The Parthian Empire ruled over an area roughly corresponding to present-day Iran from the third century BC to the third century AD. It contained a varying number of subordinate semi-autonomous kingdoms each with its own ruler.
Ruler | Year |
---|---|
Rev I | 189 to 216 |
Vache | 216 to 234 |
Bacurius I | 234 to 249 |
Mithridates II | 249 to 265 |
Amazaspus III | 260 to 265 |
Aspacures I | 265 to 284 |
Name | Date | Family Relations | Note | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Vahbarz I | beg. of 3rd century BC | ? | leader of a revolution against Seleucids (?) |
2 | Baykard | ? | Fratarakā dynasty | |
3 | Baydād (bgdt) | end of 3rd/ beg. of 2nd century BC | Fratarakā dynasty - son of Baykard | sub-Seleucid |
4 | Ardaxšīr I (rtḥštry) | 1st half of 2nd century | Fratarakā dynasty | sub-Seleucid |
5 | Vahbarz II (whwbrz - called Oborzos in Polyenus 7.40) | 1st half of 2nd century | Fratarakā dynasty | |
6 | Vādfradād I (wtprdt) | mid-3nd century BC | Fratarakā dynasty - son of Vahbarz | Vadfradad I and his successors were as sub-Parthian dynasts. |
7 | Vadfradad II | c. 140 | ? | |
8 | 'Unknown king I' (Syknlt?) | 2nd half of 2nd century | ? | |
9 | Darev I | end of 2nd century | ? | |
10 | Vadfradad III | 1st half of 1st century | ? | |
11 | Darev II | 1st century | son of Vadfradad III | |
12 | Ardashir II | 2nd half of 1st century | son of Darev II | killed by his brother Vahshir I |
13 | Vahshir I | 2nd half of 1st century | son of Darev II | |
14 | Pakor I | 1st half of 1st century AD | son of Vahshir I | |
15 | Pakor II | 1st half of 1st century | ? | |
16 | Nambed | mid-1st century | son of Ardashir II | |
17 | Napad | 2nd half of 1st century | son of Nambed | |
18 | 'Unknown king II' | end of 1st century | ? | |
19 | Vadfradad IV | 1st half of 2nd century | ? | |
20 | Manchihr I | 1st half of 2nd century | ? | |
21 | Ardashir III | 1st half of 2nd century | son of Manchihr I | |
22 | Manchihr II | mid-2nd century | son of Ardashir III | |
23 | Pakor III [6] | 2nd half of 2nd century | ? | |
24 | Manchihr III | 2nd half of 2nd century | son of Manchihr II | |
25 | Ardashir IV | end of 2nd century | son of Manchihr III | |
26 | Vahshir II | c. 206-210 AD | ? | The last of Bazarangids. |
27 | Shapur | beg. of 3rd century | Brother of the first Sasanian, Ardashir I | |
28 | Ardashir V | beg. of 3rd century | First Sasanian ruler, under the name of Ardashir I | |
In inscriptions found at Hatra, several rulers are mentioned. Other rulers are sporadically mentioned by classical authors. They appear with two titles. The earlier rulers are called mry' (translation uncertain, perhaps administrator), the later ones mlk -king.
Name | Title | Date | Family Relations | Note | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Worod | mry' | |||
2 | Ma’nu | mry' | |||
3 | Elkud | mry' | 155/156 AD | ||
4 | Nashrihab | mry' | 128/29 - 137/38 AD | ||
5 | Naṣru | mry' | 128/29 - 176/77 | ||
6 | Wolgash I | mry' and mlk - King | |||
7 | Sanatruq I | mry' and mlk - King | 176/177 AD | ruled together with Wolgash I | |
8 | Wolgash (II?) | son of Wolgash (I) | |||
9 | Abdsamiya | mlk - King | 192/93 - 201/202 AD | Supported the Roman emperor Pescennius Niger | |
10 | Sanatruq II | mlk - King | 207/08 - 229/230 AD | ||
Orodes II, was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 57 BC to 37 BC. He was a son of Phraates III, whom he murdered in 57 BC, assisted by his elder brother Mithridates IV. The two brothers quickly fell out and entered into a dynastic struggle, in which Orodes was triumphant.
Artabanus II, incorrectly known in older scholarship as Artabanus III, was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 12 to 38/41 AD, with a one-year interruption. He was the nephew and successor of Vonones I. His father was a Dahae prince, whilst his mother was a daughter of the Parthian King of Kings Phraates IV.
Vonones I was an Arsacid prince, who ruled as King of Kings of Parthian Empire from 8 to 12, and subsequently as king of Armenia from 12 to 18. He was the eldest son of Phraates IV and was sent to Rome as a hostage in 10/9 BC in order to prevent conflict over the succession of Phraates IV's youngest son, Phraataces.
Vonones II was a Parthian prince who ruled as king of Media Atropatene and briefly as king of the Parthian Empire.
Pacorus II was the King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 78 to 110. He was the son and successor of Vologases I.
Vologases IV was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 147 to 191. He was the son of Mithridates V. Vologases spent the early years of his reign re-asserting Parthian control over the Kingdom of Characene. From 161 to 166, he waged war against the Roman Empire; although initially successful, conquering Armenia and Syria, he was eventually pushed back, briefly losing control of the Parthian capitals of Seleucia and Ctesiphon to the Romans. The Romans suffered heavy losses from a plague erupting from Seleucia in 166, forcing them to withdraw. The war ended soon afterward, with Vologases losing most of northern Mesopotamia to the Romans. He died in 191 and was succeeded by his son Vologases V.
The Arsacid dynasty, called the Arshakuni in Armenian, ruled the Kingdom of Armenia, with some interruptions, from 12 to 428. The dynasty was a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. Arsacid kings reigned intermittently throughout the chaotic years following the fall of the Artaxiad dynasty until 62, when Tiridates I, brother of Parthian King Vologases I, secured Arsacid rule in Armenia as a client king of Rome. However, he did not succeed in establishing his line on the throne, and various princes of different Arsacid lineages ruled until the accession of Vologases II, who succeeded in establishing his own line on the Armenian throne, which ruled the kingdom until its abolishment by the Sasanian Empire in 428.
The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) under Andragoras, who was rebelling against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
The Roman–Parthian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was the first series of conflicts in what would be 682 years of Roman–Persian Wars.
Arsaces I of Armenia, also known as Arsaces I, Arshak I and Arsak was a Parthian prince who was king of Armenia during 35 AD.
Orodes of Armenia was a Parthian prince who served as a Roman client king of Armenia in 35 and from again 37 until 42. Orodes was the second born son of King Artabanus II of Parthia by a wife whose name is unknown. He was born and raised in the Parthian empire. Orodes was the namesake of his Parthian relations who ruled with this name as king.
Persian war of succession may refer to: