Arsacid Dynasty: Encyclopedia II - Arsacid Dynasty - Historical Background

Arsacid Dynasty - Historical Background

After the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander III, king of Macedonia, Iran became in a constant conflict between the Iranian traditions and the Hellenistic way of life, between civic life and oriental monarchy. In Persia the Hellenistic rulers were ultimately unable to solve these and other problems inherent in such a mixed and complex society, even if there was a strong level of contamination between the two cultures. But the Greeks and their culture ultimately ended up occupying a secondary if important role, while pre-conquest patterns re-emerged stronger than ever, like the persistent use of the Aramaic language for administrative reasons.

The Hellenistic lands in Asia after the death of Alexander were kept by the Seleucid Empire; an overextended domain, which neglected its Iranian possessions in favour of Anatolia and Syria. The Parni, an Iranian nomadic tribe, were to gain advantage of this, and later of the disintegration of the Seleucids amid the dynastic squabbles which followed the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC. Things didn't go better for the other hellenistic kingdom on the Iranian soil, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, sweeped away by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih tribe.

The 1st century BC, with the fall of the last remains of the hellenistic kingdoms, saw the emergence of what were to be the Parthians' mortal enemies; the Romans and the Kushan Empire, with whom the Parthians were to be engaged in many conflicts, without forgetting all the fights against the nomads from north-east.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki