Who were the Parthians?

The name of the Parthians often raises questions, and their territory is hard to define. Scholars have established that the tribe of the Parthians may be closely linked to the Scythians who lived southeast of the Caspian Sea. 

The Parthians appeared in history after the death of Alexander the Great, when Seleucos inherited the largest portion of the lands he had conquered in the east, from the eastern Mediterranean to Bactria and India. Seleucos kept the existing Persian governing system of satraps in place, and at an early stage, Parthia became one of its satrapies. 

Seleucos founded the Seleucid Empire and soon discovered that ruling such a vast territory was a nearly impossible task. As the empire weakened, the Parthians revolted and established their independence. 

The first king of Parthia was Arsaces, who came to power in 247 BC. Not for long, as the Seleucid King Antiochus III managed to reconquer Parthia in 209 BC from Arsaces’ son, the new king Arsaces II. For some unknown reason, Antiochus did not want to kill his enemy and established him instead as satrap. This did not sit well with the Parthian nobility, and as soon as Antiochus left for Syria, they deposed Arsaces II and proclaimed Phriapatius as their new king in 191 BC. 

Meanwhile, the Romans subdued Antiochus III according to the Treaty of Apamea, signed in 188 BC. Now that the Seleucid King was no longer a threat, Phriapatius’ son, Phraates, took heart and conquered the territories between Hyrcania in the east and Media in the southwest. He created a solid base for his brother Mithridates, who succeeded him on the throne in 171 BC. 

At this point, Parthia started a new era. Mithridates conquered the Bactrian kingdom in 168 BC and then turned west. He took Media from Phraates in 151 BC and then focused on Mesopotamia. He captured the capital city of Seleucia, followed by Babylon in 141 BC, and Susa three years later. 

Phraates II, Mithridates’ son, continued the fight for power. A worthy successor to his father, but his power was short-lived as he soon died in an attempt to stop a Scythian mutiny. From then onward, Parthia would be torn by successive uprisings and battles. After the death of Phraates II, Parthia was ruled by his uncle, Artabanus I, who crushed several revolts in his short life. 

His son, Mithridates II, in turn, would become Parthia’s greatest ruler (124-91 BC). He strengthened his position in Bactria, Mesopotamia, Characene (on the Iran-Iraq border where Alexander had founded Alexandria-on-the-Tigris, modern Charax Spasinou), and the realm of Babylon. He also annexed the lands of Albania and Armenia, together with the vital Syrian city of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates. Roughly, the Parthian Empire now stretched from the Mediterranean all the way to China! 

No wonder Parthia was very much coveted by the rising Roman Empire and lost several territories, including Armenia. The tables were turned in 53 BC when Crassus invaded Parthia near Carrhae (see: Harran, better known under its Roman name Carrhae) and lost. Rome suffered a severe psychological blow. The situation worsened when Marc Antony was defeated in 32 BC in an effort to keep hold of Armenia. After decades of constant fighting, Emperor Augustus secured a peace agreement with King Phraates IV in 20 BC. Instead of fighting each other, both rulers agreed to unite their efforts against enemies outside their borders. 

No treaty lasted forever, and after several skirmishes back and forth, Emperor Trajan invaded Mesopotamia in 115 AD, looting the capital cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. At about the same time, Parthia was invaded on its eastern border by the Kushans, who established their empire in Bactria. 

However, two years later, Parthia, now ruled by Vologases IV, was invaded by Hadrian, Trajan’s successor. Lucius Verus, the adopted son of Marcus Aurelius, followed suit and sacked Seleucia and Ctesiphon once again. The Parthians managed somehow to expel the Romans, but like a Jack-in-the-Box, they returned in 198 AD. 

This time, Emperor Septimius Severus invaded Mesopotamia and marched down to take the Parthian-held cities of Seleucia, Babylon, and Ctesiphon. It makes one wonder how often cities are destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries. 

I now better understand the significance of the Severan bridge I crossed many years ago on my way to Mount Nemrud. At that time, I wondered what could have been so important in this god-forsaken, steaming hot land to need a bridge! It crossed the Cedere River, a tributary of the Euphrates. It is possibly the second-largest still-existing Roman bridge, with a length of 120 meters and a span of 34 meters. Two Corinthian columns of 9-10 meters guard either side of the bridge. One set is erected in honor of Septimius Severus and his wife Julia Domna, and the other for their two sons, Caracalla and Geta.

 

The weakened Parthian Empire finally collapsed when it was overthrown by King Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanid Empire, in 224 AD. That is another story altogether (see: Sassanid reliefs tell a story of their own in Persia).

Sassanid art in pictures

The Sassanids ruled over Iran from 224 AD until the Arabs took over in the 7^th century AD. This is a far cry from the empire of Darius III that Alexander conquered. Yet, it is an interesting time frame altogether since the Sassanids drew their inspiration from the earlier Achaemenid rule (see: Sassanid reliefs tell a story of their own in Persia).

This era left its imprints all over Persia, as can be seen in the rock-carved reliefs of Naqs-i Rajab and Naqsh-i Rustam close to Persepolis, Tang-i Tchogan at Bishapur and Taq-iBostan near Kermanshah. Also, the temples of goddess Anahita, both in Bishapur and in Kangavar show a mixture of Sassanid and Hellenistic influences (see: The powerful goddess Anahita in Persia).

[Picture from Tehran Times]

Presently, the Italian University of Sapienza in Rome has worked together with the Anahita Temple National Center in Kangavar to exhibit photographs on arts and monuments, together with architectural works from across the province of Kermanshah in western Iran. The pictures include views of the ruins of the Anahita Temple in Kangavar as well as of the Palace of Khosrow Parviz in Qasr-e Shirin.

The Iranian collaboration with the Italian experts has centered on Anahita’s sanctuary in Kangavar as discussed earlier in my blog The powerful goddess Anahita in Persia.

Also highlighted is the Palace of the Sassanid King Ardashir in Firuzabad that displays the unique dome construction known as the squinch. This architectural feature consists of building a dome on top of a square base. It may well be the earliest surviving example and could indicate that the squinch was actually invented in Persia.

The imposing palace of Ctesiphon or Hatra (now in modern Iraq) is much better known because of a sizable vaulted arch. This city was built by the Parthians in the 2^nd century BC as the capital of their empire. Ctesiphon/Hatra was conquered by the Sassanids in 226 AD, who turned it into a true metropolis worthy to serve as their capital. I seem to remember that the arch or at least the human heads in the surrounding walls were attacked by IS fanatics, but I couldn’t find a confirmation to that end.

Little information about the Sassanid empire transpires beyond the borders of modern Iraq and Iran, despite the grand cities these kings built using their precious craftsmanship as metal workers and gem engravers. They also took care of translating much of the existing western and eastern literature into Pahlavi, the Sassanid language.

The most important temple of Anahita at Istakhr

In an earlier blog (see: The powerful goddess Anahita in Persia), I took a closer look at the goddess Anahita originating in Central Asia and later worshiped throughout Persia to the end of the Sassanid rule. A few centuries later, the Islam annihilated whatever was left of the goddess’ rich legacy. Yet her spirit lived on thanks to the Zoroastrian believers.

The city of Istakhr (also spelled as Estakr) is to be found five kilometers north of Persepolis but is rarely visited. It may well have been a suburb of the Achaemenid royal residences of Persepolis. Not much remains of this settlement and even less of the once so grand temple. As early as the 4^th century BC, Artaxerxes II, erected a statue in honor of Anahita or Anaitis as the Greeks called her, and placed it inside the temple among other goddesses.

Anahita’s best-known temples are those located of Kangavar, near ancient Ecbatana, and at Bishapur. But the most important sanctuary, however, stood here at Istakhr near Persepolis. Sadly, all that remains of this Temple of Anahita in Istakhr is one uninspiring column with part of its double-headed bull capital. Many of the Achaemenid columns were re-used in the construction of an early mosque that probably replaced the Fire Temple. 

[Picture kindly shared with me by Robbert Bosschart]

In its heyday, the Achaemenid city of Istakhr was an important starting point on the ancient caravan route to the Indus Valley, which ran through the Southeastern Provinces of Sistan and Kandahar. According to the Arab sources mentioned hereafter, the temple had been ravaged by the Macedonians. It is possible that this happened when Alexander’s soldiers rampaged through the city of Persepolis (see: Fire over Persepolis), but that still remains unclear.

During the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), the sacred fire of the temple of Anahita was kept burning.

The Sassanids, who came to power in 224 AD, rebuilt Istakhr, apparently using much of Persepolis’ rubble. King Ardashir (224-242 AD), promoted the city as his first capital till it was replaced by Ctesiphon. The empire’s treasury, however, remained in Istakhr.

The temple survived for centuries as “the house of Anahid’s fire” and it seems that most, if not all the Sassanid kings were crowned at this temple.

In 640 AD, Istakhr was attacked by the Arabs. Shiraz was founded in 684, and eventually replaced Istakhr, whose power was broken. 

The Arab traveler, historian and geographer Al-Mas’udi, also known as the Herodotus of the Arabs, visited the temple of Istakhr in the 10th century AD. He described it with the following words: ”It stood, …, at the foot of a mountain, where the imprisoned wind made a noise like thunder, night and day’” … “ still standing, “pillars, made from blocks of astonishing size, surmounted by curious figures in stone representing horses and other animals, of gigantic shapes and proportions" (text copied from the Encyclopaedia Iranica). 

The city of Istakhr was last documented in numismatics with a dinar issued in 1063 AD. Over the course of time, the temple sank into oblivion.

The damaged site of Hatra

The World Heritage Site of Hatra in modern Iraq definitely deserves our undivided attention!

We will remember the bone-chilling pictures of ISIS smashing and destroying so many features of this Parthian city that survived for two thousand years.

[Map from Mr Barton's AP World History]

As early as the 7^th century, Parthia occupied the land in modern northeast of Iraq but when a century later Cyrus the Great created his larger Persian empire, the territories of the Medes and the Parthians were automatically assimilated. This was the empire which the Achaemenids inherited and Alexander the Great conquered in 331 BC. After his death, this part of his realm fell into the hands of the Seleucids. Parthia soon established its own empire but remained the center of conflicts between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, and later on the Romans. Their empire was created in 247 BC and as an independent country they managed to survive for roughly five hundred years. Eventually they fell to Ardashir who became the first king of the Sassanid Empire in 224 AD.

Parthia was very much coveted as a prosperous center of trade and commerce, being located on the Silk Road between the Roman Empire and the rising Empire of the Han dynasty in China. Because of its strategic position, the country underwent the influences of both west and east, generally showing a combination of Achaemenid and Seleucid elements. Yet they added their own architectural features like for instance the vaulted iwans which they produced on monumental scale (the largest iwan has a span of 15 meters).

Overall, the surviving remains of Hatra date from the 1^st century BC but most buildings belong to the period between 117 and 150 AD.

Recently the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives has published a highly interesting article by Jaimy O’Connell about the damaged relics of Hatra with great photographs of pre- and post-damaged buildings and features enhanced with pertinent comments. Please click on this link to see them all as I will show you only a select choice.

The temenos of Hatra in the center of the city counted almost twenty temples. This aerial view 

[An aerial photograph of the temenos of Hatra (Dr. Suzanne E. Bott, US State Department; October 16, 2009)]

as well as the plan tell a lot about the grandeur of that time.

This pre-damaged picture of the interior speaks for itself:

[A pre-damage photograph of the interior of room 12 of the Great Iwans (Dr. Suzanne E. Bott, US State Department; January 2010)]

The same goes for this splendid Hellenistic Temple before being damaged.

[A photograph of the colonnade of the Hellenistic Temple (from the southeast) showing damage from gunfire or mortars (Art Daily, April 27, 2017).]

The pictures of the recent barbarian destruction simply break my heart and I cannot include them in this precious reference to glorious times past but they are part of the article by the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives and have been showed on several occasions in the media also.

Would it be asking too much to see that future generations will remember the beauty and the splendor of places like Hatra without having to relive the senseless destruction by these fanatics? Unfortunately, all wars over the centuries have destroyed precious relics out of pure stupidity and/or greed. It seems that mankind will never learn.