celebrated empire of antiquity, was bounded on the W. by Media, on the N. by Hyrcania, on the E. by Aria, and on the S. by Caramania and Persis. It was surrounded on every side by mountains or deserts, and its surface was hilly and rugged. According to Ptolemy, Parthia was divided into five districts,—Camisene, Parthyene, Choarene, Apavartene, and Tahiene. The ancient geographers enumerate a great many cities in this country; Ptolemy, in particular, reckons twenty-five large ones; and it must have been very populous, since we have accounts of two thousand villages, besides several cities, which were destroyed by earthquakes. Its capital was named Hecatompolis, so called from the circumstance of its having a hundred gates.

The history of the ancient Parthians is involved in obscurity. All we know about them is, that they were first subject to the Medes, then to the Persians, and lastly to Alexander. After the death of the Macedonian conqueror, the province fell to Seleucus Nicator, and was held by him and his successors till the reign of Antiochus Theus, about two centuries and a half B.C. At this time the Parthians revolted, and chose Arsaces as their king. Seleucus Callinicus, the successor of Antiochus Theus, attempted to reduce Arsaces; but the latter having had time to strengthen himself, defeated his antagonist, and drove him out of the country. In a short time, however, Seleucus undertook another expedition against Arsaces, which proved still more unfortunate than the former; for being defeated in a great battle, he was taken prisoner, and died in captivity. Arsaces being thus established in his new kingdom, reduced Hyrcania and several other provinces; but he was at last killed in a battle against Ariarathes, King of Cappadocia. From this prince all the other kings of Parthia took the surname of Arsaces, as those of Egypt did that of Ptolemy from Ptolemy Soter.

Arsaces was succeeded by his son, who, having entered Media, made himself master of that country whilst Antiochus the Great was engaged in war with Ptolemy Euergetes, King of Egypt. Antiochus, however, had no sooner found himself disengaged from that war, than he marched with all his forces against Arsaces, and at first drove him completely out of Media. But the latter soon returned with an army of 100,000 foot and 20,000 horse, with which he put a stop to the progress of Antiochus; and a treaty was soon afterwards concluded, by which it was agreed that Arsaces should remain master of Parthis and Hyrcania, upon condition of assisting Antiochus in his wars with other nations.

Arsaces II. was succeeded by his son Phraates, who reigned fifteen years, and left three sons,—Phraates, Mithridates, and Artabanus. Phraates, the elder, succeeded to the throne, and reduced the Mardians, who had never been conquered by any but Alexander. His brother Mithridates, who was next invested with the regal dignity, reduced the Bactrians, Medes, Persians, and Elymeans, and overran a great part of the East, penetrating beyond the boundaries of Alexander's conquests. Demetrius Nicator, who then reigned in Syria, endeavoured to recover these provinces; but his army was entirely destroyed, and he himself taken prisoner, in which state he remained till his death. After this victory, Mithridates made himself master of Babylonia and Mesopotamia; so that all the provinces between the Euphrates and the Ganges were now subject to his sway.

Mithridates died in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, between 138 and 130 B.C., leaving the throne to his son Phraates II. But the latter was scarcely settled in his kingdom, when Antiochus Sidetes marched against him at the head of a numerous army, on the pretence of delivering his brother Demetrius, who was still detained in captivity. Phraates was defeated in three pitched battles, in which he lost all the countries conquered by his father, and was reduced within the limits of the ancient Parthian kingdom. Antiochus, however, did not long enjoy his good fortune. His numerous army being obliged to scatter themselves over the country, were attacked at disadvantage by the inhabitants, and all the invaders, along with their monarch, were exterminated. Phraates, elated with this success, proposed to invade Syria; but happening to quarrel with the Scythians, he was cut off, with his whole army, by that people.

Phraates was succeeded by his uncle Artabanus. The new king, however, enjoyed his dignity for a very short time, being, a few days after his accession, killed in another battle with the Scythians. He was succeeded by Pacorus, who entered into an alliance with the Romans. Who was the next occupant of the throne has not been ascertained; but the next king whose reign is authenticated was Sana-troces. He died about 70 B.C., after a reign of seven years, and was succeeded by Phraates III. This monarch took under his protection Tigranes, the son of Tigranes the Great, King of Armenia, gave the young prince his daughter in marriage, and invaded the kingdom with a design to place him on the throne of Armenia; but he soon thought proper to retire, and to remain at peace with the Romans. Phraates was murdered by his children Mithridates and Orodes; and soon afterwards the former was put to death by his brother, who thus became the sole master of the Parthian empire.

In this reign happened the ever-memorable war with the Romans under Crassus. It had its origin in the spirit of rivalry which existed between the triumvirs who then presided over the destinies of Rome. Pompey had conquered Mithridates and the pirates; Caesar had subdued Gaul; and Crassus felt the necessity of maintaining his position by the achievement of some military exploit. Accordingly, no sooner had he been elected consul in 55 B.C., and obtained Syria for his province, than he resolved to invade Parthia. This expedition, owing to the fact that it was directed against a friendly people, met with considerable opposition at its very outset. The Senate refused to sanction it. The presence of Pompey was required to save it from an attack of popular dissatisfaction as it passed through the streets of Rome. When it issued from the city, the tribune Ateius, posted at the gate, with strange and awful incantations and anthems, devoted it and its leader to perdition. Nevertheless, Crassus persisted in his enterprise. He marched to Brundusium, and sailed to Macedonia. Continuing his route through Macedonia and Thrace, across the Hellespont, and through Galatia and the northern part of Syria, he crossed the Euphrates, and commenced hostilities. Yet scarcely had a few towns yielded to the Roman arms, than that imprudence of Crassus which led to the ruin of the expedition began to manifest itself. Instead of following up his success, pressing onwards, and attacking the enemy unprepared, he returned to Syria, and passed the winter in inactivity. It was not deemed necessary to collect information and to provide resources for the coming campaign. The soldiers were allowed to neglect their training and discipline. He himself spent his time in inquiring into the revenues of cities and weighing gold in the temple of Hierapolis. This infatuation reached a climax when the time for taking the field again, and advancing into the heart of Parthia, arrived. In vain did his ally Artavasdes, King of Armenia, advise him to direct his route along the chain of the Armenian mountains, where his march might be safe from the attacks of the enemy's cavalry. In vain did the questor, the famous Caius Cassius, suggest to him the expediency of marching along by the side of the Euphrates, where the army might be supplied with provisions from the ships. His ear was given unreservedly to an Arab chief, who pro- fessed the most devoted fidelity to the Romans, but who had come expressly to betray them into the hands of the Parthian king. By the advice of this smooth-tongued barbarian, he resolved to advance right through Mesopotamia. A series of disasters, unsurpassed in ancient history for their tragic interest, was the result. The army had not advanced far before they found themselves in the midst of a waste sandy plain stretching away on all sides to the horizon. There were no trees to shield them from the burning sun, no herbs to supply fodder for their horses, no streams to slake their parched throats. Want and destruction seemed to be closing around them. At this juncture they received intelligence that the foe was at hand. Then there rushed upon their minds the reports they had formerly heard of those formidable Parthian horsemen who were clothed in impenetrable mail, who drove their arrows sheer through the shields and breast-plates of their enemies, and who, while fleeing, turned round upon their saddles and shot down their pursuers with deadly certainty. Their courage began to falter. Crassus himself was so paralysed with terror that he was at a loss how to arrange his forces for the coming onset. At first he extended them in a long line, to prevent them from being surrounded. Then he formed them into a solid square, flanked by squadrons of cavalry. In this order they were hurried on over the toilsome desert until they came in sight of the Parthians under the command of Surenas. The Parthian army appeared to be neither large nor well-equipped. But no sooner had the signal for battle been given, than up from its rear, as if from the bosom of the earth, sprang battalion after battalion of barbarian soldiers. At the same instant their coats of skin, which had aided in concealing them from the eye, were dropped off, and they stood under the summer sun a living mass of glittering steel. The order to advance was passed, and on they came, marching to the crash of kettle-drums, and exasperating their valour to the pitch of frenzy with savage yells and bellows. With a well-directed flight of arrows, they drove the advancing battalions of the invaders back into the ranks of their densely-crowded square. Then, surrounding that mass of living beings, they began to pour in upon it a continuous shower of deadly shafts. At first the Romans expected that their assailants would lay aside their bows, and come to a hand-to-hand engagement. They therefore stood passively for a while under the winged destruction which fell upon them. When they perceived, however, that there were camel-loads of arrows, furnishing a continual supply to the quivers of the archers, their strained patience gave way. A part of the army under young Crassus charged out upon their foes, and finding that they retreated, pursued them at full speed. Yet no sooner had the Parthians drawn their pursuers to some distance away from the main body of the Roman army, than wheeling suddenly round under concealment of a cloud of dust, they caught them completely off their guard. Cutting off their retreat, and hemming them in on all sides, they brought them to bay upon a small eminence, and showered in arrows upon them till not a man was left. Then they returned with redoubled valour, and with loud shouts of victory, to renew their onslaught upon the main body of the invading army. Their heavy cavalry drove in and compressed the enemy's square with their pikes, as their light cavalry thinned it with their arrows. The approach of darkness alone put a stop to their destructive attacks. As the diminished numbers of the Romans encamped that night among their dead, they were in great perplexity about their impending fate. Crassus lay prostrate upon the earth in the stupor of despair, and could take no measures for the common safety. It became the duty of the quaestor Cassius and the lieutenant Octavius to call a council of war. The resolution was adopted of escaping immediately while the enemy was at a distance passing the night. Leaving the wounded behind to bewail their fate, they hastened away with all possible speed, and arrived at Carhus (the Haran of the Bible) before they could be overtaken. The ill-fated Romans, however, were still within the toils of their artful enemy. When they would have tarried within the town for reinforcements from Armenia, they found their Parthian pursuers encamped before the walls, and ready to commence an assault. When they determined to depart from the city by night, and continue their retreat, a citizen named Andromachus plotted their destruction. He first informed Surenas of their intention. Then undertaking to guide them in their flight, he retarded their escape by leading them in a zig-zag course, and completed their wilderness by landing them in a morass. Cassius, indeed, disentangled himself from this snare, and, at the head of five hundred horse, found his way to Syria. But day came, and showed Crassus with four cohorts still floundering in the swamp, and the Parthians close at hand. He had only time to get out of the marshes, and to station his troops on a height, when the enemy came up. Surenas now saw reason for changing his tactics. A range of mountains was near; the least delay might allow the Romans to escape thither, and there they would be secure from the onset of the Parthian cavalry. He resolved to try stratagem. Advancing from among his men to the foot of the height, with bow unbent and hand outstretched, he invited the Roman general to a peaceful conference. In obedience to the clamorous demand of his troops, Crassus went down the hill with a few attendants. "What!" exclaimed the wily barbarian; "a Roman general on foot! Let a horse be brought." A richly-caparisoned steed was led up. A significant glance from Surenas informed the Parthian attendants what they were to do. They lifted Crassus roughly on to the saddle, and began to hurry him away. The Romans who had come along with him interfered; a scuffle ensued; and the unfortunate triumvir was slain. The triumph of the Parthians was now easily completed. A part of the Romans surrendered; those who attempted to escape were pursued and cut to pieces; and King Orodes celebrated the victory by ordering molten gold to be poured into the mouth of Crassus, in mockery of the aversion of the deceased.

But Surenas did not long enjoy the pleasure of his victory; for Orodes, jealous of his power and authority amongst the Parthians, soon afterwards caused him to be put to death. Pacorus, the king's favourite son, was placed at the head of the army, and, agreeably to his father's directions, invaded Syria; but he was driven back with great loss by Cicero and by Cassius, the only general who had survived the defeat of Crassus. After this no mention is made of the Parthians till the time of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, when the latter sent ambassadors to solicit succour against his rivals. This Orodes was willing to grant, upon condition that Syria should be delivered up to him; but as Pompey would not consent to such a proposal, the succours were denied.

Caesar is said to have meditated a war against the Parthians, which in all probability would have proved fatal to them. His death delivered them from this danger. But not long afterwards the eastern provinces of the Roman empire being grievously oppressed by Mark Antony, rose in arms, and invited the Parthians to join them. The latter readily accepted the invitation; and in 40 B.C. crossed the Euphrates under the command of Pacorus and Labienus, a Roman general of Pompey's party. At first they met with great success, and overran all Asia Minor, reducing the countries as far as the Hellespont and the Ægean Sea, and likewise subduing Phœnicia, Syria, and even Judea. They did not, however, long enjoy their new conquests; for, being elated with their victories, and despising the enemy, they engaged Ventidius, Antony's lieutenant, before they had effected a junction with the forces under Labienus, and sustained a complete defeat. This so disheartened Labienus that he abandoned his men by night, and left them to be cut to pieces. Ventidius, pursuing his advantage, gained several other victories, and at last entirely defeated the Parthian army under Pacorus, slaughtering almost the whole of them, and the prince himself among the rest. He did not, however, pursue this victory as he might have done, being afraid of giving umbrage to Antony, who had already become jealous of the great honour gained by his lieutenant. He therefore contented himself with reducing those places in Syria and Phoenicia which the Parthians had taken in the beginning of the war, until Antony arrived to take the command of the army upon himself.

Orodes was almost distracted with grief on receiving the dreadful news of the loss of his army, and the death of his favourite son. When time had restored the use of his faculties, he appointed Phraates, the eldest but the most wicked of all his children, to be his colleague and successor. Phraates commenced his reign by murdering his father, his thirty brothers, and all the rest of the royal family. He did not even spare his own eldest son, lest the discontented Parthians should place him, as he was already of age, upon the throne. Many of the chief lords of Parthia, intimidated by the cruelty of the new king, retired into foreign countries. One of these, Monoses, a person of great distinction, having fled to Antony, arrived in time to aid the Roman general in planning an expedition against the Parthians. Accordingly Antony set out on his march towards the Euphrates in 36 B.C., at the head of an army of 100,000. On his arrival at the river, he found all the defiles so well guarded, that he deemed it expedient to enter Media, with a design first to reduce that country, and then to penetrate into Parthia. Leaving his battering-engines to follow in the rear under the protection of two legions, he advanced by forced marches to the Median city of Prasaas or Phraata, and immediately invested it. But a long series of disasters now began to thwart the object of his enterprise. The convoy in charge of his storming-machines was attacked and cut to pieces before it could reach the place of its destination. His beleaguered forces continued to blockade the town without any success, until the growing desolation of the surrounding country, and the coming severity of winter, warned them to repair to some more hospitable climate. He then exchanged the tails of an unsuccessful siege only for the disasters of an inglorious retreat. During his march homewards, the redoubted Parthian cavalry hovered round the army, laying waste the country in front, harassing the rear, and intercepting supplies. Several defeats which he gave them did not check their pertinacity. They continued their flying attacks until he reached the borders of Armenia, and had lost more than 20,000 men, the flower of the Roman army.

Antony was no sooner gone than the kings of Media and Parthia quarrelled about the booty which they had taken; and, after various contests, Phraates reduced all Media and Armenia. Elated with his conquests, he then oppressed his subjects in such a cruel and tyrannical manner that a civil war broke out, in which the competitors for the crown were alternately driven out and restored, until the middle of the first century, when one Vologeses, the son of a former king, became the peaceable possessor of the throne. He carried on some wars against the Romans, but with indifferent success, and at last gladly consented to a renewal of the ancient treaties with that powerful people.

From this time the Parthian history presents nothing remarkable until the reign of the Emperor Trajan, when the Parthian king, by name Chosroes, displeased the Romans by driving out the King of Armenia. Upon this, Trajan, glad of any pretence to quarrel with the Parthians, immediately hastened into Armenia. His arrival there was so unexpected that he reduced almost the whole country without opposition, and took prisoner and put to death Parthamaspis the king, who had been set up by the Parthians. After this, he entered Mesopotamia, took the city of Nisibis, and reduced to a Roman province the whole of that wealthy country.

Early in the spring of the following year, Trajan, who had withdrawn to winter quarters in Antioch, again took the field against the Parthians. Having crossed the Euphrates in the face of a continued shower of arrows from the enemy on the opposite bank, he advanced boldly into Assyria, and made himself master of Arbela. Thence he pursued his march, subduing with incredible rapidity countries where the Roman standard had never before been displayed. Babylonia voluntarily submitted to him, and Babylon itself was, after a vigorous resistance, taken by storm; so that he became master of all Chaldea and Assyria, the two richest provinces of the Parthian empire. From Babylon he marched to Ctesiphon, the metropolis of the Parthian monarchy, which he besieged, and at last reduced. But whilst Trajan was thus making war in the heart of the enemy's country, Chosroes, having recruited his army, set out to recover Mesopotamia. On his arrival in that province, the inhabitants flocked to him from all parts; and most of the cities, having driven out the garrisons left by Trajan, opened their gates to him. The emperor, however, detached Lucius and Maximus into Mesopotamia to check the revolt. Maximus was met by Chosroes, and defeated and slain; but Lucius gained considerable advantages over the enemy, and retook Nisibis, Seleucia, and other cities. Trajan then repaired to Ctesiphon, and having assembled the chief men of the nation, he crowned one of the royal family, by name Parthamaspes, king of Parthia, obliging all those who were present to engage to pay him allegiance. Thus Parthia was at last subdued and made tributary to Rome.

But the Parthians did not long continue in this state of subjection. For no sooner had they heard of Trajan's death, which happened shortly afterwards, than they drove Parthamaspes from the throne, and, recalling Chosroes, openly revolted against Rome. Hadrian, who was then commander-in-chief of all the forces in the East, and who was soon afterwards acknowledged as emperor, did not wish to engage in any new war with such a formidable enemy. He therefore abandoned those provinces which Trajan had conquered, withdrew the Roman garrisons from Mesopotamia, and fixed the Euphrates as the boundary of the empire in those parts.

Chosroes died after a long reign, and was succeeded by his eldest son Vologeses. In the reign of the latter, the Alanii, a barbarous horde, broke into Media, and could only be induced by large presents to return home. His successor, also called Vologeses, having no enemy to contend with at home, fell unexpectedly upon Armenia, cut the legions in pieces, entered Syria, defeated Cornelius, governor of that province, and advanced without opposition to the neighbourhood of Antioch, putting everywhere the Romans, and those who favoured them, to the sword. The Emperor Verus, by the advice of his colleague, Antoninus the Philosopher, hastened into Syria, and having driven the Parthians out of that province, ordered Statius Priscus to invade Armenia, and Cassius to carry the war into the enemy's own country. Priscus made himself master of Artaxata, and in one campaign drove the Parthians out of Armenia. Cassius, on the other hand, reduced all those provinces which had formerly submitted to Trajan, sacked Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and struck terror into the most remote provinces of that empire. Not long afterwards, Antoninus the Philosopher, repairing to Syria to settle the affairs of that province, was met by ambassadors from Vologeses. That prince, having by this time recovered most of the provinces subdued by Cassius, promised to hold them of the Roman emperor. To these terms Antoninus readily agreed; and a peace was accordingly concluded between the two empires.

Upon the death of Vologeses, his nephew, who bore the same name, was raised to the throne. He sent troops to the assistance of Pescennius Niger in his contest for the imperial crown. Accordingly, no sooner had Severus, the successful competitor, established his authority at home, than he advanced to punish the Parthians, and laid siege to their capital Ctesiphon. The city was at length taken by assault, and the king's treasures, with his wives and children, fell into the hands of the conquerors. Severus, however, had no sooner crossed the Euphrates than Vologeses recovered all the provinces which he had reduced, except Mesopotamia. On the death of this monarch, a contest for the crown ensued between his sons. Vologeses was at first successful; but Artabanus ultimately succeeded in establishing himself on the throne. He had scarcely settled the affairs of his kingdom when the Emperor Caracalla, desirous to signalize himself by some memorable exploit against the Parthians, sent a solemn embassy to their king, desiring his daughter in marriage. Artabanus complied with his request, and went to meet him, attended with his principal nobility and his best troops, all unarmed. But this peaceable train no sooner approached the Roman army than it was attacked and mercilessly butchered by the soldiers, the king himself escaping with very great difficulty.

This inhuman treachery Artabanus resolved to revenge. Accordingly, having raised the most numerous army that had ever been known in Parthia, he crossed the Euphrates, and ravaged Syria with fire and sword. But Caracalla being murdered before this invasion, Macrinus, who had meanwhile succeeded to the purple, met him at the head of a mighty army composed of many legions and all the auxiliaries of the states of Asia. The battle lasted two days, both nations fighting so obstinately that night only parted them, without any apparent advantage on either side. On the third day the Roman emperor sent a herald to Artabanus, acquainting him with the death of Caracalla, and proposing an alliance between the two empires. The king, understanding that his great enemy was dead, readily embraced the proposal, upon condition that all the prisoners who had been so perfidiously taken by Caracalla should be immediately restored, and a large sum of money paid to defray the expenses of the war.

As Artabanus on this occasion had lost the flower of his army, the Persians, under the command of Artaxerxes, a man of mean descent, but of great courage and experience in war, revolted against the Parthians. They were successful in two battles, and in a third they annihilated the army of their enemies, and took the king prisoner. Artabanus was soon afterwards put to death by order of Artaxerxes; and the Parthians were forced to become the vassals of a nation which had been subject to them for the space of 475 years.