Arsacids (Parthians)
Phraates II
فرهاد دوم
- Reign
- c. 132–127 BCE (Iranica: 139/8–128)
- Dynasty
- Arsacids (Parthians)
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Phraates II: victory over Antiochus VII, death fighting the Saka
The son of Mithridates I, who came to the throne as a child. In 130 BCE the Seleucid Antiochus VII retook Babylonia and Media, but his army’s winter quartering on the population turned the towns against him and in spring 129 he was defeated and killed. That ended Seleucid rule east of the Euphrates. Phraates then hurried east and, fighting the Scythians he had hired and then refused to pay, was killed when the Greek prisoners in his own army deserted.
- end of the Seleucids east of the Euphrates (BCE)
- 129
- battles Antiochus won in 130
- 3
Map: Antiochus VII and the Saka
Administration & economyc. 132 BCE1 of 5
The boy king and his mother
Phraates II was a youth, and for some months Babylonian documents name his mother, Rinnu, beside him.
Certainty: DisputedThe dates are disputed: Iranica puts Mithridates I’s death and Phraates’ accession at 139/8; Assar, from the Babylonian tablets, at 132.
Sources: A. J. Sachs, H. Hunger, 1996 · G. F. Assar, 2006 · K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, updated 2016
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
An army that lived off people’s homes
Antiochus came victorious, but spread his army through the towns for the winter and made the people pay for it. Those towns rose and helped Phraates. In 129 BCE Seleucid rule east of the Euphrates ended for good.
A liberating army that occupies people’s homes is a liberator no longer; trampled property destroys loyalty.
Modern constitutional bans on quartering soldiers in citizens’ homes (such as the US Third Amendment) draw on experiences as old as this.
Sources: K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica · Justin, tr. J. S. Watson
Dossier · 2
The unpaid wage
According to Justin, the Scythians had been hired for the war with Antiochus; they arrived late and Phraates refused their pay. They plundered Parthia and Phraates died fighting them. The Greek prisoners from Antiochus’ army, whom Phraates had enlisted and ill-treated, went over to the enemy.
Justin writes as a moralist, but the logic of the story is plain: a broken contract creates a new enemy.
Keeping a contract, even with outsiders, matters more than winning in the field.
Sources: Justin, tr. J. S. Watson
Synthesis
Phraates II defeated the last Seleucid attempt to recover the east, but at once faced the great wave of nomads on the eastern frontier. Victory in the west, defeat in the east: the pattern lasted until Mithridates II.
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.
- A. J. Sachs, H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, vol. III (164–61 BC) (1996). Contemporary notebooks of Babylonian astronomers that also logged political events; the firmest calendar for the period.
- 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.
- A. D. H. Bivar, The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids, Cambridge History of Iran 3/1, pp. 21–99 (1983).
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; licence and author were checked on each file page.
Mithridates I, his fatherArtabanus I, his uncleThe Arsacid dynasty