Under the Achaemenids '
, P-rw-t-i-
wꜣ''), as one of the 24 subjects of the Achaemenid Empire, in the Egyptian
Statue of Darius I. As the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as a political entity in
Achaemenid lists of governorates ("satrapies") under their dominion. Prior to this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the
Medes, and 7th century BC Assyrian texts mention a country named Partakka or Partukka (though this "need not have coincided topographically with the later Parthia"). A year after
Cyrus the Great's defeat of the Median
Astyages, Parthia became one of the first provinces to acknowledge Cyrus as their ruler, "and this allegiance secured Cyrus' eastern flanks and enabled him to conduct the first of his imperial campaigns – against
Sardis." According to Greek sources, following the seizure of the Achaemenid throne by
Darius I, the Parthians united with the Median king Phraortes to revolt against him.
Hystaspes, the Achaemenid governor of the province (said to be father of Darius I), managed to suppress the revolt, which seems to have occurred around 522–521 BC. The first indigenous Iranian mention of Parthia is in the
Behistun inscription of
Darius I, where Parthia is listed (in the typical Iranian clockwise order) among the governorates in the vicinity of
Drangiana. The inscription dates to c. 520 BC. The center of the administration "may have been at [what would later be known as]
Hecatompylus". The Parthians also appear in Herodotus' list of peoples subject to the Achaemenids; the historiographer treats the Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians and Areioi as peoples of a single satrapy (the 16th), whose annual tribute to the king he states to be only 300 talents of silver. This "has rightly caused disquiet to modern scholars." At the
Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC between the forces of Darius III and those of
Alexander the Great, one such Parthian unit was commanded by
Phrataphernes, who was at the time Achaemenid governor of Parthia. Following the defeat of Darius III, Phrataphernes surrendered his governorate to Alexander when the Macedonian arrived there in the summer of 330 BC. Phrataphernes was reappointed governor by Alexander.
Under the Seleucids Following the death of Alexander, in the
Partition of Babylon in 323 BC, Phrataphernes, the former governor, retained control of Parthia and became governor of
Hyrcania. In 320 BC, at the
Partition of Triparadisus, Parthia was reassigned to
Philip, former governor of
Sogdiana. A few years later, the province was invaded by
Peithon, governor of Media Magna, who then attempted to make his brother Eudamus governor. Peithon and Eudamus were driven back, and Parthia remained a governorate in its own right. In 316 BC, Stasander, a vassal of
Seleucus I Nicator and governor of
Bactria (and, it seems, also of
Aria and
Margiana) was appointed governor of Parthia. For the next 60 years, various Seleucids would be appointed governors of the province. , the last Seleucid satrap of Parthia. He proclaimed independence around 250 BC. In 247 BC, following the death of
Antiochus II,
Ptolemy III seized control of the Seleucid capital at
Antioch, and "so left the future of the Seleucid dynasty for a moment in question." Taking advantage of the uncertain political situation,
Andragoras, the Seleucid governor of Parthia, proclaimed his independence and began minting his own coins. Meanwhile, "a man called
Arsaces, of
Scythian or Bactrian origin, [was] elected leader of the
Parni", an eastern-Iranian peoples from the Tajen/Tajend River valley, south-east of the
Caspian Sea. Following the secession of Parthia from the Seleucid Empire and the resultant loss of Seleucid military support, Andragoras had difficulty in maintaining his borders, and about 238 BC – under the command of "Arsaces and his brother
Tiridates" – the Parni invaded Parthia and seized control of Astabene (Astawa), the northern region of that territory, the administrative capital of which was Kabuchan (
Kuchan in the vulgate). A short while later the Parni seized the rest of Parthia from Andragoras, killing him in the process. Although an initial
punitive expedition by the Seleucids under
Seleucus II was not successful, the Seleucids under
Antiochus III recaptured Arsacid controlled territory in 209 BC from Arsaces' (or Tiridates') successor,
Arsaces II. Arsaces II sued for peace and accepted vassal status, and it was not until Arsaces II's grandson (or grand-nephew)
Phraates I, that the Arsacids/Parni would again begin to assert their independence.
Under the Arsacids . (R. 171–138 BC). The reverse shows
Heracles, and the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ "Great King Arsaces, friend of
Greeks". . , a
Hellenistic figure or deity, from the Parthian royal residence and necropolis of
Nisa, Turkmenistan, 2nd century BC From their base in Parthia, the
Arsacid dynasts eventually extended their dominion to include most of
Greater Iran. They also quickly established several eponymous branches on the thrones of
Armenia,
Iberia, and
Caucasian Albania. Even though the Arsacids only sporadically had their capital in Parthia, their power base was there, among the Parthian feudal families, upon whose military and financial support the Arsacids depended. In exchange for this support, these families received large tracts of land among the earliest conquered territories adjacent to Parthia, which the Parthian nobility then ruled as provincial rulers. The largest of these city-states were
Kuchan,
Semnan,
Gorgan,
Merv,
Zabol and
Yazd. From about 105 BC onwards, the power and influence of this handful of Parthian noble families was such that they frequently opposed the monarch, and would eventually be a "contributory factor in the downfall" of the dynasty. From about 130 BC onwards, Parthia suffered numerous incursions by various nomadic tribes, including the
Sakas, the
Yuezhi, and the
Massagetae. Defending the empire against the nomads cost
Phraates II and
Artabanus I their lives. Around 32 BC, civil war broke out when a certain Tiridates rebelled against
Phraates IV, probably with the support of the nobility that Phraates had previously persecuted. The revolt was initially successful, but failed by 25 BC. In 9/8, the Parthian nobility succeeded in putting their preferred king on the throne, but
Vonones proved to have too tight a budgetary control, so he was usurped in favor of
Artabanus II, who seems to have been a non-Arsacid Parthian nobleman. But when Artabanus attempted to consolidate his position (at which he was successful in most instances), he failed to do so in the regions where the Parthian provincial rulers held sway. By the 2nd century AD, the
frequent wars with neighboring Rome and with the nomads, and the infighting among the Parthian nobility had weakened the Arsacids to a point where they could no longer defend their subjugated territories. The empire fractured as vassalaries increasingly claimed independence or were subjugated by others, and the Arsacids were themselves finally vanquished by the
Persian Sassanids, a formerly minor vassal from southwestern Iran, in April 224.
Under the Sasanians Parthia was likely the first region conquered by
Ardashir I after his victory over
Artabanus IV, showing the importance of the province to the founder of the
Sasanian dynasty. Some of the Parthian nobility continued to resist Sasanian dominion for some time, but most switched their allegiance to the Sasanians very early. Several families that claimed descent from the Parthian noble families became a Sasanian institution known as the "
Seven houses", five of which are "in all probability" not Parthian, but contrived genealogies "in order to emphasize the antiquity of their families." Parthia continued to hold importance throughout the 3rd century. In his
Ka'be-ye Zardusht inscription
Shapur I lists the province of Parthia in second place after Pars. The Abnun inscription describes the
Roman invasion of 243/44 as an attack on Pars and Parthia. Considering the Romans never went further than Mesopotamia, "Pars and Parthia" may stand for the Sasanian Empire itself. Parthia was also the second province chosen for settlement by Roman prisoners of war after the
Battle of Edessa in 260. ==Language and literature==