bce mithridates would invade armenia although the armenians under their king art of assidis would recognize parthian suzerainty mithridates accepted under the condition he would receive a hostage in return the historical records while not completely clear point to the hostage as likely having been to grannies and he was either the king's son or his nephew little did mithridates know at the time how pivotal armenia would prove for the empire it would transfer hands in and out of parthian control many times during the later years of the empire while we don't have definitive evidence there's speculation and some coin evidence that other kingdoms in the caucasus region such as iberia would become vassal states as well if not it's still evident that the parthians wielded considerable influence in the region documents from babylonian archaeological sites speak of multiple raids by arabian tribes during this period in 119 bce a significantly sized group of parthians inflicted a crushing defeat on those very tribes after this victory they left for media where they masked with the rest of the parthians regional troops mithridates next captured the seleucid city of dura europas on the euphrates the salukis had been pushed to the brink by almost every political entity in the region not to mention the recently arrived roman republic and they were now but a half century or so from becoming a mere footnote in history next for mithridates a series of conflicts in the east to stem the tide of incessant nomadic incursions but also partially out of revenge for his ancestors had been affected by these two tribes with two artabinis and frahatis dying directly at their hands he would start in the northern reaches adjacent to the parthian core homelands his army much larger than those sent east in the past and it would benefit from tactics mithridates and his generals had further refined the tokarians would not only be defeated but the remnants of their presence would be pushed back beyond the borders mithridates then turned his forces towards western bactria which had recently been overrun by the scythians they crushed all opposition and as with the northern reaches were successful in pushing all adversaries over what would be an expanded eastern border for the parthians mithridates understood that they would require open trade access along the east in order to sustain what was now clearly becoming a parthian empire the saka had been driven into drangiana likely by the pressure mithridis and his forces had exacted further up north drangiana which also went by the old persian name of zraca meaning waterland in roughly 120 mithriday sent his general from the house of surin it would become a tradition that the head of the house of surin would crown the parthian king as they had first done so in the 3rd century bce after successfully capturing the region the house of surin was given those lands as their own fiefdom the parthian empire now stretched east as far as the lands of modern day southern afghanistan and with the east secured mithridates would turn his full attention back towards the western borders beyond these new borders even farther east however the emperor wu of the han dynasty in china had also been expanding they like mithridates and the parthians had been dealing with nomadic tribes and their pursuit of them had brought them close to parthian territory in fact they had gone as far west for them as the fergana homeland valley of the parthians a delegation would go on to meet with parthian leadership and this would lead to the formation of the silk road a trade route that would connect east and west for almost 2 000 years unknown to him a tempest however in the west was stirring the roman republic had been expanding outside of its homeland initially it was land on the greek peninsula then it dealt with an age-old foe the carthaginians in north africa and what is now spain the roman republic's advance would only accelerate after a series of military reforms called the marian reforms which were implemented in 107. these reforms would substantially increase the catchment zone of the republic military recruitment those who had formerly been excluded due to a variety of reasons like not being roman land owners would now be allowed in the military in fact it would become one of the most viable forms of societal advancement for those born outside of wealth connections and privilege the romans would now have a professional standing army mithridates still held hostage the armenian to grannies in 96 or 95 he released him and had him appointed as king of armenia in return the parthians were seated territory to the west and southwest of the caspian mithrades also had tagranis marry one of his daughters to help ensure future ties between the two that same year mithridates had sent aurobizus one of his officials an envoy to negotiate with the romans and reach an agreement that would ensure mutual respect between the two powers the outcome of these negotiations would be the spark for a centuries-long conflict one that could be seen to have been initiated if not certainly antagonized by the romans salah the roman general who headed the roman portion of the talks gained the upper hand and made the parthians out to be pleading sniveling and begging for recognition which was not the case aurobisus would come home empty-handed with the parthians appearing weak and conniving he would be executed but the damage done through his lack of experience in dealing with someone like sulla well that had already been inflicted on the eve of mithridates death the parthians would control almost all territory east of the euphrates the parthians had culturally continued to identify less and less with the hellenistic forms of culture and more and more with the eukhemid forms they saw themselves as heir and guardians of that heritage and that would only continue zoroastrianism would also once again rise to prominence displacing the parthians own deities slowly at first but steadily until it would become the empire's main religion mithridates own legacy would be a strong unified parthian empire he would not live to see the epic battles that would be waged with the roman republic and then empire or the continued dominance in the region by the sasanians who would replace the parthians in a few hundred years time i turn to right and left in all the earth i see no sign of justice sense or worth a man does evil deeds and all his days are filled with luck and universal praise another is good in all he does he dies a wretched broken man whom all despise gotarsis meaning ox crusher and old iranian was labeled as the son and heir of mithridates the great in the babylonian astronomical diaries a relief at beijin referred to his position under his father as satrap of sad traps when mithridates died gotarzis would be proclaimed king in babylon he quickly appointed mitratu as general in the city the parthians would continue to work their political ambitions through their vassal states and armenia would be no exception its king tegranis the great who mithradedes had installed had imperial ambitions beyond being a mere puppet for the parthians and he resolved to bide his time when mithridates died the parthians had been weakened by years of scythian invasions and internal bickering he felt the time was right to initiate the process of expansion through plans he had spent years refining outwardly he would continue to feign subservience to guitarsies for political stability on his northern borders he married the daughter of mithridates vi of pontus named cleopatra the elder but when he had finalized his war plans in 87 or 86 he reacted swiftly and assuredly and recaptured the 70 valleys of armenia that he'd given up just four years earlier laying waste to the parthian lands adjoining the region in the process the former territories of azerowin nisibis gordien atropatine and adiabean all fell to the armenian war machine under tegranes the great the armenian kingdom would connect to both the caspian and mediterranean seas only his alliance to pontus through the marriage of the daughter kept armenia from touching the black sea as well however tegranis would take one flawed misstep his father-in-law mithriday vi who ruled pontus would enter into a war with the romans known as the third mithridatic war the war was a legacy of the first and second mithridatic wars during which mithridates slaughtered 80 000 roman and italian civilians in what is now known as the asian vespers however this was in response to bithynia launching frequent and deadly raids into pontus with the assistance of roman mercenaries to grannies would object via diplomatic channels but his pleas fell on deaf ears in response he decided to take justice into his own hands the roman republic's response was predictable lucius lusulus entered pontus with five legions numbering roughly thirty thousand roman infantry and two thousand or so cavalry mithridates general had lost a naval engagement to the romans and an assassination attempt on lucellus had also failed mithridates next decided that if he could disrupt the roman supply line he could then engage the legions on dictated terms of his choosing the romans staved off the attack and seeing an opportunity in a narrow valley gave chase the resulting conflict now known as the battle of kabira mithridates seeing defeat was inevitable began to prepare to flee which caused the complete and utter collapse of his army mithridates himself managed to escape but the soldiers he left behind were killed to the last man he felt his only option now was to enter armenia under the protection of tegranis his son-in-law tagranis as expected refused to hand him over to the romans lusalus therefore marched towards the armenian kingdom's new unfinished capital of tigrano certa in 69 sources site armenia's force at over 200 000 men which was likely inflated but there was a definitive numeric advantage for the armenians to grannies likely felt confident as he approached the unfinished city los alas knowing his disadvantage did not want to be besieged with his troops and took half of his roughly twelve thousand men leaving the rest to defend the city in a surprising turn of events lusulus would be the victor despite the odds against him and tagranis would flee to the old capital of ardazada lusales remained in pursuit though and again would defeat tegranis before he could complete his victory in its entirety he was recalled by the senate and tagranis would surrender becoming this time an ally of rome the condition being he had to give up the territory that he'd recently acquired to which he having no real choice complied with gotarzis meanwhile would begin his reign as great king rather than the honorific king of kings that his father had reinstated upon his death evidence is not clear on who next sat on the throne but there are competing hypotheses by adbce we do know that orades would ascend to the parthian throne the period of time when oredes the son of guitarsies ascended is viewed by many as the parthian dark ages evidence for this period is scarce and doesn't really pick up until the reign of orodes ii in 57. even this transition though is a bit murky we know that orades along with his brother mithridates iv had murdered frahatis iii orades would originally support his brother but the brothers would quickly fall out with each other oradeas with the assistance of the house of surin revolted against his brother's rule both would simultaneously claim the title of king of kings but true to the adage of there can be only one things would not end well oredes initially had his brother on the run with mithridates fleeing to roman-held syria specifically under the protection of roman pro-consul and governor of syria owless gabbinius with this support mithridates would return and invade parthia alice even marched with him as far as the euphrates before turning back to take care of trouble in egypt even without roman's support he was able to conquer babylonia and oust his brother and take back the throne for about a brief period of time in early 54. he'd begin minting coins out of salukia but later that year he would be besieged by oredes general from the house of surin surana he and his forces were initially able to hold out but eventually were defeated and then executed by his brother as was the right of the suran clan they would crown orades king of kings it was during this time that the roman republic was weaving its own political machinations having dispatched their immediate foes the carthaginians many decades earlier they had begun to work their way through greek territory in just another 10 years the former deodoki lands of the seleucids would cease to exist entirely as would others like cappadocia and galatia far from being the at times belligerent upstart in the west the romans were now beginning to sow the respect they had so long craved not necessarily a respect born out of cooperation rather one with fear and uncertainty at its foundation leading the republic were three men in an arrangement of power called the first triumvirate they were julius caesar pompey and marcus lucinius crassus it's often made out that crassus was a roman aristocrat who had inherited his wealth and that he lacked military experience this was not the case to the contrary crassus's wealth was earned through clever and often unscrupulous business practices but they were his his military experience on the other hand simply overshadowed by the far more grandiose accomplishments of the other two he'd also generally not been the prime strategists of previous campaigns he'd participated in crassus had fought with and led men from his early twenties he commanded the right flank of sula's army during the first civil war and spent much time chasing spartacus before finally defeating him where caesar and pompey also succeeded above crassus was with regards to their public relations and personas among the three crassus had no equal in business but was woefully inept at generating positive publicity for himself also at the age of now 60 he was growing increasingly desperate knowing full well that the sands of time for him were running low in 56 the three met in crassus would co-consul with pompey pompey would receive hispania and crassus syria the term five years had crassus simply kept to this arrangement the end results may have been different however crass's desire to match the military victories of caesar and pompey were now almost all consuming he felt that the parthian empire that lay adjacent to his province of syria would provide him with the recognition he needed nay required the riches they were said to be in possession of would merely be a convenient side benefit he'd been in communication with the king of armenia artemis ii who'd offered him forty thousand troops consisting of ten thousand cataphracts and thirty thousand infantrymen with only one condition being the use of armenian territory to better supply the army and get them there safely crassus though who has mentioned previously was experiencing an all-consuming desire to receive sole military honors refused choosing instead the more direct route through the euphrates osroin a kingdom ruled by a chieftain named aryamnis laid directly to syria's north aryamnis had previously assisted pompey and crassus trusted him at his word so when our imnes urged crassus to not delay and attack at once and directly as the parthians were currently in a much weakened state he listened aryamnes urging sent crassus directly into the most desolate and inhospitable part of the desert at almost the same time he received word from the armenian king artavassis that the parthian army was currently in armenia and required his assistance crassus now drunk on the possibility of adding a massive region to the republic ignored him and continued on his march meanwhile oredes now aware of armenia's treachery divided his army he had serena track and harassed crassus in the dry lands the objective to disrupt crassus's supply chain of food water and equipment by cutting him off from the existing sources that trailed him and then directing him to areas where it could not easily be replenished surana would command a small number of just nine thousand parthian horse archers and a thousand cataphracts while siren was doing this orades would enter armenia and punish them before meeting up with serena's troops for what he felt might be a final encounter with the romans however orities did not anticipate the success that surin would have in the badlands they have plundered the world stripping naked the land in their hunger they are driven by greed if their enemy be rich by ambition if poor they ravage they slaughter they seize by false pretenses and all of this they hail as the construction of empire and when in their wake nothing remains but a desert they call it peace crassus was marching eastward into what we now call asia minor a region of what is now southern turkey along the way he looted towns temples and villages and as a result increasing his already vast personal wealth which estimates say in today's dollars could have been the equivalent of up to 20 billion his greed truly insatiable he had left behind seven thousand cavalry and one thousand infantry to garrison the larger of the towns he'd captured and then headed back to syria to winter and wait for his son publius who would arrive with gallic cavalry not counting the forces he had garrisoned his and his son's forces amounted to the following twenty-eight thousand infantry four thousand light infantry one thousand garlic cavalry three thousand roman cavalry and 6 000 arab cavalry the arab cavalry however would depart before the battle as crassus continued to wait near the end of winter parthian envoys inquired about rome's purpose and they demanded that crassus withdraw his troops and not re-enter parthian territory crassus countered with the somewhat false pretense of his stay being official and the envoys left likely already fully aware of his intentions given the sacking and looting he had done before the winter in part four crassus had turned down the armenian advice and offer for assistance and he marched eastward with surna the parthian general on his tail the parthian king orates the second who had defeated the armenians previously was making his way to ensure they did not join crassus and the plan was to then rejoin with general surana as crassus marched ever deeper fractures were already beginning to form even before the parthians made their first contact the gallic cavalry was not used to the hot weather and despite being mounted was already beginning to exhaust general surana was scouting and surveying his moves and was early on not noticed by the romans but eventually they realized his presence at first crassus had the legions and 48 cohorts in a long stretching typical marching line but eventually realizing his flanks would be vulnerable had them tighten into a massive square and he placed 5700 infantry on each side of this square everyone and everything else was placed into the hollow in the middle which included the cavalry light infantry baggage train and even the unarmed camp followers and assistants plutarch writes of crassus in that moment as being altogether frightened out of his senses unlike the celts and many other european tribes who used horns and wind instruments in battle the parthians according to plutarch the sound of the parthians on the battlefield confounded one's soul for the parthians do not incite themselves to battle with horns or trumpets but they have hollow drums of distended hide covered with bronze bells and on these they beat all at once in many quarters and the instruments give forth a low and dismal tone as the roman square formed the parthian drums of war began to beat slowly at first and then rising into an ominous wall of sound coming at the romans from all directions here in the parts dry land far from their wooded lands or rolling grasslands only openness openness that was still empty all around yet that sound the terrible sounds surana had a much smaller army as his original intention was to but harass and attempt to cut off crassus's supply line while waiting for his king to join him with him one thousand camel cataphracts parthian soldiers on camelback with long parthian spears that were much larger and had far deeper penetrating power than the roman ones he also had 9 000 horse archers in total a force of maybe one-third the size of that of crassus seeing an opportunity though spread out before him in a massive square he sent in the first waves of the attack to but probe the romans and test out his theory in the horse archers charged but not right to the roman heavy infantry making up that outer wall instead they turned and charged alongside the square walls in parallel and let loose their arrows in continuous volleys the arrows that passed the roman shields sank deep into the infantry fracturing armor and tearing their way through every covering alike hard or soft crassus ordered his light arm troops that had been witnessed to that initial carnage from within the hollow of the square to charge the charge lasted but seconds as volleys of arrows tore through those men in even more terrible ways running back towards the shelter of the inner square even more terrified and disheartened than when they had left they brought with them the poisonous seed of lowering morale which now began to ebb from the front line into the inner square crassus and his leadership likely may have thought they could ride out the arrows that somehow the supply was exhaustible and with that exhaustion reprieve from the onslaught still coming at them in waves taking dozens of men each time a charge of hooves thundered by almost as if predicting the question of arrow supply general surana allowed just enough camels to be visible to the romans and they were heaped with supplies of arrows the parthians still riding in waves now visibly seen by the romans to be reloading from these very supply camels what the romans were not yet aware of though was the ability that made the parthian archers so much more fearsome the ability to send volleys of arrows not just sideways or at a full frontal gallop charge but backwards as they rode away at top speed the romans would soon discover this and it would be a heavy price to pay for crassus in particular he was growing weary and now aware of the inexhaustible aero supply and he ordered his son publius to lead the gallic cavalry who were by now suffering heavily from the hot weather along with 300 more cavalry 500 foot archers and eight cohorts to charge the next wave of archers that came at them and so publicly is charged as the next wave attacked and turned back towards their supply train publius may have thought this was a turning point finally after inaction he was leading the charge however the parthians would unleash their ace weapon as they continued in feigned retreat they suddenly turned in their saddles and pulled back on their bowstrings till they were taught to cheek these were not the bowstrings of the europeans who still used animal sinew these were bowstrings made of plated horse hair often twisted with ox cut they were fastened to the parthian bow which was a piece of highly elastic wood tipped with metal and bent slightly upwards to better hold the string and deal additional carnage one can only surmise the horror publius and the men soon found themselves in as they were now quite a distance away from the square as the arrows once again tore into roman and now garlic flesh the parthians eased their gallop into a canter before stopping as the romans had begun to rout the parthians turned back launching more arrows at the romans as they quickly caught up with them and encircled them the gallic cavalry had shorter spears which were ineffective against the parthian cataphract armor the gallic cavalry though with their lighter armor was able to dismount and use a tactic they had heard and possibly some seen against caesar and galia by the germanic tribes they grabbed hold of the parthian spears and wrestled them off their steeds while other gauls used their spears to kill the parthian horses publius though had been shot by an arrow in his right hand and so when the opportunity presented they remounted and carried their leader off to a dune where they put up a shield wall he was persuaded by some men to escape but instead released all from his charge to flee and save their own lives he was then said to have reasoned that no death could scare him enough to retreat and had a fellow soldier kill him what was left of the garlic cavalry fought bravely to try and avenge publius's death cassius dio would write that though they accomplished nothing worthy of themselves because of the enemy's numbers and tactics and of the 5 500 romans 500 were captured by the parthians with one selected to take publius's head back on a pike to crassus general surana had inquired of the survivors about publishers family he and the other parthians finding it strange how crassus could be the father of such a warrior who displayed valor and nobility despite these they gave crassus the opportunity to grieve his son that evening it has been surmised this may also have been that they feared the romans had forces of cavalry or possibly archers on the way themselves in any event reinforcements so they opted to leave the romans for the night it was also not typical for them to fight at night far from being a reprieve for crassus and his troops this would turn out to be an even more decisive blow than the arrows had been he did have a brief moment of courage and he attempted to rally his men to avenge publius but night was soon upon them and in the darkness fearing renewed attacks they could not bury their dead and the sound of the wounded in agony must have been horrifying with no ability to treat them effectively during the early hours one roman commander by the name of ignatius thought of the 300 men under his charge above the folly of what crassus had committed them to and rode off with them undetected under the cover of darkness he would according to plutarch make it to carhei where he would tell the guards in the roman tongue to let their commander know that there had been a great battle between crassus and the parthians then without a word or name given he rode off with his men towards zougma and full escape although his reputation would be tarnished for desertion of his general crassus however would soon come to the same conclusion finally realizing staying was hopeless he left the wounded behind and also still under the cover of night made it safely to carhay but not without losing another four cohorts to the darkness the following morning the parthians realizing the romans had left slaughtered the remaining wounded romans and the four lost cohorts before arriving at carhay and feigning a conference to discuss terms crassus it has been stated may have been suffering from full ptsd at this point and chose instead to again attempt to flee under the cover of night with his army to armenia but would over the course of two nights become lost return to carhay leave again and become lost yet again he was also though being led by the traitor andromachus which essentially made the outcome delayed but inevitable he was however aided by the parthians tradition as mentioned previously of not fighting at night but again it would be but a temporary reprieve on that second night and lost in the marshes crassus and the romans took refuge on a hill his men chiding him the next day when the parthians asked for talks and he refused they were said to have told him he was willing to put their lives into battle with an enemy he lacked the courage to even speak to finally crassus relented and he walked down the hill who knows what was swirling in his head as he made that march down its slope images of the last few days peppered with that of his son as a child and then man while we don't know the exact terms discussed we know that crassus did not leave with his life and was dead one source says the parthians asked for a withdrawal and abandonment of all territory east of the euphrates crassus had so brashly crossed but that he feared ability to make that decision general surena approached the hill and he shouted to the remaining romans that while crassus had met with his just desserts the rest could come down without fear those romans who tried again to flee were cut to pieces but the ones who agreed were spared with his death the roman triumvirate disintegrated and soon pompey and caesar would be at odds but for the parthians it was a reprieve the loss would go down for the romans as among the worst with the likes of khanna and andrea nopel the future battles between the two powers were as between perfect foils the parthians were mobile and extremely defensive with many capitals but not familiar with siege weapon technology and therefore did not do that well with holding civilized fortified lands the romans meanwhile steadfastly stayed true to their ways of fighting rather than the adoption of parthian techniques that perhaps would have allowed them further pursuits and so like an endless game of rock paper scissors the two would never best each other completely but battle again they would on occasion they built for saurabh son of rostam a tomb like to a horse's hoof and rostam laid him therein in a chamber of gold perfumed with amber grease and he covered him with brigades of gold and when it was done the house of rostam grew like to a grave and its courts were filled with the voice of sorrow and no joy would enter into the heart of rostam and it was long before he held high his head in 53 bce crassus met his end and the parthians had secured their victory against multiple roman legions entering their territories unprovoked this victory allowed them to secure the lands directly east of the euphrates the general surana from the house of surin would die under mysterious circumstances some say it was murder by orati's owing to his great popularity among the people perhaps clues or the start of this rumor lay in the writings of plutarch he would describe him a century later as follows an extremely distinguished man in wealth birth and in the honor paid to him he ranked next after the king in courage and ability he was the foremost parthian of his time and in stature and personal beauty he had no equal he was also said by plutarch to have dressed in the fashion of the medes and his name would millennia later remain a popular male name in present-day iran the parthian military felt the sting of surana's death and the next few military campaigns would not go quite as expected in august of 51 oredes sent an expeditionary cavalry force across the euphrates and into syria as a show of force over the romans the force was headed by his favorite son pacorus and the parthian general officees cassius was now acting roman governor of syria and he was ready for them near antioch ambushing them and killing aussies in the process rome's loss of men and their standards at carhay struck the roman psyche hard revenge would not be an immediate response for in 44 julius caesar would be murdered plunging the supporters of caesar and those of pompey into a civil war called the liberators civil war this would see conflict rage across the republic and the regions buffering parthia would be no exception according to historian cassius dio brutus and caesar sent the roman general lebines who'd supported pompey to oredes another source festus says he fled either way we know he met with orades and it is said that his view of anthony's rule of the eastern provinces was tainted and that he persuaded orades to attack the romans while anthony was occupied in egypt stating that the parthians would as a result of the misrule view the parthians as liberators auradis agreed and he provided lebines with troops and his son pacorus as having leadership although some accounts say it was a joint leadership in 40 they left parthians separated each with an objective lebines invaded phoenicia and attacked apomaeja but was repulsed without taking the ancient city in phoenicia though many of the soldiers who had joined marc anthony had come from having served cassius and brutus the garrisons of those soldiers capitulated to lebinus he killed the commander antony had put in place and those troops who remained loyal to anthony as well this allowed him to go back and capture apomaeja whose townsfolk capitulated immediately meanwhile pacorus captured most of syria with the exception of tyr which remained loyal to anthony thanks to having been newly garrisoned by anthony's troops that had survived across the territories and fled there procorus with no fleet could not follow and instead moved on to judea he deposed here canis ii and installed his nephew who also happened to be a foe on the throne lebines had moved on to southern anatolia and he was able to win over the allegiance of several cities there however two of the cities murdered the garrisons that he'd had installed previously he also oddly took on the title of parthicus which translated to conqueror of the parthians despite laying siege to his own people and having sided with the very same parthians mark anthony had thus far not done too much leading far away in egypt there is speculation and multiple theories on why he was so slow to act when he did finally act it was to go to tyr but upon hearing of syria having been lost he left almost as quick as he came and he chose not to return and lead troops himself instead sending his lieutenant the skilled general publius ventidius basus who like anthony had also served under julius caesar he immediately left for anatolia and shocked lebinus with his landing on the shores lebinus in response fled to cilicia where picorus was to arrange to have parthian soldiers rendezvous and join his troops the coming battle would be known as the battle of the silicean gates they were a guarded structure in a pass through the taurus mountains that connected the low plains of cilicia to the higher anatolian plateau via a gorge that ran its entire length the gorge itself was narrow and the army wishing to use it would clearly need to be the victor ventidius was a brilliant strategist he was fully aware of the parthian cavalry archers via a fellow general saxa who had learned the hard way at an encounter with the parthians the previous year that to be victorious or stand a chance they would need to have the high ground therefore to nullify the parthian advantage of the cavalry archers ventidius placed his legions on the higher terrain of the mountain's slopes he also ensured he had enough range troops in the form of archers and slingers to accompany his heavy infantry the parthian general for napates was eager to attack before lebines's infantry could join him and he sent his cavalry archers up the hill immediately for a first attack they sent forth the volley of arrows but the romans up high on the slopes blocked these with their shields due to their height on the slope their javelins were more effective than they would have been out on an open level plane this allowed them to reach those first horse archers and even as they backed down at quite a range after a few volleys of these javelins in addition to arrows and slings then tidious commanded the infantry down to the hill where they met the enemy head on due to being lightly armored range combatants they were not able to withstand the close quarter combat from the heavily armored roman legionaries after considerable losses there was a route and the surviving parthians began to flee in mass numbers labinus attempted to flee as well but was quickly captured and promptly executed the rest of the survivors they fled to the amino's past to hold it and protect the syrian gates then tidious sent one of his officers a roman officer by the name of pompeous silo with cavalry to capture the gate upon arriving at the gate the parthian general fernapates attacked the roman officer and his cavalry and he was winning and could have possibly secured a victory but ventidius concerned about his officers chances brought the rest of the roman army in and turned the tide towards the romans the general pharnapitis was also killed leaving both commanders and many parthian troops dead pocorus heard of the defeats and made the decision to retreat and take with him all the troops from the region back across the euphrates pocorus desired to again venture into syria the following year in 38 then tidious aware that pacorus would likely return with fresh troops sent several men in response to sow disinformation implying that pecora should cross the euphrates at the usual point pocorus not trusting the convenience of all this disinformation being relayed to him instead chose to cross further downstream which was exactly what his foe ventidius was hoping faced no opposition and in response it's been speculated that he and his men felt the romans were cowardly for not preventing their crossing and that they proceeded towards the town of guindares and cerestica with a false sense of bravado ventidius like surana however would ensure previous lessons were built upon and he again arrayed his soldiers on the high ground of the slopes upon which the town sat pakorus immediately ordered the attack and the horse archers charged towards the romans uphill and in a repeat of their first encounter ventidius ordered the counter-attack first with ranged weapons and then with his heavy infantry which he sent thundering down the hill they crashed into the wall of the parthian archer cavalry who were again not suited to close quarter combat particularly not on a slope where they had to also balance upon their horses as wave after wave of horse archers charged up the hill the outcome was consistently the same it got so congested that when the will of the front line horse archers broke they fled downhill crashing into their own comrades the route was on ventidius next ordered the slingers and archers to rain volleys towards the parthian heavy cavalry that was stationed at the foot of the slopes he then ordered in his heavy infantry and they quickly surrounded the cavalry below the fighting raged and procorus must have tried to grasp how the situation had turned so quickly he had not been present at the first encounter and his general and the roman rebel had both died yet here was history repeating itself he was said to have fought bravely but was soon identified when but few parthians were left and the roman barrage was halted the identification was said to come via the fancier armor that he was wearing and he along with his bodyguards were slain some of the parthian cavalry was able to flee but ventidius anticipated this also he guessed correctly that they would attempt to flee the way they had come across the euphrates he had sent cavalry earlier to wait and engage any army that attempted to re-cross the euphrates orades received word that his son had died and was said to have descended into heartbroken grief at the loss speculation is that frahatis iv then murdered orrides and the rest of his half-brothers from his father's first marriage as they held the stronger maternal claim frahatis iv would then go on to rule for 35 years but parthia's fate was for now still inexplicably woven with that of rome's and will be covered in the next episode part 7. our lives pass from us like the wind and why should wise men grieve to know that they must die the judas blossom fades the lovely face of light is dimmed and darkness takes its place such is the passing that you must leave all men must die and it is vain to grieve shana me the persian book of kings the parthian empire had replaced the solutions and reinstated the rule of an iranian people over iranian lands they vied for power in the eastern mediterranean basin with the roman republic which would itself soon transform into an imperial power as well oredes ii said to be reeling from the death of his son would also soon be dead we don't know if it was at the hands of his other son frautis iv or by his own hands the family history of both fratricide and patricide would suggest the former however he had known he would inherit the throne from his father so this is pure speculation either way he would ascend as king of parthia in 37 bce and made getting rid of any further opposition his first and primary task after murdering his brothers he sent their supporters into exile in addition to any others that opposed his rule one of those who opposed was a noble by the name of monaesis he would approach mark antony in 37 bce and convinced him to attack parthia with himself at the lead as he knew the terrain well and had been a military leader under oredes ii antony in return would grant him three cities and deliver him the throne as his puppet frautis iv and other nobles worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make amends with monaeces they were successful but the die had already been cast and mark anthony proceeded with his invasion plans in fact anthony was already moving north having just restored roman rule to jerusalem by the year 36 bce anthony and the 16 legions he had in tow totaling some 60 thousand men arrived in kamajin now a roman province meeting him would be forces from galatia cappadocia pontus and armenia as a result his forces were estimated at close to eighty thousand men anthony would choose a caravan path that meandered through southern armenia as the parthians were massed near the euphrates to the south his ally king artavastus ii of armenia and a roman legatus opius statianus led the baggage train which was filled with the siege weapons and supplies that the army would need and take a slightly longer route and meet anthony in media attributing the parthians however would not sit idly by while the romans marched straight towards their territory upon entering atropatine monaeces and a large contingent of parthian cavalry attacked statianus and the baggage train king artevastas ii in his cavalry rather than assisting the romans were said to instead choose to not engage and fled stethianus and approximately ten thousand men would be killed and much of anthony's supplies including many of the siege weapons he had brought along would be destroyed should be noted that the accounts of this campaign are from one of marc anthony's friends and it is suspected that he covered up poor mismanagement on anthony's part blaming it instead on the armenian king we know that when anthony learned of the losses upon entering atropatine with messengers having caught up to him about the attack he still chose to go forward with his siege of the capital of frata with the few siege weapons he had in his possession as he felt he could be victorious with the many legions under his rule he thus laid siege to the capital for several weeks possibly longer however with so much of his siege weapon capacity destroyed he was making little headway against the fortified city also while he was laying siege to the occupants the parthian and atropatinian cavalry had almost complete rain around his perimeter the terrain favored the parthians and their preferred strategy of parthian shot and retreat antony not controlling any high ground as always fairly flat from where he conducted his siege could only attempt to defend against the harassment losing thousands of men and still making no progress with his siege he elected to abandon the campaign and head north around the mountains back into armenia and from there syria however the parthians were not done with anthony they constantly harassed him killing thousands of men during the 27 days it took him to reach armenia it said that roughly 18 battles were fought between the parthians and the retreating romans an exhausted depleted and morale shattered antony and his troops had lost twenty four thousand men anthony was angered at the armenian king artevastus ii but he did his best to hide his disdain as he still needed to get through armenia during its trying winter months and back to the safety of syria he would lose another 8 000 men during the arduous journey through the winter-bound armenia in all anthony was estimated to have lost two-fifths of his original army of eighty thousand men anthony would wait out the winter for messenger sent to egypt to return with enough capital to exact his revenge on the armenian king when the funds finally arrived anthony would strike back conquering armenia within a period of weeks it is said but information on the actual details are scarce we do know that he would have to return back to egypt with the roman triumvirate no more and octavian attacking his forces to the west anthony would along with cleopatra be dead by the year 30 bce frahatis iv then set about removing the roman puppet king antiochus the first from the small kingdom of comagine and replacing him with one loyal to parthia artaxis ii 27 bce would also see the dawn of a new power in the region imperial rome in 27 bce octavian now known as augustus took his place on the throne in rome frates was briefly overthrown by tiridatis ii but received the aid of the scythians and was restored to his own throne within the year the fate of both empires would continue to be entwined in the year 20 bce the two powers would conduct an exchange parthia would receive back a kidnapped son in exchange for the legionary standards lost at carhei augustus also bequeathed frautis with a slave girl by the name of musa who would become his queen each side would spin the exchange into a political victory but it would deliver a temporary peace temporary for musa would turn out to be a trojan gift simmering for close to two decades until like a serpent she struck poisoning frautis into bce to rule alongside their young son fratis v frautis the fifth's reign would be anything but long or stable he would be thrust immediately into the political machinations between the two powers namely the dispute over armenia and mesopotamia augustus wasted no time sending an army under his adopted liege gaia caesar to capture both diplomacy won the day before war could break out however not before the two exchanged mocking letters to each other despite these in one ce they agreed to a peace rome would acknowledge frates v and in return armenia would become a roman vassal state however the ruling houses of parthia would not again sit idly by while in their eyes armenia was pawned off and the son of a roman slave girl sat upon their throne they rose up and in four c.e chased them from the throne they fled to rome where augustus provided them safe harbor they then placed whom they called oredes the third on the throne he was according to most evidence not related to the previous arsacids and was killed after about two years the parthian empire would continue to experience leadership instability they would petition augustus for a replacement and would be presented with winona's the first however he had been romanized during his many years with the romans and he'd be viewed with disdain by the nobility in parthian houses after about a brief reign of four years he experienced civil war when artabinus the second a member of the arsacid house who ruled media attributing raised an army and attacked him winonas was forced to flee into armenia where he would become king in the year 12. the romans protected vanonas from attempts by artabinus ii to displace him from that throne in the year 14 the now roman emperor tiberius would send his stepson germanicus to assist winonas but he was met with no opposition artabinus and germanicus would meet on an island in the euphrates winonas would be removed from the throne and live a luxurious life in exile at least until he tried to escape in the year 19 and was killed by his guards artabinus ii would be recognized by rome but there would be a price to pay internally in the years 19 and 20 the satraps of sakistan drangyana and arakosia all declared independence from parthia and would found the endoparthian kingdom under the leadership of the ruler of those sat traps gandafaris who would call himself great king of kings artabinus would spend much of his reign securing the northeast region of quarasm and made his residence in bactria in the year 35 he would turn his attention back towards armenia long still upon state between the parthians and romans i have reached the end of this great history and all the land will fill with talk of me i shall not die these seeds i've sown will save my name and reputation from the grave and men of sense and wisdom will proclaim when i have gone my praises and my fame shawn amen the persian book of kings the empire of the parthians would continue to have conflict with rome in the second half of its life it would also like rome experience moments of leadership vacuums many of the parthian kings in the second half of the empire's life had short-lived reigns measured in months bolagashi's the first however would be one of a few exceptions for he would experience a 28-year reign and bring long-needed stability to the empire it would not be a rain without challenges however for he would inherit the parthian throne in the year 51. we don't know much of his lineage tacitus records that valagashi's was the brother of guitarsies we also know that he had two younger brothers the elder of the two named pacorus and he put him on the throne of atrapatine to the southeast of armenia and the younger named tiridatis for him he sought the armenian throne so long contested between parthia and rome in 51 the throne of armenia was under the control of arata mistus who was the son of an iberian king for azmanese ramistos had invaded armenia capturing the fortified stronghold of garni and putting to death the roman appointed mithridates who it was said was his blood uncle the populace of armenia did not view radamesto's or his roman support favorably and so valagashi's felt the moment was ripe to invade on behalf of his brother his army marched north and was said to have been of large enough size that it had intimidated radamestus's forces and rather than fight they were driven out of the area volgashes quickly captured both artizada and tigrano granoserta but was forced to withdraw due to low supplies the onset of winter and an unspecified epidemic thought to be smallpox which had begun to take casualties within his troops after valagashi's retreat back to parthia ramistos returned again and treated his subjects even more harshly this prompted an uprising and a full-scale rebellion within weeks his palace was sieged and he again was forced to escape along with his now near-term pregnant queen zenobia she was said to have asked to be killed as she was in no condition to travel as a result he was said to have stabbed her and flung her into the arases and fled to iberia however she would not die instead she washed up by the currents into the hands of tiradati's brother of olagashis who himself was now on route to armenia to lay claim to the empty throne it was said he would keep her at his palace and treat her in a manner appropriate to her rank to the end of his days in the year 54 nero would succeed claudius as emperor of imperial rome upon hearing of the parthian re-occupation of armenia he ordered his troops in the region to stand ready the still unhappy armenian populace though having successfully removed the aserparadamistus now initiated rebellion against tiridatis vlagashis was unable to assist him as his own son vardanese ii was leading and inciting rebellion in the province of herkanya nero meanwhile sent a battle-hardened and old-school roman general to the east his name was corbulo and he had been stationed in germania he was said to have insisted that all legions under his control be ready for battle at all times and upon arriving in the east he was said to have been dismayed at how soft the legions looked and acted that were stationed there having become so he felt after decades of peacetime and poor leadership he immediately set about making changes one of those forcing the legions to march into hostile terrain with even more hostile weather an example of this was having them winter intense upon the anatolian plains some lost limbs to frostbite and others attempted to desert they were of course killed immediately by the year 59 the rest did become more hardened and soon the troops under his command were much more to his satisfaction volagashi's still unable to fully commit troops with rebellion still active in her kanye instead sent flying columns of horsemen to raid roman supporters in armenia and elsewhere along the borders of the frontier corbulo would not only retaliate in kind but he urged roman allies in the region such as king antiochus of comagine pharasmonees of iberia and various tribes in the region to likewise raid across the borders into armenia tiridatis who could not receive full aid from his brother of olagashi's proposed negotiations with the roman general corbulo but corbulo knew of the rebellion in her kanya and instead marched his troops into armenia in the spring of 58 the armenians were still split loyalty wise between the romans and parthians but speculation is that a slight majority favored the more tolerant parthian rule corbulo marched on the capital of artazada and destroyed it utterly in the year 59 he peaceably took to granocerta in southern armenia the population there had decided it was better not to resist the romans and instead open the gates of the city for them the romans would winter there in the year 59 with corbulo in the south tiradatis tried to enter via the northeast of armenia from atropatine but he was forced by the spring of the year 60 to withdraw while corbulo held armenia the emperor nero sought a candidate for the armenian throne and he decided upon to grannies to who was a cappadocian prince the new ruler to grannies felt empowered almost immediately and emboldened by the roman troop support and in the following year 61 he began to cross the border into the parthian vassal kingdom of aryabeen the parthian monaesies would be sent into armenia the same year and he laid siege to to granacerta in the year 62. the romans still holding the city had ensured it was heavily fortified and they stationed two legions within it monaesi's was unable to breach the city's defenses and he incurred heavy losses with his adiabanine contingents taking the heaviest of these kobulo sent an officer to volgasis with a message of protest threatening to invade parthia if the siege was not lifted immediately assisting the romans was a swarm of locusts which descended and in masses depleted the nearby fields of grain the parthian cavalry was now in danger of having no food for either the army or the horses valagashi's would withdraw monaeces however thereby saving him from both possibilities of defeat at this time corbulo was also issued orders to withdraw his troops to syria talks would continue behind the scenes but they were not making much headway so a new roman general by the name of cassinius petus was sent to take over the armenian command the problem was he was in no way equal to corbulo in terms of military skills or strategy as a result it wasn't long before he began to experience difficulties his troops were stationed eastwards of present-day al-azig and he taken his wife and son with him to armenia and kept them in safety at arsa masada he then attempted to block volagashi's and his troops at the taurus pass this would prove disastrous his advanced scouts were quickly scattered by the parthians and then their forward legionary base besieged he did manage to get word out to corbulo for urgent assistance however corbulo was roughly three marches away petus staved off complete disaster and loss of his troops by coming to terms with volagashi's who allowed him to withdraw and retreat unhindered into cappadocia however he was to abandon his camp and armenia to add insult to injury pateus was said to have even built a bridge for the coming parthians to cross into the territory with more ease prior to his departure but things would only continue to go downhill for patus for during his retreat to the euphrates he would run into corbulo which would add the last bit of humiliation to his full and utter route by the parthians it was agreed via ambassadors that valagashi's would be permitted to send emissaries to nero in rome all the ambassadors agreed that valagashi's moderation had saved the talks from deteriorating and it was proposed that tiradati should come to rome to receive the dyadam of armenia from nero personally tiridatis took this on as a religious obligation word made it to nero but he was determined to renew war with corbulo back at the lead in response corbulo would mass four legions with full auxiliaries at malatia and march eastwards into armenia pushing the armenian barons out of their border strongholds the parthians for their part didn't respond with further hostilities instead they continued to send letters requesting further negotiations corbulo would finally reply in conciliatory terms and the two sides would end up meeting with their two armies corbulo and tiradati's coming face to face during the meeting tiradi stated he'd suffered no defeat and he was ready to go to rome to receive the diatom of armenia from the hands of nero he would also study with interest the ceremonies of the roman legions their comings their goings their daily activities with great scrutiny after meeting with his brothers it was decided that he would first meet with the various governors and then depart with ceremonial sword in hand overland to meet with nero in rome the two would first meet in naples after his journey there and there they would conduct a grand ceremony one that they would days later repeat and play out in rome there he was formerly declared king of armenia and invested with a diatom he then departed by sea to darachium before resuming overland his journey to artazada this accomplished two things peace but provided the parthians with overwhelming influence in the region unfortunately the peace achieved by valagashi's after the year 64 resulted in scarce information regarding the parthians the reason being it was mostly history written by the romans they had recorded events that survived and even then it was usually done just for major military happenings or troop stationings i.e where were the legions stationed the only other major recorded event was the iranian nomadic peoples named the allens they would invade armenia and the border vassal kingdoms looting and killing indiscriminately before retreating back north into their lands with their massive loot hall bolagashis would die in the year 79 having brought stability to the parthian empire for the first time in many many decades it's recorded that he had neutral relations with vespasian after the death of nero during his last year he would contend with a rival named pacorus ii who was issuing dated coins from a mint in solutia but beyond this nothing is known we do know that his son pecoris ii by the same name of this rival would succeed him as king of kings of the parthian empire he would spend his first two years stemming rebellion from his brother valagashi's ii then another parthian prince artabinus iii would rise up in the year 80. pocorus would defeat him the following year and sought during his rule to accomplish the goal of artabinus the second that of establishing a trade route to the far east the route we now know as the silk road the idea being that the parthians would bridge trade to the romans from the far east and in essence control the flow of goods in the year 97 he would meet with a chinese emissary a man by the name of ganying genying was on a diplomatic mission initially to the roman empire however he wouldn't make it the whole way there instead being persuaded by the parthians to discuss a trade route with them instead they would supply him with much biased information information that gang ying would bring back to china in pakoras's last year he would co-rule with his son volgasis iii who would succeed him in the year 110. he would continue his father's struggle against an osroise the first who'd managed to capture large swaths of western parthia including mesopotamia walagashis iii was delegated to just ruling the east taking advantage of this civil war was the roman emperor trajan who in the year 114 conquered armenia and again turned it into a roman province trajan next captured seleucia and one of parthia's capitals the fabled tessephon he even managed to reach as far as the persian gulf forcing the parthian vassal rule of charisin and temblos vii to pay the romans tribute trajan would install osruies the first son a man by the name of parthamaspatese on the throne at tessaphon these moves would prove to be of short duration for the romans as a combination of uprisings in the conquered territories would force their hand the main issues were the babylonians and jews who managed to push the romans out of mesopotamia and then with the emperor trajan's death in 117 his successor hadrian would end up pulling back from parthia and reinstate the terms of an earlier treaty back along the euphrates apartheid prince of olagashi's would become the new king of armenia the western portion of parthia was now weakened however and valagashi's iii finally found his opportunity in 129 and managed to remove osruis the first from power thereby reconsolidating the parthian empire and making it whole however the parthians would face an old threat this time directly when the iranian tribe of allens would again invade south this time into both roman and parthian territories it would take walagashis the third many obstacles and extreme economic costs to remove them from his lands he would then defeat and depose a prospective usurper mithridates v in the year 140. rome would in the meantime have yet another new emperor in the year 138 the emperor pius who would install yet another king in armenia valagashi's would stick to the peace and die in the year 147. he would then be replaced by valagashi's iv the son of mithridates v whom he had defeated this was not a proposed ascension rather valagashi's iv had staged a takeover at the time of the king's death this would result in a new branch of the arsacid dynasty in 150 and 151 he waged campaigns in charissine where he defeated its ruler meridatis and put an oribazis ii in power he would take a statue of heracles the patron god of the former ruling dynasty of cherishing to solution with him and place it in the temple of apollo there as a demonstration to all of his victory it wouldn't be a lengthy parthian rule without renewed conflict with rome and that would come in the year 161 with the ascension of emperor marcus aurelius of note this would mark the only time in the history between the two empires where parthia was the unprovoked aggressor all the other times it had been the romans balagashi's would declare war with rome and conduct a two-pronged attack first invading armenia where he would replace the roman client king who at the time was named king sohamus with his own son picorus second an attack into syria defeating the roman contingents there buoyed by these successes he would turn down a roman offer of peace in the year 162 and this is where the tides would turn against volagashi's for the romans would recover from the surprise attack and march into armenia restoring sohamus to the throne in 163 the parthians were next pushed out of syria in 164 and they even lost dura europas the shock of this caused many vassal rulers to abandon valagashi's iv the romans next laid siege to odessa in 165 and in a surprise turn the citizens massacred the stationed parthian garrisons and opened the city's gates to the romans afterwards allowing them to enter and restore the roman vassal ruler the roman general avidius cassius riding off of this momentum next captured both capital cities of solutia and tessephon and then invaded media and adiabean full victory was very close at hand but luck would be on the parthian side for a plague erupted in selutia forcing the romans to withdraw the war would end soon afterwards after sohamus died the armenian throne would be given to valagashi the fourth son who would rule as valagashi's the second osro ease the second appeared to give valagashi some trouble as he was minting coins out of ekbatana and media valagashi's would die in 191 and his son valagashi's v now king of armenia would take over as parthian king he would in turn give the armenian throne to his own son khazrov the first his first recorded military act would be to put down osrois ii thereby ending the unrest it should be noted parthia never truly recovered from the empire split those decades earlier sure it was cohesive but militarily it would never truly recover valagashi's v supported the roman emperor niger against emperor septimius severus in the year 193 a year famously called the year of the five emperors severus would come out on top and whether in response to volagashi's support of his rival or for glory he advanced into mesopotamia and made osraween a roman province yet again roman aggression in 199 he captured tessephon while this was occurring there was unrest in the parthian provinces of media and pars septimius severus would declare himself parthicus maximus or great victor in parthia however supplying his troops would become an issue and he was unable to sustain his conquests or tackle new ones and he elected to withdraw during his withdrawal he would try twice unsuccessfully to conquer the arab fortress of hatra ultimately severus would withdraw all forces back into syria in 202 peace would be once again restored with rome rome controlling who ruled armenia some iranian historians cite this year as the turning point as they feel that the kings of paris could no longer count on their arsacid overlords personally i think that occurred as i mentioned earlier during the imperial eastern western rift at least in my opinion that laid the seeds the foundation that the empire decades earlier never truly recovered from either way in 205 or 206 pabug a local lord in paris overthrew a higher noble name gotcha and he would take the capital of isticure for himself his son adeshir the first would come back to haunt the parthian rulers less than two decades later valagashi's died in 208 and he was succeeded by his son valagashi's vi another of his sons artabinus iv would engage his brother in a civil war something that had also plagued the empire for centuries the two would symbolize the breakdown of the parthian empire and what it had become since the time of artabinus ii it's thought the struggles between the brothers started in the year 213 artabinis would conquer much of the empire including media and susa where valagashi's the sixth was the rightful claimant to the throne but he would only hold seleucia rome ever present and ever eager to take advantage of parthian turmoil was now ruled by emperor karakala he would reach out to valagashi's with a pretext to invade by asking the type of request he felt would be turned down thereby insulting him a request for the sending of two prominent refugees malagashi's however much to the dismay of karakala granted the request and sent the two to him the fact rome was dealing with valagashi's even in his diminished capacity shows they still viewed him as the rightful king of parthia bolagashis next chose to invade armenia but he sent a friedman named theocritis who ended the campaign in absolute failure emperor caracalla next had troops march in tunisibus and mesopotamia but artabinus managed to prevent them from gaining any ground he still had issues though with his brother he may have only controlled seleucia but he was minting coins and still viewed as the rightful ruler by some as these events occurred ardashir of persis or pars was rising to prominence and had conquered much of the neighboring territories artabinis likely aware but choosing to ignore much of the initial military actions of the persian and when he finally did respond he no longer had the upper hand the two armies would meet and clash according to sasanian sources near hormozcadan at the end of april ardashir however would go earlier and he would prepare defenses and get a sense of the lay of the land and how he could strategically use the terrain his forces numbered ten thousand cavalry and they would have looked similar to the parthian cavalry from a distance but up close the differences became much more noticeable and more importantly critical to the conflict for the persian cavalry wore roman style flexible chainmail while the parthians wore the more common lamellar armor so while our tabenas had a greater amount of men they were not as well protected nor did he have the defenses prepared as ardashir did based on sasanian rock relief carvings that still exist today they show that artist was accompanied by his son shapoor in battle on the 28th of april in the year 224 the battle was fought and while we don't have specific information on the battle we know the armor types we know the rough numbers and we know which side won from this we can surmise and deduce that the battle likely played out as follows a fallback feign from ardashir who held the better defensive position to lure artabinus's larger cavalry forces and then attacked them artashir would emerge victorious with artabinis killed thus ending arsocid parthian rule ardashir would go on in four years to clear volagashi's out of selutia to complete the conquest but it was more ceremonial in that valagashi's would put up no real resistance and so after several hundred years of their kingdom-style empire with multiple capitals and the largest foil the romans had yet experienced parthian rule was no more they had risen up as an iranian tribe to challenge the solutions and eventually displace them to create their own empire but no empire no regime lasts forever and so their downfall would usher in the sassanid era the sassanids would go on to rule for another 600 years before their own fateful encounter their foil the arabs which would change the course of iranian history forever for now although they had formed a new ruling dynasty they left the parthian houses intact and would maintain much of the same military structure at least for the first portion of their empire the sassanids would call their empire iranshar or land of the iranians and their story will continue in a new series the rise of the sassanids i want to thank you for watching if you enjoyed this video please hit that like button share this video and leave a comment let me know what you thought of the video till the next video and as always cheers

Channel: Yore History

Views: 133,466

Keywords: Parthian Empire, Iranian Empires, Iranian History, Sassanid Empire, Arsacid Dynasty, Caracalla, Hadrian, Roman Parthian Wars, Roman Parthian Relations, Rome Parthian Wars

Id: koJEyE6y5tI

Length: 121min 8sec (7268 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 03 2020