Parthian Empire of Iran and Iraq

In 330 BC Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire. Later in 247 BC the Parthians push the Greeks from Iran and they established the Parthian Empire.

‘Parthians’ is the generic name given by the Romans (and the Greeks before them) to a land owning military aristocracy, who rule at one time or another from the Euphrates to the Indus. Originally nomads, the Parthians came from Central Asia.

‘Parthia’ consisted basically of modern Iran and Iraq. Parthians rules extended their empire into Armenia and India. Although they rules for 500 years, their power was constantly attacked by the Romans and by wandering Afghan tribes.

The Parthian form of warfare suited the desert, oasis, stepped and highland topography of Middle East, Persia and Central Asia very well. In contrast the Roman Empire relied mainly upon heavy infantry legions, supported by the navy as circumstances necessitated.

The Roman Empire found it difficult to defeat the Parthian Empire, whose main battlefield fighting force was cavalry. In 224 AD the Persians wrested control over the former Achaemenid Empire, marking the beginning of the Sassanid Empire.
Parthian Empire of Iran and Iraq

Persian Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)

Parthia was originally designated as a territory southeast of the Caspian Sea. It was a satrapy of the Persian Empire from 550 BC when it was subdued by Cyrus the Great until the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

The Parni, an Aryan tribe with roots in Central Asia, had come to the region of Parthia, east of Media and Persis along the Caspian Sea around 300 BC.

By 247 BC Parni named Arsaces ruled part of the satrapy, and he took control within a decade. This marked the start of the Parthian Empire. The Parthians took their name from the former Achaemenid province of Parthava, which correspond roughly with modern northeastern Iran.

Over the next several decades, Arsaces and the rulers after him took more of Seleucid lands, building a new Persian Empire.

During the reign of Mithridates II and Arodes II, the Parthians conquered all of Iraq, Armenia, eastern Turkey, and eastern Syria.

The Parthian Empire was in the height of its prosperity, one of the most powerful of all the Eastern monarchies. The ancient geographers mention a great numbers of cities in this empire. Ptolemy reckons twenty five.

The Parthian Empire was the enemy of Rome. The Roman Empires fought several fierce battles against the Parthians, from the 1st century BC into the 3rd century AD. These wars were broken by short periods of peace, and the then fighting would begin again.

In 224, during the reign of the Roman Empire Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus, the Parthian dynasty was displaced by the Sasanid Persian dynasty, founded by Ardashir Shah Papakan.
Persian Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)

Seleucid Empire (312 BC – 63 BC)

The empire was created by Alexander the Great’s general Seleucus constituted the largest Hellenistic kingdom of the successor states.

Seleucus began his career as a Macedonian noblemen and soldier under Alexander. After Alexander’s death he was one of the several Macedonian generals, known collectively as the Diadochi or Successors, who seized portions of the conqueror’s domain.

In an effort to gain more power and influence, Seleucus pushed the boundaries of his empire as far as the Indus River in India and it was here in 305 BC that the Mauryan dynasty of India engaged in a crucial conflict with the Seleucids.

By the time of his death, Seleucus had imposed control on an empire whose boundaries stretched from southern Thrace through Anatolia , the modern near and middle east and central Asia to the frontiers with ancient India in the east, north to the arid steppe-land beyond the Syr Darya river, and south to the waters of the Arab-Persian gulf.

Seleucus was succeeded by his son Antiochus I Soter (324-261 BC). The Seleucid dynasty rules for three centuries with Damascus as their kingdom’s capital. Seleucus’ successors spent much of their fighting rivals in Asia Minor, southern Syria and Palestine and the eastern provinces.

Seleucid ambitions in the Mediterranean arena led to fierce competition with other Hellenistic kingdoms there: the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Attalids of Pergamum and the Antigonids of Macedonia.

The Seleucids’ governing and soldiering classes came from a Greek and Macedonian minority based on the western cities and in military colonies throughout: these people ruled a population of Syrians, Persians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Jews and others. Seleucid permitted local customs and languages, but Greek language and culture spread quickly.

The Seleucid Empire’s significance for history is its role in Hellenizing the Levant. Long after the end of the Seleucid Empire, Greek was still the language of commerce, government and higher learning in the Near East.

The Seleucid Empire was finally destroyed by conflict with Parthians in the east in the second century BC and by the growing power of Rome in the west.
Seleucid Empire (312 BC – 63 BC)