passed through Ecbatana, and attacked Persepolis, where the enraged populace drove him out.[1] Perhaps he entered Elymais also.[2] Eventually he was defeated and forced to retreat, and on the return journey he died at Gabae (Isfahan).[3]
The incursion of Mithradates into Elymais must have alarmed Timarchus, king of Media, since he was obviously the next victim of further expansion by Parthia. Timarchus was king of Media as late as 161 b.c.,[4] and we are told that the invasion of Media by Mithradates was contemporaneous with the murder of Eucratides of Bactria by his son,[5] which took place about 155 b.c. Between 161 and 155 b.c., therefore, Mithradates waged a long war with Media, the success of which remained for some time in the balance. At length victorious, he set a man by the name of Bacasis to rule over the new territory.[6]
The acquisition of Media opened the door of Mesopotamia for Parthian expansion into that fertile terri-
- ↑ Maccabees 9: 1–2.
- ↑ Josephus Ant. xii. 354 f.; cf. F. Cumont, "Nouvelles inscriptions grecques de Suse," CR, 1932, pp. 284 f., an inscription for the safety of an Antiochus and a Laodice, referred by Cumont on paleographic grounds to Antiochus Epiphanes.
- ↑ Polyb. xxxi. 9.
- ↑ PW, art. "Timarchos," No. 5; CAH, VIII, 518–20.
- ↑ Justin xli. 6. 6.
- ↑ Justin xli. 6. 7. This was contrary to the usual Parthian custom of feudatory kingdoms.
