Arsacid-Parthian Expansion and Development

The Arsacid-Parthian expansion is of great importance in the whole Parthian existence. It inevitably contributed to a global Parthian culture, which still lives on today, especially in North-Eranian areas.

An Essay by Varan

With the political and military achievements, the local Parthian culture of Old-Parthia eventually became a state or national culture in the region of the Parthian double arc, namely from the Mergan area through Pahla and Daylam to Merv and to Aria, and from Hawraman, Pahleh to Baluchistan/Indo-Parthia. Local Parthian was probably composed of a Parni influence and a proximity to the Bactrians, which constituted ethnic Parthian. With the westward expansion and migration of the Parthians, evidenced by political, military, and cultural aspects, the Medes were also incorporated into the cultural mix. But to speak of “the Medes” is questionable at this point: whether the Medes were strongly homogeneous, how much they were mixed with the indigenous people of the region, and whether they were able to preserve their cultural identity at all outside of Hamadān – across all time and events – is not certain.

For example, in the time of the Arsacids, Parthian was spoken in Adiabene, an area clearly more to the west than Hamadān; Median is already no longer attested here. The Medes most probably shared their habitat outside Hamadān with Assyrians and natives. Also the fact that in all the Arsacid-Parthian centuries almost no Medes and Scythians appeared in the region, makes clear that these were included for the most part into the Parthian ethnogenesis. It can be assumed that especially Medes and Scytho-Sarmatians from the areas of Aria-Parthia-Xorasan and basically northern areas of Iran were involved into this ethnogenesis.

When it is brought to mind that even Herodotus reported 2000 years ago that Medes and Persians could communicate with each other in their respective languages, the Parthian language variants during the ancient Parthians were even closer sibling groups among themselves. Thus, these people were considered ethnic Parthians, but maintained within their own communities many close variants of the Parthian language and overall culture (Gippert 1996: 153).

Tacitus gives us an insight into the life and character of the Parthians. He describes Parthian virtues from the Arsacid era as follows (Ehrhardt 1998: 301):

He goes hunting, takes care of his horses, attends banquets and rides by himself when traveling across the country – does not use a sedan chair.

Even though Tacitus used simple stereotypes of the ancient Parthians and followed subjective prejudices, the described behaviors of the Parthians have a certain reality and give us information about a specific Parthian character.

Gippert, Jost. 1996. Die historische Entwicklung der Zaza-Sprache, in Dergi: Ware. Pêseroka Zon u Kulturê Ma: Dımıli-Kırmanc-Zaza.

Ehrhardt, Norbert. 1998. Parther und parthische Geschichte bei Tacitus, in Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse (Wiesehöfer, J.), Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart.