Parthian Empire: Rome's Ghost Rival Known From Coins and Han Envoys

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The Parthian Empire ruled from about 247 BC to 224 AD, stretching from modern Turkey to the borders of Pakistan, yet it left almost no written history of its own. It began when Arsaces I led the nomadic Parni into the Seleucid province of Parthia near the Caspian Sea while the Seleucids were distracted by wars with Egypt and internal revolts. The newcomers kept Greek accountants and Persian scribes in place, took the province's name, and under Mithridates I, around 171 BC, captured Media, Mesopotamia and Babylon. As the first native Iranian dynasty since the Achaemenids, they revived the title King of Kings while letting vassal kings and cities govern themselves in return for tribute and troops.

Early kings minted silver coins with Greek inscriptions and called themselves Philhellene to reassure Greek merchants, then later switched to the Parthian language in an Iranian revival. In 121 BC Han dynasty diplomats reached the Parthian court, making Parthia the taxing middleman for silk bound for Rome. Horse archers and armored cataphracts destroyed Crassus at Carrhae in 53 BC, Mark Antony was driven back, and Augustus had to use diplomacy to recover the lost standards. Yet nobles who controlled horse herds and revenue backed rival claimants in repeated civil wars, Trajan sacked Ctesiphon, and in 224 AD the vassal Ardashir I killed the last Parthian king and founded the Sasanian Empire.

• Babylon kept worshipping Marduk under Parthian rule, and Buddhism flourished in the eastern provinces.
• A later Parthian king sent live lions and Persian gazelles to the Chinese emperor as diplomatic gifts.
• The general Surena kept his horse archers supplied at Carrhae with a train of 1,000 camels loaded with arrows.
• Crassus's severed head was reportedly used as a prop in a performance of Euripides' Bacchae before King Orodes II.
• Parthian records on parchment and leather rotted away, and Roman cookbooks still preserve a dish called Parthian chicken.