ARSACES. 
135 
polytheistical reigns from their annals. Yet, in spite of this 
sincere contempt in the ancient chroniclers of Persia, we find 
that the sceptre of that country, under the rule of the Arsacidas, 
and known in Europe by the new name of the Parthian empire, 
extended from the shores of the Hyrcanian or Caspian sea, to 
those of the Indus, and Euphrates, and also grasped a great part 
of Armenia. About eighty years after the death of Alexander 
the Great, Ashk, or Arsaces, a powerful chief, emulous of the 
glory of Dejoces in freeing his country, called together certain 
independent tribes in the neighbourhood of his native mountains, 
and, with their assistance, by a prompt and judicious seizure of 
Rhages, wrested Persia from the hands of the Greeks. The 
chiefs, his associates, under the title of the Moolook-u-Tuaif, 
(commonwealth of tribes,) took the command of different divi¬ 
sions of the country; while himself assumed the royal diadem, 
establishing, what was afterwards called, the Arsacidasan, or Par¬ 
thian dynasty. The term Parthia was unknown to the oriental 
writers; and the western ones are uncertain where to find the 
original district, whence they named the whole Persian nation 
after it came under the rule of Arsaces and his race. One author, 
seeking it on the banks of the Tigris, proclaims Carduchia (the 
modern Courdistan) as the native province of the Parthians ; 
and another writer, turning north of the Oxus, will have it 
amongst the Scythians and Tartar hordes. Opinion, however, 
appears more generally in favour of a northern, than a southern 
situation, for the mountainous tracks whence those brave men 
descended to free their country from a foreign yoke. And, 
indeed, the geographical position of Rhages, (or Rhey,) where 
the attack was planned, a city at the foot of Elburz, seems more 
in the direct line for a train of hardy chiefs from its neighbouring 
