PARTIIIA, the country of an ancient dominant race of Scythian, known to the Romans by this name. Under the form Parthava, also Parma, they are mentioned in the time of the Achaemeraidre. For centuries they maintained the independence in the east against the Romans. The rulers were as under :— Parthia roper was a small province, very near to the S.L. extreme of the Caspian Sea, which territory, after the division of Alexander's empire, fell to the share of the Seleucicke, kings of Syria and of the east, about 300 years before the Christian era. About 50 years after, 250 is.C., under Arsaces, who is variously described as a native of Soghd, as a Bactrian, and by Moses of Chorene as of Balkh, this last author adding that the dynasty was known as Balkhavenses or Pah lavian, Parthia rebelled, and, together with Hyrcania and other adjoining provinces, be came an independent state, Arsaces, however, used Greek only on his coins and in his public letters and correspondence. His coinage is ordin arily with the head of the sovereign on one side, and only one coin has a lingual inscription. As the empire of the Seleucic.e grew weaker, the Parthians extended their country westward ; and the fine province of Media (now lrak-i-Ajam) fell to them ; and within a century after the founda tion of their state, it had swallowed up all the countries from the Indus to the Euphrates, Bactria included, and this province had (256 or 252 n.c.) thrown off the yoke of the Seleucida, long before Parthia. The Parthian conquests in Armenia, 70 years before Christ, brought them acquainted with the Romans, whose conquests met theirs, both in that country and in Syria. The Parthians,
together with their conquests, had advanced their capital westwards, and had established it on tho Tigris at Seleucia, or rather CttYiphon (near the present Baghdad) before their wars with the Romans commenced. Their first wars with the Roman people continued about 65 years, and were noted by the expeditions of Pompey and Anthony, and the defeat of Craasus, D.C. 53, who fell on the plain of Carrhre, the Baran of the Bible. On this event, the Parthians extended their conquests farther westward, but were afterwards compelled to retire; and they generally lost ground in Ar menia and Mesopotamia during the time of the Roman emperors Trajan and Septimus Severus, who recovered the line of the Euphrates under Trajan, and that of the Tigris under Septimus Severus, whose capture of the capital Ctesiphon gave a fatal blow to the Parthian power (A.D. 19S). Trajan penetrated to their capital, and satisfied his curiosity by embarking on the inland sea. The moderation of Adrian restored the ancient bound ary of the Euphrates. In A.D. 245, Persil, or Persia proper, which had for some ages ranked as a province of Parthia, gained the ascendency. After they had reigned for nearly 500 years, the Parthian monarchy was overthrown by a native Persian named Ardeshir or Artaxerxes, surnamed Babekan, from his father Babek (A.D. 226).— Quarterly Review, 1873 ; Prinsep's Antiquities by Thomas, ii. p. 176 ; Weber ; Rennell's Memoir, p. 200 ; Malcolm's Per. i. p. 88 ; Tod's Raj. ii. p. 5.