Parthia

Anciently a country of Western Asia, lying at the southeast end of the Caspian Sea, from which it was separated by a narrow strip, known as Hyrcania, now forms the northern portion of Khor as san, and is an almost wholly mountainous region. The original inhabitants are believed to have been of Scythian race, as shown by their language as well as by their manners, and to belong to the great Indo-Germanic family. The Parthians, during the time of the Roman republic, were distinguished by primitive simplicity of life and extreme bravery, though, at the same time, much given to bacchanalian and voluptuous pleasures. They neglected agriculture and commerce, devoting their whole time to predatory expeditions and warfare. They fought on horseback, and after a peculiar fashion. Being armed solely with bows and arrows, they were rendered defensele after the first discharge, and, to gain time for adjusting a second arrow to the bow, turned their horses, and retired, as if in full flight; but an enemy incautiously pursuing was immediately a ailed by a second flight of arrows; a second pretended flight followed, and the conflict was thus carried on till the Parthians gained the victory, or exhausted their quivers. They generally discharged their arrows backwards, holding the bow behind the shoulder; a mode of attack more dangerous to a pursuing enemy than to one in order of battle. The Parthians first appeared in history as subject to the great Persian empire. After the death of Alexander the Great, Parthia formed part of the Syrian kingdom, but revolted under Antiochus II., and constituted itself into an independent kingdom under the Arsacidæ , 250 B.C. , a race of kings who exercised the most completely despotic authority ever known. The Part hi an dominion rapidly became a most powerful and flourishing empire. In spite of repeated attacks on the part of the Romans, the Parthians maintained their independence; and though Trajan, in 115-116, seized certain portions of the country, the Romans were soon compelled to abandon them. In 214, during the reign of Art a ban us IV., the last of the Arsacidæ, a revolt headed by Ardshir, son of Babegan, broke out in Persia, and the Part hi an monarch, beaten in three engagements, lost his throne and life, while the victor substituted the Persian dynasty of the Sa anidæ for that of the Arsacidæ. Some scions of the Part hi an royal family continued for several centuries to rule over the mountainous district of Armenia, under the protection of the Romans, and made frequent descents upon As syria and Babylonia.