PAR1IIIA, anciently a country of western Asia, lying at the s.e. end of the Caspian sea, from which it was separated by a narrow strip, known as Hyrcania. now forms the northern portion of the province of Khorassan, and is an almost wholly mountainous region. Its rivers are merely mountain torrents, which are supplied by the melting snow on the Elburz range during winter and spring, but are mostly dry in summer WIC. autumn.
The original inhabitants are believed to have been of Scythian race, as shown by their language as well as by their manners, and to belong to the great Indo-Germanic family. If this be the case, as is very probable, the term Partition, froria its analogy to the Scythian word partite, banished, seems to indicate that they were a tribe who had been driven to Parthia out of Scythia (i.e., central-Asia). The Partitions during the time of the Roman republic, were distinguished by primitive simplicity of life and extreme bravery, though at the same time much given to bacchanalian and voluptuous pleasures. They neglected agriculture and commerce, devoting their whole time to predatory expe ditions and warfare. They fought on horseback, and after a peculiar fashion. Being armed solely with bows and arrows, they were rendered defenseless after the first dis charge; and, to gain time for adjusting a second arrow to the bow, turned their horses, and retired, as if in full flight, but, an enemy incautiously pursuing, was immediately assailed by a second tight of arrows; a second pretended flight followed, and the con flict was thus carried on till the Partitions gained the victory, or exhausted their quivers. They generally discharged their arrows backward, holding the bow behind the shoulder; a mode of attack more dangerous to a pursuing enemy than to one in order of battle. The Partitions first appear in history as subject to the great Persian empire. After the death of Alexander the Great, Tortilla formed part of the Syrian kingdom, but revolted under Antiochus Ii., and constituted itself into an independent kingdom under the
Arsacidce (see AnsAcEs), 250 B.C., a race of kings who exercised the most completely despotic authority ever known, treating their subjects as if the vilest of slaves; yet so accustomed (lid the Partitions become to this odious rule, that some of the later mon archs• with had received a Roman education, and after their accession treated their sub jects with ordinary justice and humanity, were completely despised. The capital of the Partition monarchy was Ilecatompylos ("the city of the hundred gates"), now The Partition dominion rapidly extended to the Euphrates on the iv. and the II;dus on the e., and became a most powerful and flourishing empire; Selencia, ClesipIon—the capital of the Persian emperors of the Snssanidm—and other celebrated cities date their rise from this period, and soon eclipsed, in size and splendor. the ancient Ileeatompylos. In spite of repeated attacks on the part of the Romans, the Partitions maintained their independence (see CnAssus SURENA); and though Trojan. in 115-110 A.D., seized certain portions of the country. the Romans were soon compelled to abandon them. In 214 A.D., during the reign of Artabanus IV., the last of the Arsaeidm, a revolt. headed by Ardshir; soli of Babeg•n, bro!;e out in Persia, and the Partition monarch. beaten in three engagements. lost his throne and life. while the victor substituted the Persian dynasty of the SASSAFIDA: (q.v.) for that of the Arsacidm. Some scions of the Partition royal family continued for several centuries to rule over the mountainous district of Armenia, under the protection of the Romans, and made frequent descents upon Assyria and Babylonia; but their history is obscure and of little importance.