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a grim humour, which led him to threaten more than he intended, in order to see how men would comport themselves when greatly alarmed.1 There is some evidence that he aimed at saying good things; though it must be confessed that the wit is not of a high order.2 Altogether, he has more character than most Oriental monarchs; and the monotony of Arsacid biography is agreeably interrupted by the idiosyncrasy which his words and conduct indicate.

conduct towards Seleucus, Antio- | As it does not appear that Phraates chus' son, and (in a less degree) took any steps to carry out his in his treatment of Antiochus' threat, it can scarcely have been body. serious.

This is the impression raised by the story which Diodorus tells about the Seleucenses. "The Seleucenses,' he says, 'understanding that Arsaces was angry with them, sent ambassadors to deprecate his wrath, and bade them be sure to bring back an answer from the king. So Arsaces took the ambassadors to the place where Pitthides, a man whose eyes had been put out, was wont to sit, and said"Tell the men of Seleucia that they all deserve the fate of Pitthides!"",

2 Besides the above story, there is an anecdote of Phraates told by Posidonius, which deserves to be noticed. When Antiochus, who made war upon Arsaces,' he says,

was dead, and the latter was occupying himself about his funeral, he exclaimed, "Oh, Antiochus, thy rashness and thy intemperance were thy ruin; in thy mighty cups thou thoughtest to swallow down the kingdom of the Arsacidæ !", (Posid. Fr. 20.)

CH. VIII.]

ACCESSION OF ARTABANUS II.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Accession of Artabanus II. Position of Parthia. Growing pressure upon her, and general advance towards the south, of the Saka or Scyths. Causes and extent of the movement. Character and principal tribes of the Saka. Scythic war of Artabanus. His death.

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Imperium Asiæ [Scythæ] ter quæsivere.'-Justin, ii. 3, § 1. THE successor of Phraates was his uncle, Artabanus,1 a son of Priapatius. It is probable that the late king had either left no son, or none of sufficient age to be a fit occupant of the throne at a season of difficulty. The 'Megistanes,' therefore, elected Artabanus in his nephew's place, a man of mature age, and, probably, of some experience in war. The situation of Parthia, despite her recent triumph over the Syro-Macedonians, was critical; and it was of the greatest importance that the sceptre should be committed to one who would bring to the discharge of his office those qualities of wisdom, promptness, and vigour, which a crisis demands.

The difficulty of the situation was two-fold. In the first place, there was an immediate danger to be escaped. The combined Greeks and Scythians, who had defeated the Parthian army and slain the monarch, might have been expected to push their advantage to

1 Justin, xlii. 2, § 1.

2 Justin's phrase (In hujus locum Artabanus, patruus ejus, rex substituitur') implies their election, which, besides, we know to have been the regular course of procedure.

(See above, p. 85.)

3 As Priapatius died in or about B.C. 181, Artabanus could not in B.C. 127 be less than fifty-four years of age.

the utmost, and seek to establish themselves as conquerors in the country which lay apparently at their mercy. At any rate, the siege and sack of some of the chief towns was a probable contingency, if permanent occupation of the territory did not suit the views of the confederates. The new monarch had to rid Parthia of her invaders at as little cost as possible, before he could allow himself to turn his attention to any other matter whatsoever. Nor did this, under the circumstances, appear to be an easy task. The flower of the Parthian troops had been destroyed in the late battle, and it was not easy to replace them by another native army. The subject-nations were at no time to be depended upon when Parthia was reduced to straits, and at the present conjuncture some of the most important were in a condition bordering upon rebellion. Himerus, the viceroy left by Phraates in Babylonia, had first driven the Babylonians and Seleucians to desperation by his tyranny,' and then plunged into a war with the people of Mesêné,2 which must have made it difficult for him to send Artabanus any contingent. Fortunately for the Parthians, the folly, or moderation, of their enemies rendered any great effort on their part unnecessary. The Greeks, content with having revenged themselves, gave the new monarch no trouble

1 The tyranny of this governor is witnessed to in a general way by Justin (xlii. 1, § 3), and Posidonius (Fr. 21). Some particulars of it are given by Diodorus. Evemerus,' he says, the Parthian king, was a Hyrcanian by race, and exceeded in cruelty all other tyrants on record. There was no form of punishment which he omitted to use. On accusations of a trivial character he condemned many of the Babylonians

to slavery, and sent them with their families into Media to be publicly sold. He burnt the market-place of Babylon, and several of the temples, destroying at the same time the finest portion of the city.'

2 Trog. Pomp. Prolog. lib. xlii. Ut præfectus Parthis a Phraate Mesenis bellum intulit.' Mesêné was the tract between Babylonia and the sea; it had probably not yet been made subject to Parthia.

CH. VIII.] DANGER TO PARTHIA FROM THE SCYTHS. 113

at all the Scythians were satisfied with plundering and wasting the open country, after which they returned quietly to their homes.' Artabanus found himself quit of the immediate danger which had threatened him almost without exertion of his own, and could now bend his thoughts to the position of his country generally, and the proper policy to pursue under the circumstances.

For there was a second and more formidable danger impending over the State-a danger not casual and temporary like the one just escaped, but arising out of a condition of things in neighbouring regions which had come about slowly, and which promised to be permanent. To give the reader the means of estimating this danger aright, it will be necessary to take a somewhat wide view of the state of affairs on the northern and north-eastern frontiers of Parthia for some time previously to the accession of Artabanus, to trace out the causes which were at work, producing important changes in these regions, and to indicate the results which threatened, and those which were accomplished. The opportunity will also serve for giving such an account of the chief races which here bordered the empire, as will show the nature of the peril to which Parthia was exposed at this period.

In the wide plains of Northern Asia, extending from the Arctic Ocean to the Thian Chan mountains and the Jaxartes, there had been nurtured from a remote antiquity a nomadic population, at no time very numerous in proportion to the area over which it was spread, but liable on occasions to accumulate, owing to a combination of circumstances, in this or that

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1 Justin, xlii. 2, § 1. Scythæ | Parthia, in patriam revertuntur.' autem contenti victoria, depopulata

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portion of the region occupied, and at such times causing trouble to its neighbours. From about the close of the third century B. C., symptoms of such an accumulation had begun to display themselves in the tract immediately north of the Jaxartes, and the inhabitants of the countries south of that river had suffered from a succession of raids and inroads, which were not regarded as dangerous, but which gave constant annoyance. Crossing the great desert of Kharesm by forced marches, some of the hordes invaded the green valleys of Hyrcania and Parthia, and carried desolation over those fair and flourishing districts.1 About the same time other tribes entered the Bactrian territory and caused alarm to the Greek kingdom recently established in that province.2 It appears that the Parthian monarchs, unable to save their country from incursions, consented to pay a sort of black mail to their invaders, by allowing them the use of their pasture grounds at certain fixed timesprobably during some months of each year.3 The Bactrian princes had to pay a heavier penalty. Province after province of their kingdom was swallowed up by the northern hordes, who gradually occupied Sogdiana, or the tract between the lower Jaxartes and the lower Oxus, whence they proceeded to make inroads into Bactria itself. The rich land on the Poly

1 Strab. xi. 8, § 3.

2 That the pressure of the nomadic hordes on Bactria began as early as the reign of Euthydemus (B.C. 220-200), appears from his representations to Antiochus (Polyb. xi. 34, § 5).

3 Strab. 1.s.c. Οἱ δὲ συνέθεντο φόρους· φόρος δ ̓ ἦν τὸ ἐπιτρέπειν τακτοῖς τισι χρόνοις τὴν χώραν

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κατατρέχειν καὶ φέρεσθαι λείαν. understand this as a pasture right similar to that claimed by the Samnites in Campania (Arnold, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 108), only enjoyed at a different time of the

year.

4 Strab. xi. 8, § 2 and § 4; Trog. Pomp. Prol. lib. xli.

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