The Persian Empire
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See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Vologeses II; Vologeses IV; Peoples: Arsacid Parthian Empire; Arsacids
Further Reading
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Schippmann, K. “Balaš.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1988, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/balas-proper-name.
Vologeses IV
Arsacid (Parthian) king who probably ruled from 147/148 to 191/192. A son of Vologeses III, Vologeses IV ruled for nearly 40 years, one of the longest reigns among all Arsacid monarchs. His reign began with a campaign to invade Armenia, which was delayed because of warnings from the Romans, who reinforced their legions in Syria. Vologeses eventually invaded Armenia in 161 and installed an Arsacid prince on the Armenian throne. Parthian forces also attacked Syria and Cappadocia in Asia Minor, overrunning Roman positions and defeating Roman legions stationed in the region. In response, three Roman legions were moved from the Rhine and the Danube to the east. The Romans struck in 163. They seized Armenia and placed a new king on the Armenian throne. In 165 Roman legions invaded Mesopotamia, defeated the Parthian forces near Dura Europos in eastern Syria, and pushed toward Babylonia. As Roman forces approached southern Mesopotamia, Vologeses’s allies and vassals defected and joined the enemy. Next, the Romans captured the important city of Seleucia-on-Tigris and a short time later sacked the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, in present-day southern Iraq. To humiliate the Arsacid monarch, the Romans destroyed Vologeses’s palace. Fortunately for the Arsacids, an outbreak of plague ravaged the Roman army, which was forced to retreat. As the Romans withdrew, Vologeses recovered some of the territories he had lost. In 166, however, the Romans attacked again and this time penetrated the Parthian territory as far east as Media, but they could not maintain their control over western Iran. When the war finally ended, the Romans had extended their rule over Dura Europos in eastern Syria. Vologeses IV died sometime in 191 or 192 and was succeeded by his son Vologeses V.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Vologeses III; Vologeses V; Peoples: Arsacid Parthian Empire; Arsacids
Further Reading
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Schippmann, K. “Balaš.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1988, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/balas-proper-name.
Vologeses V
King of the Arsacid (Parthian) dynasty who ruled from 191/192 to 207/208 CE. He was the son of the Arsacid monarch Vologeses IV (r. 147/148–191/192 CE). Our knowledge regarding the reign of Vologeses V is scanty to the extreme. Vologeses revolted against his father and eventually succeeded him on the throne sometime in 191 or 192. When civil war erupted in the Roman Empire between Alexander Severus and Niger, who ruled the eastern provinces of the empire, Niger appealed to the Arsacid and Armenian kings for assistance and support. The king of Armenia refused to join Niger, but Vologeses V informed the Romans that “he would order his governors to collect troops—the customary practice whenever it was necessary to raise an army” (Herodian: III.i.2).
The civil war allowed Vologeses to intervene in Rome’s internal affairs and recover some of the territory his father had lost during his long reign. Vologeses V invaded Mesopotamia and instigated rebellions in Adiabene and Osroene to reimpose Arsacid suzerainty over these former vassal states. Once the civil war ended in the Roman Empire with the victory of Septimius Severus, the Roman armies attacked Mesopotamia and reoccupied much of the territory they had lost. This Roman invasion was brief. Once the main Roman army returned west, Vologeses retook the territories he had lost in Mesopotamia and again imposed his control over Adiabene. In 198 CE, Septimius Severus attacked Mesopotamia for the second time. During this campaign, the Romans seized Nisibis (present-day Nusaybin in southeastern Turkey) and captured the Arsacid capital, Ctesiphon, which was looted by a Roman army. Seleucia-on-Tigris and Babylon were also sacked. Twice the Romans tried and failed to capture the important religious and commercial city of Hatra in present-day northern Iraq. The dogged and stubborn defenders of the city inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman forces. Suffering from a shortage of food in addition to heavy casualties, the Romans were forced to withdraw, but their invasion left the western provinces of the Arsacid state devastated and in ruins. Vologeses V died in 207 or 208 and was succeeded by his son Vologeses VI.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Vologeses IV; Vologeses VI; Peoples: Arsacid Parthian Empire; Arsacids
Further Reading
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Herodian. History of the Roman Empire. Translated by Edward C. Echels. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Schippmann, K. “Balaš.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1988, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/balas-proper-name.
Vologeses VI
Vologeses VI was a king of the Arsacid (Parthian) dynasty who ruled from 207/208 CE to 221/222 CE. His father was the Arsacid monarch Vologeses V. A significant part of Vologeses VI’s rule was spent fighting his younger brother Artabanus (Ardavan), who rose in rebellion against the throne in 213 CE. The war between the two brothers continued for several years as Roman armies invaded Mesopotamia and threatened the western provinces of the Arsacid Empire. Preoccupied with his brother’s revolt, Vologeses VI tried to maintain a peaceful relationship with the Roman emperor Caracalla. Caracalla, however, tried to use the internal war between Vologeses and his brother to provoke a confrontation with the Arsacids and invade northern Mesopotamia and western Iran. Artabanus finally defeated his brother Vologeses around 216 CE and seized the Arsacid throne. Despite his defeat, Vologeses appears to have continued his fight to regain his throne until 221/222 CE, when the coins minted in his name cease.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Artabanus IV; K&Q, Sasanian: Ardashir I
Further Reading
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh, and Sarah Stewart, eds. The Age of the Parthians. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Schippmann, K. “Artabanus (Arsacid Kings).” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-parth.
Sellwood, David. Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia. London: Spink and Son, 1980.
Vonones I
Vonones I was a king of the Arsacid (Parthian) dynasty who ruled for
a short time in 8/9 CE. He was the eldest son of the Arsacid king Phraates IV. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Vonones’s father had given Vonones, along with several of his brothers, as a hostage to the Roman emperor Augustus. Although he had repeatedly defeated Roman armies, Phraates IV “had shown to Augustus every token of reverence and had sent him some of his children,” not because he was frightened or intimidated by Roman power and might but “to cement the friendship” between Rome and Parthia. After the death of Phraates IV, a civil war erupted among the various contenders to the Arsacid throne. To end the bloodshed, the Parthian nobility sent envoys to Rome and requested that Vonones return to Iran and assume the reins of power. The Roman emperor Tiberius “thought this a great honor to himself, and loaded Vonones with wealth” (Tacitus: 45). However, the Parthian nobles began to doubt their decision when they realized that the prince had been “infected” with the ways and manners of the Roman enemy: “Where, they asked, was the glory of the men who slew Crassus, who drove out Antonius, if Caesar’s drudge, after an endurance of so many years’ slavery, were to rule over Parthians” (Tacitus: 45). Vonones himself “further provoked their disdain, by his contrast with their ancestral manners, by his rare indulgence in the chase, by his feeble interest in horses, by the litter in which he was carried whenever he made a progress through their cities, and by his contemptuous dislike of their national festivities” (Tacitus: 45). The Parthian nobles “also ridiculed” the “Greek attendants” of Vonones and his habit of “keeping under seal the commonest household articles” (Tacitus: 45–46). They therefore decided to summon Artabanus, “an Arsacid by blood, who had grown to manhood among the Dahae” (Tacitus: 46). In his first attempt to seize the throne, Artabanus and his army were defeated. However, in his second encounter Artabanus “rallied his forces” and defeated Vonones (Tacitus: 46). Artabanus ascended the throne as Artabanus II in 10 or 11 CE at Ctesiphon, the Arsacid capital.
Silver coin of the Arsacid/Parthian king of kings Vonones I. Vonones I, who had lived as a hostage in Rome, returned to Parthia to assume the throne, but his foreign manners alienated the Parthian nobility who revolted and forced him out of power. (Yale University Gallery of Art)
The defeated Vonones fled to Armenia. Once he had arrived in Armenia, he proclaimed himself the king of the country. Artabanus II refused to accept Vonones as the new king of Armenia and tried to install one of his own sons as the ruler of that country. The Roman emperor Tiberius, however, refused to accept Arsacid rule over Armenia and dispatched his own adopted son, Germanicus, to Armenia with the objective of installing a son of the ruler of Pontus as the new king of Armenia. Artabanus II was not prepared to confront the large Roman army and opted for a treaty that restored peace between Rome and Parthia. The Romans, who had no more use for Vonones, deported the ill-fated Arsacid prince to Cilicia, where he died in 19 CE as he was planning his escape.
See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Artabanus II; Phraates IV
Further Reading
Bivar, A. D. H. “The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 21–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Sellwood, David. Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia. London: Spink and Son, 1980.
Tacitus. The Annals of Imperial Rome. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2007.
KINGS AND QUEENS OF THE MEDIAN DYNASTY
OVERVIEW ESSAY
The Medes were an Iranian-speaking group who arrived in present-day western Iran at a thus far undetermined date. There they created the first empire of ancient Iran in the seventh century BCE. Evidence regarding the exact origins of the Medes and the political and administrative organization of their kingdom is scanty. Archaeological excavations at Median sites in western Iran, particularly those within the so-called Median triangle, which is bounded by the three cities of Hamedan, Kangavar, and Malayer, have produced valuable but nonetheless meager and inconclusive results. Assyrian inscriptions as well as Babylonian chronicles shed some light on isolated events and encounters between the Medes and their neighbors, particularly the Assyrians and the Babylonians, but they do not provide any clear outline of Median history, politics, and social organization. In his Histories, the Greek historian Herodotus provides a wealth of information about the Medes and the kings who established and expanded the Median Empire, but under closer scrutiny his narrative is found to be riddled with fictitious stories and legendary tales.
Herodotus claimed that the founder of the Median state was Deioces, who unified the Medes under his leadership. The Greek author also credited Deioces with the construction of Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan) as the capital of the fledgling Median kingdom. Recent scholarship has questioned the accuracy of Herodotus’s account, which most probably relied on oral and legendary sources. According to other sources, Deioces was not the founder and the first king of the Median kingdom. Neo-Assyrian texts, which have proved to be far more reliable than Herodotus, instead mention a certain Daiukku, and indeed a Mannaean governor named Daiukku is described on an Assyrian inscription dating back to 721–705 BCE. It is nonetheless impossible to confirm with any certainty that the Daiukku mentioned in the inscription and the Deioces included in Herodotus’s account are the same leader. As a result, an increasing number of scholars have concluded that either the king known as Deioces belonged to the realm of oral and legendary tradition or that he was in fact a king of Media but sometime after the reign of Phraates, whom Herodotus identifies as Deioces’s son.
Regardless of the empire’s uncertain origins, it seems that during the reign of the Median king, who appears as Umakishtar (Huvakhshtra) in Neo-Babylonian sources and as Cyaxares the grandson of Deioces in Herodutus’s Histories, the Median kingdom emerged as a major power in the ancient Near East. Huvakhshtra reached an agreement with the Neo-Babylonian Empire and used this alliance to attack and destroy the Assyrian Empire in 612 BCE. The collapse of the Assyrian state signaled the rise of the Medes. They followed their victory against the Assyrians by annexing the kingdom of Urartu, which was centered around Lake Van in eastern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), as well as the land of the Mannaeans and the Scythian kingdom. The destruction of Urartu allowed the Medes to emerge as the dominant power in the eastern regions of Asia Minor and a neighbor to the powerful kingdom of Lydia. From 590 to 585 BCE, the two new neighbors fought several inconclusive battles. According to Herodotus, the king of Media, Cyaxares, and the ruler of Lydia, Alyattes, finally agreed to cease all hostilities and establish the Halys River (Kizil Irmak or Red River in present-day eastern Turkey) as the boundary between their two kingdoms. Their alliance would prove particularly fateful in the history of ancient Persia. To solidify the new peace treaty, the son of Cyaxares, Astyages, married a daughter of Alyattes. Shortly after this, Cyaxares died and was succeeded by his son Astyages, who appears in Herodotus’s account as the last ruler of the Median Empire and the grandfather of Cyrus II the Great, founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
According to Herodotus, Astyages was the grandfather of Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire through his daughter, Mandane. Herodotus writes that Astyages had a prophetic dream that alarmed him enough that he arranged a marriage between Mandane and a Persian named Cambyses. After Mandane had been married to Cambyses for a year, Astyages had another prophetic dream foretelling that the Median monarch would be overthrown by his own grandson, the child of Mandane and Cambyses. To prevent such an outcome, Astyages recalled his daughter Mandane to the Median court and put her under strict watch. According to Herodotus, when Cyrus, Mandane’s son, was born, Astyages ordered one of his ministers to mu
rder the infant. The Median official, however, refused to carry out his royal master’s order, and the child was eventually adopted and raised by the shepherd Mithridates. Years later Astyages, who did not have a son of his own, met the young Cyrus and recognized him as his own grandson. Soon afterward the young prince succeeded Cambyses, his father, on the Persian throne. Seeing an opportunity, enemies of Astyages hatched a conspiracy to remove him from the Median throne and replace him with his grandson Cyrus. Today, many historians believe that Herodotus’s account, which presents Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty, as the grandson of Astyages and therefore a half-Median prince, is legendary. In the absence of reliable historical sources, the story told by Herodotus cannot be verified. Indeed, it is impossible to know the exact nature of the relationship between Astyages and Cyrus.
What is known is that the end of the Median Empire did come when Cyrus, now the ruler of Persia, revolted against Astyages. Like their exact relationship, the origins of their conflict remain a mystery. Herodotus claimed that Astyages summoned Cyrus to his court after learning that the Persians intended to revolt. Cyrus, however, responded by sending a threatening message to the Median king saying that he would indeed arrive in Media sooner than Astyages liked. Another source, however, writes that Cyrus initially was defeated in three different battles with the Medes, but he refused to despair and instead rallied his army into a fourth battle with the Medes at Pasargadae in present-day southern Iran. The Persians were defeated again and fled the battlefield, but when they saw their wives and children, they felt so ashamed that they decided to turn around and face the enemy, routing the Median army, which disintegrated. The Neo-Babylonian Chronicle of Nabonidus contradicts these Greek accounts and claims that the king of Media attacked Cyrus, but his army revolted against the king, delivering him as a prisoner to Cyrus. According to Herodotus, after his victory over the Median king Cyrus treated Astyages with kindness and compassion and allowed him to live at his court until he passed away.