582 AN]>JUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 191:5. 



Most of the officers of the Achsemenian army retired to their lands, 

 hoping to see the happy fortune of yesterday return. 



The political policy of the Seleucidae followed in all respects that 

 of Alexander; nevertheless, the military power of these kings, no 

 longer having the energy of the conquest, and the Macedonian forces 

 available for an invasion being insufficient in number for continued 

 control by force of arms, the seigniors of the times of the Achfemen- 

 idse again took the lead and endeavored to regain their independ- 

 ence. Revolts became frequent in the provinces, incursions on the 

 frontiers multiplied. There then arose, exclusive of Bactria, a con- 

 siderable number of small realms, such as that of the Arsacidse,^ 

 Scythian chiefs who had established themselves in the Seleucid 

 province of Parthia,^ such as that of Perside,^ where the priestl}?^ 

 character of the princes constrained the kings of Syria in some re- 

 spects, and numerous small principalities, of which even the names 

 are lost or hardl}'- preserved in history. This was the awakening of 

 national feudalism, and this feudalism seems to have become of more 

 importance than ever when there suddenly occurred the conquest of 

 Persia by the Parthians. 



The Parthians were Scythian nomads, in ancient times tenting in 

 the valley of the Ochus, a river of the Oxus Basin. About 250 B. C. 

 they crossed the Seleucid frontier, entered the province of Pai'thia, 

 and established * themselves there, retaining all of it, with the city of 

 Dara,^' as the seat of their government, the capital of their ancient 

 patrimony. In this way they founded a small State, which for about ® 

 a century wrestled for its independence and increased its power some- 

 what.'^ Finally, Mithridates I succeeded not only in pushing back the 

 Greek troops who had attempted to crush his rising power, but in a 

 few years he took possession of entire Persia, some Bactrian prov- 

 inces, and at the end of his reign minted money ,^ even in Syria, whose 

 King, Demetrius Nictator, was his prisoner in Hyrcania.^ A new 

 empire was founded, itself based on feudalism such as was in 

 force among the Scythian nomads. The seigniors of the new stock 



1 This name is of Persian and not Scythian origin ; for we know that Darius II 

 Ochus (405-P.59 B. C.) carried the name of Arsace before taking the throne. Of. 

 Ed. Dronin, Onamastique Arsacide. 



2 The name Parthia already existed at the time of the Achsemenidae (Herodotus, VII, 

 96). It was therefore not the Parthians who had given it to him. They had taken it 

 after the conquest of that province. 



»Cf. Col. Allotte de la Fuye, Corolla Numismatica, 190fi ; fitude sur la Numismatique 

 de la Perside, London, iOOfi. A memoir in which there is a complete bibliography con- 

 cerning sources of history of Perside. 



* Justin, XLI, 4 ; Strabo, XI, Ix, 2. 



• Cf. Olshausen, Parthava und Pahlav, Berlin, 1877, p. 10, seq. 



« From 250 to about 170 B. C. The first princes were: Arsace I (250-248), Trldate I 

 (248-211), Arsace II (211-191), Phriapatlus (101-176), and Phraate 1 (176-171 B. C). 



^ Hyrcanla (Province of Astrabad) and some territories In Media, at most as far as 

 Ragae. 



*Cf. W. Wroth, Catalogue of British Museum, Arsacldes, pi. 3, figs. 7-12. 



•.Tustln, XXX VT, 1. 



