Meaning of PARTHIA, PARTHIANS

Country in the East that corresponds closely to the current Persian province of Khorasan, not far southeast of the Caspian Sea.

The Parthian kingdom was around 480 km long by 160 to 190 km wide, and its area was slightly larger than that of Scotland.

The first allusion to the Parthians appears in the inscriptions of Darius Hystaspes. In the year 521 B.C. They rebelled against the Persians without any success. They later suffered the rule of Alexander the Great and his eastern successors, the Seleucids.

Around the year 255 BC, Bactria managed to free itself from the Seleucids. The Parthians, under Arsace I, prepared to follow their example. The Arsacid dynasty followed the work of Arsace I.

The independence of the Parthian kingdom thus dates back to the year 247 BC. Mithriades I reigned from approximately 174 to 138 BC. The kingdom founded by Arsace I became, under Mithriades I, an immense empire 2,400 km long from east to west, with a width ranging between 160 and 640 km from north to south.

This empire, whose western border was the Euphrates, extended from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. The capital was Ctesiphon, on the Tigris, opposite Seleucia. Having freed themselves from the Greco-Macedonian yoke, the Parthians fought on numerous occasions against the Romans, against whom they disputed Armenia.

From the year 64 B.C. until 226 AD They prevented the expansion of the Roman Empire towards the east. Between 40 and 37 BC, the Parthian armies invaded Asia Minor and Syria, seizing Jerusalem, sacking it, and proclaiming the last of the Hasmoneans, Antigonus, king of the Jews (Ant. 14:13, 3; Wars 1:13 , 1).

There were Jews from the Parthian empire during the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9); It is possible that they transmitted the Gospel to the Parthians upon returning to their places of origin.

After almost five centuries of power, the Parthians allowed themselves to be corrupted by luxuries. Led by Ardhéschir, of the Sassanian dynasty, the Persians put an end to Parthian domination, emerging in the year 226 AD. the Second Persian Empire, the so-called empire of the Sassanids.