The movement of the Scythian groups in the direction of present-day northeastern Iran and northern Afghanistan continued after the establishment of the Arsacid dynasty. The Kushans, who established a vast empire in the second century BCE in Central and South Asia, hailed from the Scythians of the Tarim Basin. They were a branch of people called Yüeh-chih (Yuezhi) by the Chinese and Tochari by the Greeks and Romans. The Yüeh-chih moved from Central Asia first to Bactria in the second century BCE. They divided their newly won territory into five principalities. Nearly a century later, the Kushan prince Kujula Kadphises unified all the Yüeh-chih branches under his rule. From their base in Bactria, the Kushans also crossed the Hindu Kush mountain range in the direction of India and occupied Gandhara. The occupation of Gandhara, southeast of the Hindu Kush Mountains, allowed the Kushans to extend their power to the Indus River Valley and the city of Taxila. From here, the Kushans moved farther south to the region of the Yamuna River in the present-day northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where they chose the city of Mathura as their southern capital. Thus, by the beginning of the second century CE, the Kushans, along with the Romans, Parthians, and Chinese, were among the four most powerful states in the world. They ruled vast territories in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Kushan Empire incorporated what is now Tajikistan, a large part of Uzbekistan, possibly parts of Kyrgyzstan and southern Turkmenistan, almost all of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and parts of northern India. In 224 CE, Ardashir, the governor of Istakhr in southern Iran, overthrew the Arsacid state and established the Sasanian dynasty. In 225 Ardashir moved against the Kushans, who submitted to his rule.
See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius I; K&Q, Median: Cyaxares/Huvakhshtra; Peoples: Achaemenid Empire; Arsacids; Media, Medes, and the Median Empire
Further Reading
Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.
Barthold, V. V. Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Translated by V. and T. Minorsky. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1962.
Debevoise, Neilson. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Translated by Naomi Walford. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin, 2003.
Justin. The History of the World. Translated by G. Turnbull. London, 1746.
Kent, Ronald G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.
Lecomte, Oliver. “Vehrânkâ and Dehistan: Late Farming Communities of South-West Turkmenistan from the Iron Age to the Islamic Period.” In Parthica, Incontri Di Culture Nel Mondo Antico, 135–170. Pisa: Istituti Editoriali Poligrafici Internazionali, 1999.
Melyukova, A. I. The Scythians and Sarmatians: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Edited by Denis Sinor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Onyshkevych, Lada. “Scythia and the Scythians.” In Scythian Gold, edited by Ellen D. Reeder. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.
Seleucids
A Macedonian dynasty founded by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, Seleucus, after 312. At the height of its power, the Seleucid state ruled a vast empire extending from present-day Afghanistan in the east to Syria, Palestine, and present-day Lebanon in the west.
After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE in Babylon, his army commanders turned against one another as each tried to carve out his own kingdom. After many years of internecine warfare, Greater Iran, Mesopotamia, and a large part of Asia Minor came under the rule of Seleucus, one of Alexander’s generals. Seleucus was the son of Antiochus, a commander in the army of Phillip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander. Seleucus participated in Alexander’s campaigns against the last Persian Achaemenid monarch, Darius III, and led the Macedonian army units in their battle against King Porus, a ruler in India.
In 324 BCE, a year before his death, Alexander organized a mass wedding party at Susa in present-day southwestern Iran, where he ordered his generals to marry Iranian wives. He hoped that these marriages would create unity between the Macedonians and Iranians. Seleucus was ordered to marry Apame (Apama), a daughter of the Sogdian dignitary Spitaman. The Seleucid dynasty “sprang from this Macedonian-Iranian union” (Bickerman: 4).
After many years of fighting for his own kingdom, Seleucus seized Babylon in 312 BCE. This marked the beginning of the Seleucid era. Beginning in 305 BCE, Seleucus expanded his kingdom eastward, bringing much of present-day Iran and Afghanistan under his rule. In 303 BCE, Seleucus assumed the title of king and established his capital at Seleucia-on-Tigris in present-day southern Iraq. He also used his newly acquired kingdom as a territorial base to extend his rule over Iran. Seleucus captured Media in western Iran and Susiana in southwestern Iran and soon extended his control as far east as Bactria in northern Afghanistan. However, Media Atropatene (present-day Azerbaijan), in northwestern Iran, and Chorasmia, on the lower reaches of the Oxus south of the Aral Sea, remained independent under their own rulers. Seleucus also failed to capture the Indus River basin, which was ceded to Chandragupta, the founder of the powerful Maurya dynasty based in northern India.
After the end of his campaign in the east, Seleucus returned west in 303 BCE. He joined a coalition of several kings, which was formed to contain and defeat the powerful and ambitious Antigonus, another former general of Alexander, who ruled much of Asia Minor. In 301 BCE, Antigonus was defeated and killed at Ipsus in Phrygia (west-central Asia Minor) in the Battle of the Kings. The victors then divided the kingdom of Antigonus, with Seleucus receiving Syria, though another of Alexander’s generals, Ptolemy of Egypt, had already occupied the southern part of the country, known as Coele Syria. The occupation of southern Syria by Ptolemy caused a conflict between the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria that continued for over a century.
In 300 BCE, Seleucus transferred his capital from Seleucia-on-Tigris to a new capital, Antioch, in northern Syria (present-day southern Turkey), which he built on the shores of the Orontes River. This proved to be a fatal decision. The long distance between the new capital and the faraway eastern provinces of the empire in Iran and Central Asia allowed the governors of these regions to revolt and establish their own independent kingdoms. It also provided an opportunity for various nomadic groups in Central Asia to invade the eastern provinces of the Seleucid Empire, dislodge the Seleucid-appointed governors, and establish their own dynasties. Arsaces (Arshak), the founder of the Arsacid dynasty, was one of these nomadic chiefs who created his own kingdom after invading northeastern Iran from Central Asia.
The successors to Seleucus I tried several times to reassert their authority in the east. In 209 BCE, Antiochus III (r. 222–187 BCE) organized a campaign to reestablish Seleucid rule over present-day Iran and northern Afghanistan. He had already conquered the eastern Mediterranean coast, including the seaport of Seleucia-in-Pieria (Tyre in present-day Lebanon), as well as Phoenicia and Palestine. Antiochus’s conquests resulted in a military confrontation with the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy IV, in 217 BCE. In a peace treaty signed following the battle, Antiochus returned all his newly gained territories with the sole exception of Seleucia-in-Pieria, which he managed to retain. He followed his wars with Egypt with a campaign to impose Seleucid authority over Asia Minor. By 213 BCE, he had occupied Sardis in western Asia Minor. In 209 BCE, Antiochus III embarked on an eastern campaign to impose his authority over Iran. He intended to neutralize the threat posed by the newly emerging Arsacid state, which had established itself in Parthia. Antiochus managed to force the Arsacids to make a tactical retreat and acknowledge Seleucid suzerainty, but he failed to destroy them. Antiochus also tried to neutralize the threat posed by Euthydemus, the ruler of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom based in present-day northern Afghanistan. As with the Arsacids, here to
o Antiochus could not dislodge Euthydemus and impose his direct rule. From Bactria, Antiochus crossed the Hindu Kush mountain range and entered the Kabul Valley. He then moved to Arachosia (present-day Qandahar in southern Afghanistan) and, marching through the southeastern Iranian provinces of Drangiana (modern-day Sistan-Baluchistan) and Carmania (modern-day Kerman), reached Parsa (Persis), the birthplace of the Achaemenid dynasty in southern Iran. Having reestablished a network of vassal kingdoms in Iran, Antiochus assumed the Persian Achaemenid title “Great King.” The Greeks honored him with the title “the Great.” After he had returned to Syria, Antiochus used the booty he had collected from his Iranian campaign to attack Egypt. The death of the king of Egypt, Ptolemy IV, offered Antiochus an opportunity to seize southern Syria as well as the southern coastal regions of Asia Minor and the island of Cyprus. After concluding an alliance with Philip V of Macedonia, who sought to impose his rule over western Asia Minor, Antiochus attacked and defeated the Egyptian army sent against him in 200 BCE. With this victory, the Seleucid monarch emerged as the master of southern Syria and Palestine. The military operations of Antiochus’s ally, Philip of Macedonia, forced the smaller and more vulnerable states of western Asia Minor to appeal to Rome for protection. This plea allowed Rome to intervene militarily, defeating Philip of Macedonia. Instead of rushing to the rescue of his ally, Antiochus used the war between Rome and Philip V to attack and occupy the possessions of Ptolemy V in southern Syria and Asia Minor.
Confident of his power, Antiochus now decided to incorporate Thrace and Greece into his empire. Despite repeated diplomatic efforts from Rome, which warned Antiochus against crossing into Europe, the Seleucid monarch continued with his westward push into mainland Greece. In 190 BCE, the Romans finally crossed into Asia. Antiochus, whose fleet had already been destroyed by the combined naval forces of Rome, Rhodes, and Pergamum, sued for peace, but the Romans now demanded that he should withdraw his forces from all his possessions north and west of the Taurus Mountains in present-day southern Turkey. Antiochus rejected the Roman demand and opted for military confrontation. When the two armies clashed in the Battle of Magnesia in late 190 BCE, Antiochus suffered a humiliating defeat. In the Treaty of Apamea in 188 BCE, Antiochus renounced all his claims to territories north and west of the Taurus mountain range in southern Asia Minor. He also agreed to send to Rome a group of hostages, including his son, the future Antiochus IV; to pay a heavy war indemnity; and to surrender his fleet and elephants.
With the defeat at the hands of the Romans, the Seleucid kingdom was reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and parts of Iran. The defeat at Magnesia undermined the credibility of the Seleucids and convinced the Arsacids (Parthians), based in northeastern Iran, to restart their campaigns of territorial expansion into central and western Iran. By the time the Seleucid king Antiochus IV (r. 175–164 BCE) seized the throne in Syria, the power of the Seleucid monarchy was waning rapidly in eastern Iran, though the Seleucid state maintained its rule over Mesopotamia and parts of western and southwestern Iran. Early in his reign, the conflict between the Seleucids and the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt erupted once again over the control of southern Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia. Both Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid kingdom, which had been significantly weakened by decades of warfare and interdynastic rivalries, requested intervention from Rome, but the Roman Senate refused to become involved. In 173 BCE, Antiochus IV paid in full the remainder of the war indemnity imposed on his father by Rome in 188 BCE. In 169 and again in 168 BCE he invaded and occupied Egypt, but under an ultimatum from Rome he was forced to withdraw, although he managed to retain his control over southern Syria. Antiochus organized a military campaign against the Parthians of northeastern Iran, who were pushing their territorial possessions westward, threatening the Seleucid-held Media in north-central and western Iran. Antiochus marched against Armenia and imposed his suzerainty over the Armenian king, Artaxias. Antiochus then led his forces to Elymais to plunder the treasures of an Artemis temple. In Persis in southern Iran, the people revolted against him and forced the Seleucid monarch and his army to withdraw from their province. He then went to Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan in western Iran), the capital of Media, where he injured himself after falling from his chariot. Antiochus IV died from an illness in central Iran in 164 BCE. The planned invasion of Parthia never materialized.
By 145 BCE, when Demetrius II (r. 145–140/139 BCE) ascended the Seleucid throne, the Arsacids, under the leadership of Mithridates I (r. 171–139/138 BCE), were expanding their domains from northeastern Iran to the lands east, west, and southwest of their kingdom. First, Mithridates I defeated the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. He then pushed west and seized Media sometime in 148 or 147 BCE. Next, the Parthian armies invaded Mesopotamia and captured Babylonia, including the city of Seleucia-on-Tigris in 141 BCE. The victories of Mithridates I forced the Seleucid monarch Demetrius II to respond by invading Iran. This campaign proved to be disastrous. Demetrius was defeated and captured by the Arsacids in 139 BCE. The humiliated Seleucid king was first paraded in public and then transported to Hyrcania in northern Iran, where Mithridates I received him with kindness. Demetrius tried twice to escape northeastern Iran and return to Syria, but both attempts proved futile, and he was captured. Meanwhile in Syria, his wife and queen, Cleopatra Thea, ascended the throne as regent. However, a usurper named Tryphon emerged as a pretender to the throne. To save the Seleucid state, the younger brother of Demetrius II, Antiochus, returned to Syria in 139 BCE. He ascended the throne as Antiochus VII and married his brother’s wife, Cleopatra Thea. In 138 BCE Antiochus defeated Tryphon before moving against Jerusalem, which he captured in 135/134 BCE.
With Palestine under his rule, Antiochus VII shifted his focus to the east with the goal of restoring Seleucid rule in Iran. In 130 BCE, he attacked and defeated Parthian armies in three military campaigns. With winter approaching, Antiochus scattered his army and stationed its various units in different towns and cities of western Iran. The behavior of these units, however, caused the populace in several urban centers to revolt against Antiochus VII. The Arsacid monarch, Phraates II, used this golden opportunity to put an army in the field. Wishing “to feel out” his enemy first, Phraates II sent envoys “to discuss terms of peace” (Diodorus Siculus: XXXIV/XXXV.14.15). Antiochus VII responded that he would be willing to cease hostilities and conclude a peace treaty only if certain conditions were met. He demanded that Phraates release his brother, Demetrius, from captivity; withdraw forces from the provinces that the Parthians had seized; and pay tribute to the Seleucid king as his overlord (Diodorus Siculus: XXXIV/XXXV.14.15). Phraates II rejected these demands. The Arsacid king released Demetrius from captivity and allowed him to return to Syria. Phraates probably hoped that the return of Demetrius would result in a civil war between the two brothers. Phraates also placed a large army in the field. Against the advice of his officials who pleaded with him to avoid a hasty foray, Antiochus marched against the much larger Parthian force. When the two armies joined battle, Phraates II defeated Antiochus, who was killed on the battlefield (Diodorus Siculus: XXXIV/XXXV.15.16). Though victorious against a formidable adversary, Phraates II organized a magnificent funeral for the fallen Seleucid monarch and sent his body to Syria in a silver casket. Phraates also married the daughter of Demetrius II who had accompanied Antiochus VII to Iran (Justin: XXXVIII.10). The victory of Phraates II over Antiochus VII put an end to Seleucid rule in Iran. With the death of Antiochus VII, Syria was engulfed in a civil war. In 64 BCE the remaining territory of the Seleucid state, which was confined to Syria and the southern coastal region of Asia Minor in present-day Turkey, was conquered by the Romans. With the disappearance of the Seleucid state, the Roman Republic and the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire became neighbors.
See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Darius III; K&Q, Seleucid: Seleucus I Nicator; Peoples: Achaemenid Empire; Primary Documents: Document 23
Further Reading
Bickerman, E. “The Seleucid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Ira
n, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 3–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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.
Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.
Justin. The History of the World. Translated by G. Turnbull. London, 1746.
Rawlinson, George. The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy. Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976.
Sherwin-White, Susan M., and Amélie Kuhrt. From Samarkand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr
Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr [The Provincial Capitals of Iran] is a book of geography written in Middle Persian. The book lists the important cities of ancient Iran, the history of their construction, and their significance in Iranian political and religious history. The author divides Eranshahr (Land of Iran) into four distinct regions: the northeast, or Khwarasan (New Persian: Khorasan); the southwest, or Khwarwaran (New Persian: Khavaran); the southeast, or Nemroz (New Persian: Nimruz); and the northwest, or Adurbadagan (New Persian: Azerbaijan). Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr relies on a mixture of historical, religious, and legendary sources, including traditional stories and myths from ancient Iran and various accounts from the Zoroastrian scripture, the Avesta. We do not know the date for the first composition of the text of Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr, but from references to cities, countries, and individuals in the book, it becomes clear that the material was revised on several occasions during the reign of the Sasanian dynasty as well as during the Islamic era. The final version of the text was most probably prepared during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775 CE).
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