BACTRIANS AND PARTHIANS
At the epoch of Alexander’s death the satrapy of Bactria and Soghdiana
was held by his general, Amyntas. The death of the young conqueror was
the signal for a mutiny among the Macedonian soldiers who had remained
in that country, which was, however, immediately put down. Amyntas was
removed from his satrapy and superseded by Philippus of Elymeus, who,
within the space of a year, was appointed to Parthia and succeeded by
Stasanor.[15]
The latter held his post until B.C. 301, when these provinces passed
into the hands of another of Alexander’s generals, Seleucus I.
(Nicator), who since B.C. 312 had been in virtual possession of the
greater part of his late master’s conquered possessions.[16] Hitherto
the allegiance of Bactria had been of a doubtful character--but it was
now finally established.
In 305 he entered on a campaign against Chandra Gupta, a powerful
Indian king who was endeavouring to regain the realms conquered by
Alexander.
At his hands Seleucus suffered a crushing defeat, in consequence of
which he was obliged to abandon all the territory between the Indus
and the Paropamisus except Alexandria of the Caucasus.[17] This was
the first dismemberment of the gigantic empire. The terrible civil war
which began immediately after the death of Alexander lasted, almost
without interruption, for forty-two years, when the Macedonians were at
last compelled to renounce all hopes of ruling the world.
In B.C. 280 Seleucus was assassinated by one of his officers, and was
succeeded by Antiochus I. In B.C. 256, under the rule of Antiochus
II., Diodotus, known as “Governor of the thousand cities of Bactria,”
threw off his allegiance and assumed sovereignty, thus founding the
Græco-Bactrian kingdom.[18] Polybius[19] tells us that Diodotus was
superseded by Euthydemus, who was in the enjoyment of power at the time
of Antiochus the Great’s expedition to the East--about B.C. 208.
Euthydemus was defeated by Antiochus, but appealed to his victor’s
generosity, and pointed out the grave danger that would arise if he
were obliged to call in the aid of the Scythians, who were already
hovering on the Chinese frontier of his dominions.[20] Antiochus
finally agreed to acknowledge his independence.
In B.C. 250 a certain Arsaces, who seems by his coins to have been the
chief of a band of Dahæ Scythians dwelling near the Oxus, overthrew
Andragoras, nominally satrap of Parthia, and set himself up as king of
Parthia.[21] He was the founder of the famous dynasty of the Arsacidæ.
As Mr. Gardner[22] observes, the “so-called history of Parthia is
really the history of Central Asia under the Arsacidæ.”
After a reign of two years he was killed in battle, leaving his kingdom
to his brother Tiridates, who was the real founder of the Parthian
power. The fifth king of this dynasty was Mithridates (B.C. 190), who
extended his conquests to such a degree that, according to Justin, his
sway included the Himalayas and the Euphrates.[23] He also compelled
Eucratides, the powerful king of Bactria, who had come to the throne
about B.C. 170, to cede certain districts of his kingdom.
After a glorious reign he died about B.C. 140, and was succeeded by
his brother Phraates.[24] The Syrian Empire of the Seleucidæ was fast
falling to pieces, and Parthia was never again invaded by the Greeks.
But a more terrible foe was approaching from the East,[25] for it
now came into collision with a Scythian band, called “Su” or “Se” in
the Chinese annals, which in the second century B.C. had overrun the
provinces bordering the Jaxartes. They are identical with the Sacæ of
classical writers, and were afterwards known in Upper India as the
Sakas. Phraates[26] summoned a band of these savages to aid him against
the Syrian Antiochus. Arriving at the scene of action too late to be of
service in the campaign, they turned against him, defeated his army and
slew him.
He was succeeded by his nephew Artabanus II., who after a brief reign
fell in battle against the Thogari,[27] mentioned by Strabo as one
of the four great Saka tribes.[28] His son Mithridates II., justly
distinguished by the appellation “Great,” revived the fading glories of
the Parthian Empire. He commenced his reign by administering several
crushing defeats to the Sakas, from whom he wrested the greater portion
of Bactria. But he was destined to meet a foe more worthy of his steel,
and finally to submit after a lifelong struggle. The Romans had entered
on the career of foreign conquest which seems inevitable in the case
of a powerful republic. Greece was theirs, and they had planted their
eagles in Asia Minor.
Between B.C. 88 and 63 Mithridates waged three wars of extreme ferocity
against the future conquerors of the world, and inspired them with a
dread which they had not felt since the invasion of Hannibal.[29] Not
till the latter year did this great monarch acknowledge the supreme
might of Rome, and then his indomitable spirit forbade him to sink to
the condition of tributary. Defeated by Pompey on the Euphrates, he
fled to the Caucasian Bosphorus,[30] and was planning fuller resistance
when the rebellion of his son rendered his schemes nugatory. He slew
himself in despair, leaving a reputation which still echoes in the
Crimea and Northern Caucasus.
From the period down to A.D. 226 the history of Parthia is one of
continual struggle and crime, which finally exhausted the emperor’s
strength and rendered it an easy prey to a Roman invader.