The people of Iran, particularly those in the upper stratum of society, borrowed nothing from Hellenism but its exterior forms. Even the Iranians who lived in such cities as Seleucia or Susa do not seem to have been deeply affected by Greek ideas. The movement of Iranian peoples
The victories of Alexander had brought the Greeks to the limits of the known world. But less than a century after Alexander’s death there began a great movement back, propelled by stirring peoples in the Iranian world. In a movement westward from the 3rd century bc, the Sarmatians occupied the northern shore of the Black Sea. While driving back their close relatives, the Scythians, they succeeded in “Sarmatizing” the Greek cities along its shores. At the end of the 3rd century, there began in Chinese Turkistan a long migration of the Yuezhi, an Iranian people who invaded Bactria about 130 bc, putting an end to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom there. (In the 1st century bc they created the Kushān dynasty, whose rule extended from Afghanistan to the Ganges River and from Russian Turkistan to the estuary of the Indus.) Finally, the Parni, a nomadic or seminomadic people from Iran, appeared in the mid 3rd century bc. Taking a median direction between the Sarmatians and Yuezhiuezhi, the Parni gained control of the Seleucid satrapy of Parthia and created the Parthian (Ashkanian) kingdom. The Parthian state restored Achaemenian power for nearly half a millennium, and its arrival coincided with the expansion of Rome and played a significant role in the destinies of the world during the last three centuries bc and the first two centuries ad. Revolt of the high satrapies
The empire of the Seleucids, like that of the Achaemenids before them, was shaken by revolts of the satraps. The difficult situation in the west and the grave reverses suffered by the royal house accelerated the weakening of the Macedonian kingdom. The loss of its eastern possessions in the 3rd century bc, however, proved fatal to the Seleucid cause. Diodotus I, a Greek who found himself at the head of the satrapy of Bactria, led a revolt that brought independence about 250 bc; at about the same time, Arsaces led the Scythian Parni into Parthia and defeated Andragoras, establishing an independent native dynasty.
Parthia was the first province to detach itself from the Seleucid empire, just as it had been the first to rise up on the occasion of the accession of Darius the Great. Andragoras, though he did not declare himself king, showed his independence by minting his own coins. At this time Parthia was one of the poorer of the high satrapies, caught between the mountains and the great central desert and without large agricultural resources. This satrapal independence might seem surprising if it were not for the fact that the main route for the silk trade crossed right through Parthia over a distance of more than 100 miles (160 km). The tolls the caravans paid must have produced a sizable income.
The defection of Diodotus I is still easier to understand. Bactria, a vast country of a “thousand cities,” was located at the junction of the routes to China and India, and it was rich in cultivable land. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom founded by Diodotus expanded rapidly, embracing Sogdiana and Aria and extending southward and southeastward.
Being at some distance from the west, Diodotus and his successors gradually adopted the customs and lifestyles of their subjects. The closer these ties were drawn, the stronger became the loyalty of the Bactrians. It is believed that the separation of Diodotus from the Seleucids might, over the long term, have seemed to the Bactrians and Sogdians as the realization of their political destiny, and they might have looked on these satraps as men acting in their interest. For more than a century (230–130 bc) this kingdom held the frontiers and barred the route to the nomads. The rise of the Parthians Invasion of the Parni
Arsaces, who was chief of the Parni (a member tribe of the Dahae confederation) must have begun his struggle against the Seleucids from 247 bc, the year from which the Parthians dated their history. This does not necessarily mean that Arsaces was crowned king in 247. Other Iranian dynasties (e.g., the Sāsānids; see below The Sāsānian period) dated the beginning of their eras from the time when they began to establish their power rather than from the time of coronation of the first monarch of their line.
The Parthian empire in the 1st century bc.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Daho-Parno-Parthian tribes “chose chiefs for war and princes for peace” from among the closest circle of the royal family. They were famous for their breeding of horses, their combat cavalry, and their fine archers. Alexander encountered them during his Bactrian campaign, and the Greek writers who recorded his reign remarked on their agility and effectiveness as horsemen. They were a people who kept the traditions of patriarchal tribal organization. The Parni, with Arsaces at their head, took the province of Parthia after having beaten Andragoras; soon neighbouring Hyrcania was annexed, and the Parni reached the Caspian Sea. Arsaces had himself crowned in the city of Asaak, and the tribe took the name of the Parthians, their close relatives, which was derived from a word meaning “exiled.” Their language was closely related to Scythian and Median. The dynasty these people produced never broke its links with the people, and rare was the Arsacid dynastic sovereign who did not turn to his people in time of danger. Formation of the Parthian state
Although the two new kingdoms, that of Arsaces I’s Parthians and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom of Diodotus I, sprang up almost simultaneously and very near each other, there were notable differences between them. The motivating force behind the rebellion in Bactria was an association—or perhaps even a collaboration—between the local nobility (large landholders who dominated the whole indigenous population) and the local Greek community. Both groups were opposed to the Macedonian domination represented by the Seleucid dynasty.
The makeup of the Parthian kingdom seems to have been different. It was essentially built on the relationship of the inhabitants of Parthia to the neighbouring tribes outside the static frontiers—an ethnic mass, half nomadic and half settled, that inhabited the north of Iran. The success of Arsaces and his men was based on their strength, their spirit, and the weakness of their enemies. The Greek element present in Parthia does not seem to have played a role similar to that played by its counterpart in Bactria. In fact, the Parthians, at least initially, may have been hostile to the local Greek populations. During their war with Antiochus III (see below), they massacred all the Greek inhabitants of the city of Syrinx in Hyrcania. Arsaces
Arsaces seems to have enjoyed great fame among the tribes. His name remained linked with the names of the sovereigns of this dynasty, who succeeded each other for the four and a half centuries of the Parthian state. His image regularly appeared on the obverse of Parthian coins until the end of the period.
The rupture of the communications link between the Seleucid capitals and the east caused by Arsaces’ success placed Diodotus in a difficult situation. He seems to have wanted to collaborate with Seleucus II Callinicus in a campaign he was preparing against the Parthians. The death of Diodotus (c. 234 bc) and the accession of his son, Diodotus II, reversed matters, for the young successor changed his father’s policy and joined with Arsaces. It was not until 232 or 231 bc that Seleucus arrived in the east to put down the rebellion. Arsaces, who had remained closely allied with the nomads to the north, sensed his own weakness in the face of Seleucus’s army and fled to the home of the Apasiacae, or “Scythians of the Waters.” Seleucus tried to cross the Jaxartes but, having suffered losses at the hands of the nomads, decided to return to Syria after receiving alarming news from the west. He made peace with Arsaces, who recognized his suzerainty.