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2 results

  • 11 - First Parthian Conquest, 141 BC, to the Visit of Trajan in AD 116

  • Stephanie Dalley, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The City of Babylon
    Published online:
    23 June 2021
    Print publication:
    08 July 2021, pp 308-318

  • Summary

    Early attempts by Parthian rulers to take Babylon were short-lived, but in 141 BC they established their kingship by celebrating the New Year festival. Chronicles and astronomical diaries continued to be written. An independent ruler of Maysan in the Sealand, Hyspaosines, captured the port on the Tigris, took control of Bahrain and Failaka to control Gulf trade, and briefly claimed kingship of Babylon. He wrote in Aramaic. The Parthians regained control and rebuilt the Greek theatre. The old buildings and city plan continued to be in use, although the Summer Palace had been reroofed with terracotta tiles. New kinds of text were written on clay in cuneiform, astronomical science developed; an archive shows that temples were still active, and much older literature was still prized. Greek knowledge of the Epic of Creation was still alive in Athens from the time of Alexander until the sixth century AD. The cult of Bēl had spread west to Palmyra, to the Aegean island of Kos, and north to Edessa. In AD 116 Trajan visited the Summer Palace on a pilgrimage to the place where Alexander had died.

  • 2 - THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF IRAN UNDER THE ARSACIDS

  • from PART 1 - POLITICAL HISTORY
    • By A. D. H. Bivar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Edited by E. Yarshater
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Iran
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 April 1983, pp 21-99

  • Summary

    The first fixed point in Parthian history is provided by the startingpoint of the Arsacid era, the vernal equinox of 247 BC. The significance for the Parthians of this moment in time has been variously explained: by Gardner it was seen as the date of a Parthian revolt against Seleucid suzerainty; by Tarn, as the coronation year of Tiridates I, the second Parthian king. The incursion of Antiochus III had interrupted the Arsacid control of that part of the province of Parthia which lies south of the Alburz Range around Damghan and Shahrud. This chapter discusses the the consolidation of the Parthian kingdom. The reign of Mithradates I came to an end in 138/7 BC, the first precisely established regnal date of Parthian history and the campaign of Carrhae. The chapter also discusses the "Roman peace" and its consequences.