The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Iran" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Iran</a> from 247 BCE to 224 CE. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, in rebellion against the <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/Seleucid-Empire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seleucid Empire</a>. Mithridates I greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Iraq" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mesopotamia</a> from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Afghanistan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Afghanistan</a> and western <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Republic-of-Pakistan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pakistan</a>. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/Han-Dynasty" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Han dynasty</a> of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Greece" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greek</a> culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of Iranian traditions. The Arsacid rulers were titled the "King of Kings", as a claim to be the heirs to the <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/Achaemenid-Empire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Achaemenid Empire</a>; indeed, they accepted many local kings as vassals where the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous, satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from Nisa to Ctesiphon along the Tigris (south of modern Baghdad, Iraq), although several other sites also served as capitals. The earliest enemies of the Parthians were the Seleucids in the west and the Scythians in the north. However, as Parthia expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. Rome and Parthia competed with each other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients. The Parthians destroyed the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE, and in 40–39 BCE, Parthian forces captured the whole of the Levant except Tyre from the Romans. However, Mark Antony led a counterattack against Parthia, although his successes were generally achieved in his absence, under the leadership of his lieutenant Ventidius. Various Roman emperors or their appointed generals invaded Mesopotamia in the course of the ensuing Roman–Parthian Wars of the next few centuries. The Romans captured the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on multiple occasions during these conflicts, but were never able to hold on to them. Frequent civil wars between Parthian contenders to the throne proved more dangerous to the Empire's stability than foreign invasion, and Parthian power evaporated when Ardashir I, ruler of Istakhr in Persis, revolted against the Arsacids and killed their last ruler, Artabanus IV, in 224 CE. Ardashir established the <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/Sasanian-Empire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sasanian Empire</a>, which ruled Iran and much of the Near East until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century CE, although the Arsacid dynasty lived on through branches of the family that ruled <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Armenia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Armenia</a>, <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/History-of-Spain" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Iberia</a>, and Albania in the Caucasus.

Visual Timelines

Parthian Empire Timeline

Parthian Empire Timeline

Formation and Early Expansion

Parni conquest of Parthia

Campaigns of Antiochus III

Threat from the East

War in the East

Golden Age and Conflicts with Rome

Expansion to Babylonia

Conquest of Persis

Decline of the Seleucid Empire

Mithradates II

Han-Parthian trade relations

Ctesiphon founded

Armenia becomes Parthian vassal

Contact with Romans

Parthian Dark Age

Parthia-Rome boundary set

Carrhae

Period of Instability and Internal Strife

Battle of the Cilician Gates

Antony's Parthian campaign fails

Indo-Parthian Kingdom

War of the Armenian Succession

Invasion of Alans

Chinese Diplomatic Mission to Rome

Trajan's Parthian campaign

Parthian War of Lucius Verus

Roman-Parthian War of Severus

Parthian war of Caracalla

Battle of Nisibis

Decline and Fall to the Sassanids

End of Parthian Empire

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