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Crassus was annihilated by the Parthian general Surenas at Carrhae in 53 B.C., trumpeting a see-saw
struggle that raged over Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia for the next 33 years. Arsacid attempts to seize
Syria met with failure. Marc Antony's invasion in 36-34 B.C. was repulsed, but civil wars
weakened the
Parthian position, making a common peace desirable.
Augustus (ruled 27 B.C.-14 A.D.) was responsible for the treaty of peace, but the leverage he used on
Phraates was the fact that Tiridates, a usurper, had fled the country and had gone to Rome with Phraates'
younger son. Here was one of the great handicaps of the Arsacid system: intrigues and dynastic
usurpation, which weakened both the succession and the dynasty's hold over far-flung territories. Rome
was able to influence the placement of Parthian rulers. The Median King Artabanus, who came to the
throne in 16 A.D., was a foreigner, fathering a line of kings that once more fought with Rome.
The later wars were disasters. Domitius Corbulo, the commander of the East, in 63 A.D. defeated
Vologases I and his brother Tiridates, in Armenia. In 113 A.D., another Roman invasion, under the
command of Trajan, routed the forces of Oroses. The capital of Ctesiphon was captured, and
Mesopotamia and Assyria were reduced.
Hadrian, in 177 A.D., returned most of the captured territories as part of his policy of establishing stable
frontiers. The last great expansionist attempt took place in 162-165 A.D., when Vologases III was
defeated by the co-Emperor Lucius Verus (realistically, by his general, Avidius Cassius). Ctesiphon was
captured, and a ransom was paid to buy back the kingdom, although much of Mesopotamia was lost.
Subsequently, the Arsacids allowed considerable autonomy on the part of their client kings. In 224 A.D.,
Ardashir, king of Persia, rose up and conquered the neighboring client states, and Artabanus V rode to quell
the rebellion. Ardashir routed Artabanus in a terrible battle, slaying the Arsacid king. As a result, Ardashir
founded the Sassanids, and the dynasty of the Arsacids ended.
As the descendants of the Achaemenids, and thus Medes, the Arsacids maintained the Persian influenced
system of government and lifestyle in their domain. They possessed satrapies, which the Persians had
adopted as their mode of territorial administration, and ruled from Ecbatana and Ctesiphon. Ultimately,
however, the lack of a clear, defined dynastic character prompted the stagnation that made the rise of a
more truly Persian rule possible.
The Arsacid Kings
Name
Date
Arsaces
250-248 B.C.
Tiridates
248-227 B.C.
Artabanus
211 (208)-191 B.C.
Priapitius
191-176 B.C.
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