Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MA in Archeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University ‎of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jis.2023.350547.1167

Abstract

The beginning of the Parthian dynasty and the identity of Arsaces I as the head of this dynasty is one of the most mysterious parts of Parthian history. Based on the analysis of the written sources regarding the identity of Arsaces, these sources can be divided into two different historiographical traditions: one by Apollodorus and his followers Justin and Strabo, and the other by Arrian and his followers (Photius, Zosimus, Syncellus, Dio). Meanwhile, a narrative has been more welcomed among Parthian history and archeology researchers. According to this narrative, Arsaces was a Scythian who was the head of the Aparni tribe of the Dahae union. Then, based on this version of the origin of the Parthians, in the middle of the 3rd century BC, Arsaces took advantage of the confusion of the Seleucid empire in the west and together with the Aparni, captured the Seleucid state of Parthia and and provided the foundation for the formation of the Parthian Empire. The main reference and the most effective spreader of the concept of nomadic and Scythian Parthians is Strabo. He was inspired by the older Hellenistic historians in understanding the origin of the Parthians, however, none of them lived before the second century BC. In this research, the researchers based on archaeological evidence and analysis of written sources, say that the Arrian historiography tradition and his followers based on the fact that Arsaces was a native Parthian are closer to the political and social realities of the Parthian period, and we argue that Arsaces I was never able to create a kingdom comparable to the Seleucid Empire, he just managed a tributary state under the rule of the Seleucids. The establishment of the Parthian kingdom based on local and Parthian elements could have taken place only after the reign of Antiochus III (223/2-187b.c). In fact, there is no direct or indirect evidence for the Parthian Empire in Iran in the 3rd century b.c. If the early Parthian kingdom had essentially a territorial foundation, it could not have been anything more than a regional power.

Keywords

Main Subjects

بدیع، امیر مهدی (1384). یونانیان و بربرها (روی دیگر تاریخ)، ترجمة قاسم صنعوی، ج6، دفتر اول و چهارم، تهران: توس.
پورداوود، ابراهیم (1380). میهن، فرهنگ ایران باستان، تهران: اساطیر.
تامارا، تالبوت رایس (1388). سکاها، ترجمة رقیه بهزادی. تهران: طهوری.
رضاخانی، خداداد (1383) «تیرداد و اردوان، نگاهی به نسب‌نامة نخستین شاهان اشکانی». مجلة فرهنگ، بهار و تابستان، ش49-50، 193ـ194.
کاویانی‌پویا، حمید (1396). «بررسی موقعیت جغرافیایی داهه و جایگاه سیاسی، نظامی و اقتصادی پرثوه/ پارت در عصر ماد و هخامنشی»، مجلة پژوهشنامة خراسان بزرگ، ش 24، 1-14.
دیاکونوف، ا.م (1383). تاریخ ماد، ترجمۀ کریم کشاورز، تهران: علمی و فرهنگی.
ده‏پهلوان، مصطفی (1389). «شهر دارا با استناد به نظر مورخان کلاسیک و معاصر و یافته‏های باستان‏شناسی»، پژوهش‏های باستان‌شناسی مدرس، س2، ش3، بهار و تابستان.
نیبرگ، س (1383). دین‏های ایران باستان، ترجمة سیف‏الدین نجم‏آبادی، کرمان: دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان.
نصراله‌زاده سیروس؛ گرشاسبی، اشکان (1395). «القاب و عناوین پادشاهان اشکانی بر روی سکه‏ها»، دوفصلنامة علمی‌ـ پژوهشی تاریخ‌نگری و تاریخ‏نگاری دانشگاه الزهرا، س26، دورة جدید، ش 18، پیاپی 103، پاییز و زمستان 1395.‎
هرتسفلد. ا (1381). ایران در شرق باستان، ترجمة همایون صنعتی‌زاده، تهران: پژوهشگاه علوم انسانی و مطالعات فرهنگی.
ولسکی، ی (1383). شاهنشاهی اشکانی، ترجمة مرتضی ثاقب‏فر، تهران: ققنوس.
 
Appian, The Syrian Wars 13: https://www.livius.org/.
Arrian's History of the Expedition of Alexander the Great, and Conquest of Persia. J. Davis, 1812.
Assar, G. F. 2004, Genealogy and coinage of the early Parthian rulers. II. A Revised Stemma. Genealogy and Coinage of the Early Parthian Rulers. II. A Revised Stemma, 1000-1035.
Beckwith, C.I., 2009, Empires of the Silk Road. Princeton University Press.
Briant, P., 1984, L'Asie centrale et les royaumes proche-orientaux du premier millénaire (c. VIII-IV siècles avant notre ère). Mémoire de l'institut mauritanien de la recherche scientifique, (42), pp.1-113.
Bevan, E. R. 1902, The house of Seleucus (Vol. 2). E. Arnold.
Cassius, D. The history by cassius Dio book 40.15.2,49.20.2: published in Vol. V of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1917.
Colledge, M.A., 1977, Parthian art. Elek.
Debevoise, N.C., 1938, A political history of Parthia (pp. 121-47). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dandamaev, Muhammad A. 1989, A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. LEIDEN: Brill.
Dabrowa, E. 2008, The political propaganda of the first Arsacids and its targets (from Arsaces I to Mithradates II). The Political Propaganda of the First Arsacids and its Targets (From Arsaces I to Mithradates II), 1000-1007.
Dilmaghani, J. 2017, History of Parthia based on the Coins Part One: the beginning.
Ellerbrock, U. 2021. The Parthians: The Forgotten Empire. Routledge.
Eusebius: Chronicle Olympiads of the greeks- pages 191-247:
http://www.attalus.org/bc3/year247.html#1
Frye, R. N. 1984, The history of ancient Iran (Vol. 7). CH Beck.
Garrison, M. B. 2010, “Archers at Persepolis: The emergence of royal ideology at the heart of the empire.” In J. Curtis and St. J. Simpson (eds.) The world of Achaemenid Persia: history, art and society in Iran and the ancient Near East. Proceedings of a conference at the British Museum 29th September– 1st October 2005, 337–359. London, British Museum.
Gleason, C. W. 1897. The Cyropaedia of Xenophon. American Book Company.
Herodotus, 1931, Herodotus, with an English Translation by AD Godley. London,, New York,: W. Heinemann;, GP Putnam’s sons.
Hauser, S. R.2013b. “The Arsacids (Parthians).” In The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, edited by Dan Potts. New York: Oxford University Press.
Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories Translated by Rev. J.S.Watson (1853).
Jettmar, K., 1967, Art of the Steppes. Greystone Press.
Kidd, F. 2016. “Complex Connections : Figurative Art from Akchakhan-Kala and the Problematic Question of Relations between Khorezm and Parthia” 17: 229–76.
Lerner, J. 2017, Mithridates I and the Parthian archer. Arsacids, Romans and Local Elites, 1-24.
Lerner, J.D., 2003, Correcting the early history of Āy Kānoum. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, 35, p.393.
Lerner, J.D., 1999,The impact of Seleucid decline on the Eastern Iranian Plateau: the foundations of Arsacid Parthia and Graeco-Bactria (Vol. 123). Franz Steiner Verlag.
Lozinski, B.P., 1959, The original homeland of the Parthians.
Marcellinus, A., 2020, The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus. Wyatt North Publishing, LLC.
Overtoom, N. L. 2021, A Fight to Reclaim the Central Asian Frontier. The Seleucid and Parthian Rivalry in the 230s BC.
Overtoom, N. L.2016. “The Power-Transition Crisis of the 240s BCE and the Creation of the Parthian State.” International History Review 38 (5): 984–1013. https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2016.1140669.
Olbrycht, M. J.2021, Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 BC): At the Crossroads of Iranian, Hellenistic, and Central Asian History. Brill.
Olbrycht, M. Jan. 2019, “The Memory of the Past: The Achaemenid Legacy in the Arsakid Period.” Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae 14.
Olbrycht, M.J 2015, “Arsacid Iran and the Nomads of Central Asia–Ways of Cultural Transfer.” Complexity of Interaction along the Eurasian Steppe Zone in the First Millennium CE 333–90.Wolski, J., 1947. Effondrement de la domination des Séleucides en Iran au III-e siècle av. J.-C.(fr.).
Olbrycht, M. J. 2013, “The Titulature of Arsaces I, King of Parthia.” The Titulature of Arsaces I, King of Parthia 63–74.
Olbrycht, M. J. 2003, Parthia and nomads of Central Asia. Elements of steppe origin in the social and military developments of Arsacid Iran. Difference and Integration3(3).
Olbrycht, M. 1998, “Die Kultur Der Spetengebiete Und Die Beziehungen Zwischen Nomaden Und Der Sischaften Bevolkerung (Der Arsakidische Iran Und Die Nomadenvolker).” Pp. 11–44 in In Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse, edited by Josef Wishofer. Stuttgart: Franz Stenier Verlag Stuttgar.
Olbrycht, M.1997b. “Parthian King’s Tiara—Numismatic Evidence and Some Aspects of Arsacid Political Ideology.” Notae Numismaticae 2: 27–65.
Polybius: the history of polybius, book X.27, XI.34.5: published in Vol. IV of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1922 thru 1927.
Pilipko, V., & Livshits, V. 2004, Parthian ostraca from the central Building complex of old Nisa. Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia10(1-2), 139-181.
Photius, Bibliotheca at The Tertullian Project: https://www.tertullian.org.
Ptolemy. Geographia. Translated by Jacobus Angelus (c. 1406).
Rostovtzeff, M. 1936. “The Sarmatae and Parthians.” Cambridge Ancient History, XI 94.
Sellwood. D., 1980, The Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia, 2nd Edition, Spink and Son Ltd., London.
Sellwood. D., 2006,Parthian Coin, (Ch. 8(a)), The Cambridge history of Iran, Vol. 3 : The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods, Part1. Iran History, By: Yarshater, Ehsan, Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge.
Sherwin-White, S.M. and Kuhrt, A., 1993, From Samarkhand to Sardis: A new approach to the Seleucid empire (Vol. 13). Univ of California Press.
Shahbazi, A. 1986, Arsacids – Origins. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Available online: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ arsacids-i (visited 09/04/2021).
Strootman, R. 2018, The Coming of the Parthians: Crisis and Resilience in the Reign of Seleukos II. The Seleukid Empire, 281–222 BC, pp.129-50.
Strabo. n.d. “LacusCurtius • Strabo’s Geography — Book XI Chapter 3.” Retrieved December7, 2020: (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/11C*.html).
Strabo, 1949, The Geography of Strabo: With an English Translation by Horace Leonard Jones. Harvard University Press.
St. Jerome ( Hieronymus ) for Olympiads 111 to169: Chronological Tables 110 B.C.] translated by A.Schoene.
Syncellus 284 b in Roos 1967ii:224-226:
Syncellus (http://www.attalus.org/translate/fgh.html#156.30.
Sellwood, D. 1980, An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia. London: Spink & Son.
Schippmann. K. “ARSACIDS ii. The Arsacid dynasty,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, II/5, pp. 525-536, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arsacids-ii.
Tafażżolī, A. 1986, "Āraš Kay" /Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition/ Vol. II, Fasc. 3, pp. 267-268; an updated version is available online at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arasakay-avestan-kavi-arsan-a-member-of-the-kayanid-dynasty-iniranian-legend.
Tacitus,1994, The Annals & the Histories the Great book of the Western world (M.J. Adler) ed,Chicago.
Wolski, J., 1993, L'empire des Arsacides. Brill.
-Wroth, W.W., 1903, Catalogue of the Coins of Parthia (Vol. 23). The Trustees.
Zosimus I - 18 in:https://www.livius.org/sources/content/zosimus/zosimus-new-history-1/zosimus-new-history-1.18.
Васильев, В. Н. and Н. С. Савельев. 1993, “Ранние Дахи Южного Урала По Письменным Источникам.”
Кошеленко, Г. А. 1968, Некоторые вопросы истории ранней Парфии. ВДИ1, 53-71