Image 6The
Parthian Empire (), also known as the
Arsacid Empire (), was a major
Iranian political and cultural power centered in
ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder,
Arsaces I, who led the
Parni tribe in
conquering the region of
Parthia in
Iran's northeast, then a
satrapy (province) under
Andragoras, who was rebelling against the
Seleucid Empire.
Mithridates I (
r. c. 171 – 132 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing
Media and
Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the
Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day
Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the
Silk Road trade route between the
Roman Empire in the
Mediterranean Basin and the
Han dynasty of
China, became a center of trade and commerce.
The Parthians largely adopted the
art,
architecture, religious beliefs, and regalia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed
Persian,
Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of
Greek culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of
Iranian traditions. The
Arsacid rulers were titled "
King of Kings", claiming inheritance of the
Achaemenid Empire; indeed, they accepted many local kings as
vassals, although the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous,
satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from
Nisa to
Ctesiphon along the
Tigris (south of
Baghdad), although several other sites also served as capitals. (
Full article...)