death a monarch seems generally to have been the object of a qualified worship; statues were erected to him in the temples, where (apparently) they were associated with the images of the great luminaries.1 Of the Parthian Court and its customs we have no account that is either complete or trustworthy. Some particulars, however, may be gathered of it on which we may place reliance. The best authorities are agreed that it was not stationary, but migrated at different times of the year to different cities of the Empire, in this resembling the Court of the Achæmenians. It is not quite clear, however, which were the cities thus honoured. Ctesiphon was undoubtedly one of them. All writers agree that it was the chief city of the Empire, and the ordinary seat of the government. Here, according to Strabo, the kings passed the winter months, delighting in the excellence of the air. The town was situated on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to Seleucia, twelve or thirteen miles below the modern Baghdad. Pliny says that it was built by the Parthians in order to reduce Seleucia to insignificance, and that when it failed of its purpose, they built another city, Vologesocerta, in the same neighbourhood with the same object; but the account of Strabo is more Priapatius was the first Theopator' | 6 Ar 3 taxata deportaverat, ea Artasires confregit.' 2 Pliny calls it' caput regnorum' (H. N. vi. 26); Tacitus, 'sedes imperii' (Ann. vi. 26). Dio Cassius describes it as rougĥ βασίλεια [οἱ Πάρθοι] ἔχουσι (Hist. Rom. xl. 45); Ammianus (xxiii. 6, p. 402), as Persidis specimen summum.' 3 Ειώθασιν ἐνταῦθα τοῦ χειμῶνος διάγειν οἱ βασιλεῖς διὰ τὸ εὐαερον (xvi. 1, § 16). 4 H. N. vi. 26; § 122. probable-viz., that it grew up gradually out of the wish of the Parthian kings to spare Seleucia the unpleasantness of having the rude soldiery, which followed the Court from place to place, quartered upon them.1 The remainder of the year, Strabo tells us, was spent by the Parthian kings either at the Median city of Ecbatana, which is the modern Hamadan, or in the province of Hyrcania. In Hyrcania, the palace, according to him, was at Tapé; and between this place and Ecbatana he no doubt regarded the monarchs as spending the time which was not passed at Ctesiphon. Athenæus, however, declares that Rhages was the spring residence of the Parthian kings; and it seems not unlikely that this famous city, which Isidore, writing in Parthian times, calls the greatest in Media,' ,5 among the occasional residences of the Court. Parthia itself was, it would seem, deserted; but still a city of that region preserved in one respect a royal character, being the place where all the earlier kings were interred.7 6 was The pomp and grandeur of the Parthian monarchs are described only in the vaguest terms by the classical writers. No author of repute appears to have visited the Parthian Court. We may perhaps best obtain a true notion of the splendour of the sovereign from the accounts which have reached us of his relations and 1 Strab. l.s.c. Ταύτην ἐποιοῦντο | have been paid to Hecatompylos, χειμάδιον οἱ τῶν Παρθυαίων βασιλεῖς, where the old palace of the early φειδόμενοι τῶν Σελευκέων, ἵνα μὴ kings was maintained at least to the κατασταθμεύοιντο ὑπὸ τοῦ Σκυθικοῦ time of Strabo (xi. 9, § 1); but the φύλου καὶ στρατιωτικού, province was not rich enough to furnish food for the vast numbers of the later Court. (Ibid.) 2 Strab. 1.s.c. Compare xi. 13, $ 1. 3 Ibid. xi. 7, § 2. Deipnosoph. xii. 8; p. 514. 5 Mans. Parth. § 7. An occasional flying visit may 7 Isid. Char. Mans. Parth. § 12. In later times Arbela appears to have become the royal buryingplace (D. Cass. lxxviii. 1). officers, who can have reflected only faintly the magnificence of the sovereign. Plutarch tells us that the general whom Orodes deputed to conduct the war against Crassus came into the field accompanied by two hundred litters wherein were contained his concubines, and by a thousand camels which carried his baggage. His dress was fashioned after that of the Medes; he wore his hair parted in the middle, and had his face painted with cosmetics. A body of ten thousand horse, composed entirely of his clients and slaves, followed him in battle. We may conclude from this picture, and from the general tenor of the classical notices, that the Arsacidæ revived and maintained very much such a Court as that of the old Achæmenian princes, falling probably somewhat below their model in politeness and refinement, but equalling it in luxury, in extravagant expenditure, and in display. Such seems to have been the general character of those practices and institutions which distinguished the Parthians from the foundation of their Empire by Mithridates. Some of them, it is probable, he rather adopted than invented; but there is no good reason for doubting that of many he was the originator. He appears to have been one of those rare individuals to whom it has been given to unite the powers which form the conqueror with those which constitute the successful organiser of a State. Brave and enterprising in war, prompt to seize an occasion and to turn it to the best advantage, not even averse to severities where they seemed to be required, he yet felt no acrimony towards those who had resisted his arms, but was ready to be 1 Plutarch, Vit. Crass. § 21. Comp. Appian, Parthica, p. 141, A. 2 Plut. Vit. Crass. § 24. friend them so soon as their resistance ceased. Mild, clement, philanthropic,' he conciliated those whom he subdued almost more easily than he subdued them, and by the efforts of a few years succeeded in welding together a dominion which lasted without suffering serious mutilation for nearly four centuries. Though not dignified with the epithet of 'Great,' he was beyond all question the greatest of the Parthian monarchs. Later times did him more justice than his contemporaries, and, when the names of almost all the other kings had sunk into oblivion, retained his in honour, and placed it on a par with that of the original founder of Parthian independence.2 1 Diod. Sic. xxxiii. 20. ὅλων πλὴν Αἰγύπτου ἡγοῦντο, ̓Αρσάκου μὲν πρότερον τῆς ἀποστά σεως ἀρξαμένου, ὡς καὶ ̓Αρσακίδας τοὺς μετ ̓ αὐτὸν ὀνομάζεσθαι, Μιθρι δάτου δὲ οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἐς μέγα τι κλέος τὸ Παρθυαίων ὄνομα ἐξενεγκόντος. (Hist. ii. 25, ad See Agathias, who, writing under the Byzantine emperors, ab. A.D. 560-580, thus sums up the Parthian period: Παρθυαῖοι, ἔθνος κατήκοον καὶ ἥκιστα ἐν τῷ πρὸ τοῦ ὀνομαστότατον, παρέλυσαν τῆς ἀρχῆς τοὺς Μακεδόνας. Καὶ εἶτα ἐκεῖνοι τῶν | fin.) Reign of Phraates II. CHAPTER VII. Expedition of Antiochus Sidetes against Parthia. Release of Demetrius. 'Post necem Mithridatis, Parthorum regis, Phrahates filius ejus rex 2 MITHRIDATES was succeeded by his son, Phraates, the second monarch of the name, and the seventh Arsaces. This prince, entertaining, like his father, the design of invading Syria, and expecting to find some advantage from having in his camp the rightful occupant of the Syrian throne,1 treated the captive Demetrius with even greater kindness than his father had done, not only maintaining him handsomely, but even giving him his sister, Rhodoguné, in marriage. Demetrius, however, was not to be reconciled to his captivity by any such blandishments, and employed his thoughts chiefly in devising plans by which he might escape. By the help of a friend, he twice managed to evade the vigilance of his guards, and to make his way from Hyrcania towards the frontiers of his own kingdom; but each time he was pursued and caught without effecting his purpose. The Parthian monarch was no doubt vexed at his pertinacity, and on the second occasion thought it prudent to feign, if he did not even really feel, offence: he banished his ungrateful brother-in-law from his 1 Justin, xxxviii. 9, § 10., 2 Appian, Syriac. p. 132, A. Justin, however, makes the marriage take place in the reign of Mithridates (xxxviii. 9, § 3). 3 Justin, § 4-8. |