ak (near Kuchan in the upper Atrek River valley) in Astauene.[1] For the first years of the new kingdom, if such it might be called, the rulers were busy with warfare,[2] in the course of which Arsaces must have lost his life.[3] Not long after the succession of Tiridates to the throne he invaded and conquered Hyrcania.[4]
The death of Diodotus calmed any fears which Tiridates may have had, and an alliance with the Bactrian's son, also called Diodotus, gave the Parthian ruler additional strength.[5] Through fear of the elder Diodotus and of Seleucus II Callinicus (247–226 b.c.), Tiridates had built a formidable military force, the value of which he was to appreciate later.[6] The situation had become extremely serious for Seleucus. Laodice his mother and her friends had
- ↑ Isid. Char. Mans. Parth. (Parthian Stations, by Isidore of Charax, ed. Wilfred H. Schoff [Philadelphia, 1914]) 11; Tarn in CAH, IX, 575; cf. PW, art. "Asaak." If Isidore refers to the first Arsaces it is significant that the sacred flame was kept burning in this city, for the Parthians of that period were probably Zoroastrians.
- ↑ Strabo xi. 9. 2; Justin xli. 4. 7 f.
- ↑ Arrian Parthica fr. 1, quoted in Syncellus, p. 539.
- ↑ Justin xli. 4. 8. Tarn in CAH, IX, 576, following PW, art. "Hyrkania," col. 501, says the conquest must have been made after 217 b.c. because Antiochus III in his campaign of 219–217 in Coele Syria had Cadusian and Dahaean contingents in his army (Polyb. v. 79. 3 and 7) and hence the Seleucid power must have extended to the Caspian Sea. But mercenaries were common in armies of this period and earlier, even to Greeks among the forces of Nebuchadnezzar, and I do not see how such conclusions can be based on these facts.
- ↑ Justin xli. 4. 9.
- ↑ Ibid. 4. 8.
