Arsacids (Parthians)
Phraates I
فرهاد یکم
- Reign
- c. 176–171 BCE (c. 168–165 on Assar’s dating)
- Dynasty
- Arsacids (Parthians)
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Phraates I: opening the road to Media, and the king who chose his brother over his sons
The eldest son of Phriapatius. He defeated the strong Mardi (Amardi) of the Alborz and opened the road through the Caspian Gates towards Media. According to Justin he set aside his sons and left the throne to his brother Mithridates, “thinking that more was due to the name of king than to that of father”. That choice made Parthia an empire.
- years of reign
- ~5
- brother as heir, not a son
- 1
Map: the Mardi and the Caspian Gates
Administration & economyc. 176 BCE1 of 4
The eldest son on the throne
Phraates, the elder son, was heir “according to the custom of the nation” (Justin 41.5.9).
Certainty: DisputedThe dates are disputed: tradition gives 176–171 BCE; Assar (2006) and Olbrycht c. 168–165. A Nisa ostracon has also been read as evidence of a short-lived “Arsaces IV” before him; Olbrycht calls that “sheer speculation”.
Sources: Justin, tr. J. S. Watson, 1853 · G. F. Assar, 2006
BattleCampaignBuildingAdministration & economyReligionArrow keys, Home/End and Space work.
Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
The name of king or the name of father
Justin praises Phraates’ choice. Olbrycht suggests the arrangement may have been made by Phriapatius himself and only kept by Phraates; succession by a brother rather than a son was common among Central Asian nomads.
…the elder, Phraates, being, according to the custom of the nation, heir to the crown, subdued the Mardi, a strong people, by force of arms, and died not long after, leaving several sons, whom he set aside, and left the throne, in preference, to his brother Mithridates, a man of extraordinary ability, thinking that more was due to the name of king than to that of father, and that he ought to consult the interests of his country rather than those of his children.
Justin sees a moral motive; modern research sees tribal custom. Both are possible.
A ruler who puts the country before his family is rare; but an institution that chooses a successor on merit lasts longer than one king’s virtue.
Sources: Justin, tr. J. S. Watson · M. J. Olbrycht
Synthesis
Phraates I’s short reign did two lasting things: it opened the Alborz road to Media and handed the succession to the brother who built an empire. His dates shift by several years between tradition and Assar.
Bibliography
- Justin, tr. J. S. Watson, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, books 38–42 (books 40–44 online) (1853). https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin7.htmlA Roman digest of the lost history of Pompeius Trogus (1st century BCE); the most continuous account of the early Parthians, but Roman in outlook and full of “Scythian” clichés.
- Isidore of Charax, tr. W. H. Schoff, Parthian Stations, § 7 (1914).
- K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Arsacids ii. The Arsacid dynasty (1986, updated 2016). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arsacids-ii/
- G. F. Assar, A Revised Parthian Chronology of the Period 165–91 BC, Electrum 11, pp. 87–158 (2006). A new dating from coins and Babylonian tablets; e.g. it puts Mithridates I at 165–132 BCE.
- M. J. Olbrycht, Mithradates I of Parthia and his conquests up to 141 B.C., in Hortus Historiae, pp. 229–245 (2010).
- I. M. Diakonoff, V. A. Livshits, Parthian Economic Documents from Nisa (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum II/II) (1976–2001). Thousands of administrative ostraca from the wine stores of Nisa; the only native Parthian documents of the period.
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; licence and author were checked on each file page.
Phriapatius, his fatherMithridates I, his brother and heirThe Arsacid dynasty