The Cousins of the Parthians

In order to understand the whole Parthian history and to place the many different tribes and peoples during a large period of time relatively well, it is essential to know as well the Eranian relatives of the Parthians. They contributed significantly to the formation of Parthian ethnogenesis. Likewise, the Parthian future was influenced by them. Influence, however, happened both ways. 

A Research by Varan

The ancient Parthians still had relatively strong elements of the initial nomadic character, in contrast to the ancient Persians and Medes, who early on came into contact with the Elamites, Urartians and Assyrians. This can be confirmed, among other things, by their art of warfare, which differed only slightly from their northern Scytho-Sarmatian cousins and was often used against the Seleucids and Romans.

The backbone of the Parthian-Arsacid army was not the infantry but the horsemen (Ellerbrock, Winkelmann 2012: 156, “Armored horsemen are typical for the nomadic equestrian armies: in different forms armored horsemen and horses are known from the Scythians, Saks, Sarmatians and Kushans, who all influenced the Parthian cavalry”), which was a typical feature of the nomadic armies. They fought with a thrusting lance and also possessed a bow. The armored assault force of the Parthians broke the infantry of the enemy in battle with brute force (ibid.). Of course, the Parthian Empire still had standing armies. For an empire required above all the provision of garrisons in the border area (ibid.: 152).

Also, decentralization in the state system was tendentially a feature of the earlier heritage and differed from the Achaemenids, who were more centralized in their setup. It is these divergent characteristics that distinguish the Parthian character from the Persian and Median, and in the course of history, although they had to adapt to the conditions of an empire, their effects were always expressed.

All Eranian peoples originate from the Pontic and Caspian steppes, the region around and between the Black and Caspian Seas. Like their distant relatives from the Indo-European language family, they have spread to different regions. Thereby the Balto-Slavs and Indo-Eranians have a close common ancestor and are cumulatively classified in the Satem language group (East Indo-Europeans). Satem here comes from the Avestic word for “hundred”. The other group – the West Indo-Europeans – are composed of the Germanic, Celtic and Romanic languages and are counted to the Kentum language group (from “hundred” in Latin). Throughout history, the Eranian peoples migrated toward the southeast direction, eventually spreading throughout Central Asia and the Eran. One branch even reached the northern coast of the Black Sea.

The referred Eranian cousins of the Parthians in the beginnings of the Middle Eranian period (~200 BC) are, to emphasize it clearly: The Medes, the Persians, the Sarmatians (usually counted among them: the Alans, Aorsi, Budini and Roxelans), the Bactrians, the Sogds, the Saks (from Xotan and Sakastan) and finally the Scythians that remained on the Crimean peninsula.

The Scythians and later the Sarmatians permanently changed Western Eurasia (Britannica).

Europe is not a real continent from a geological point of view. However, the argument of the “cultural continent” is brought. But also this, from an Eranian point of view, is confusing, because then Eranians would be divided into two, ignoring the culture argument and penetrating cultural boundaries. Striking for this argument was eventually Christianity that manifested the boundaries of Europe as cultural continent. However, terminology Europe already came out in antiquity and embodied another meaning. Ultimately, “Europe” as a term remains a political construct.

In antiquity, the Sarmatian Alans carried out raids into the Roman and the Arsacid Parthian empires (Britannica). The Alans in antiquity dominated large areas in the North Caucasus, undertook campaigns of conquest to the south and, demographically speaking, repeatedly mixed with the Parthians, which was not unusual among nomadically organized ethnic groups. This resulted, for example, in the assignment of a large number of place names and tribal names that adopted the name “Alan”. These include, for example, “Ardalan”, the Alan tribe in Ararat and Kalan/Dersim, as well as undoubtedly the Alans (Ossetians) in Russia and Georgia, who still exist today as an Alanian ethnic group. In the 4th and 5th centuries, due to the Huns, the Alans migrated westward and crossed the Rhine. They settled in Orléans (France), Valence (France), Carthaginensis (East Spain) and Lusitania (Portugal and parts of Spain), among other places (Richardson).

The influence of the Eranian peoples is evident not only in place names and tribal names, but also in names for rivers such as the Danube, Don, Dnister and Donepr, which are located in present-day Germany, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Moldavia and Slovakia. The linguistic origin of the names is illustrated hereafter:

Don (river in Avestic is called: „dānu“, Alanian: „don“)

Donepr (Sarmatian: „dānu apara „far river“) 

Dnister (Sarmatian : dānu nazdya „near river“. Ashkani-Parthian (Imperial Parthian): nizd, Zazaki-Pahlawani: nezd)

Besides the name influences, the Eranian peoples also contributed cultural aspects. For example, the Grail story of Arthur features Sarmatian warriors acting in the legend. Or the symbolism of the sword being drawn from the rock is traced back to a Scytho-Sarmatian legend. Some interpretations even assume a Parthian root (Ellerbrock, Winkelmann 2012: 196). In general, the knightly culture reported in the legend and probably also the paladin culture can be traced back to an Eranian tradition common to the Sarmatians, Scythian tribes and, above all, the Parthian knights.

The Scytho-Sarmatian influence in Europe and especially in the Slavic world is high. Also the proper name “Serb”, which comes from “Sarbat”, can be traced back to the Sarmatians, which makes the ethnicon “Serb” Erano-Sarmatian. Including the Eranian name assignment, the Eranian people of the Roxalans is also interesting. “Roxalan” is a compound of two words. The name comes from the Eranian or Av. rokhš, Ashkani-Parthian (Imperial Parthian) rokhš, today Zazaki-Pahlawani roj or rošna, Kurmanji rewš, New Persian rokhšan, which means “bright”, and is composed with the “Alan”. In sum, the name means “bright Alans”. The Roxalans are notorious for their raids into what is now Slovenia, where they were finally recognized as Roman citizens and came to rest.

In addition to their northern cousins, the Medes and Bactrians are among the Eranian peoples who most influenced Parthianity and even became part of it. The Medes were the first Erans to establish a significant state, defeating the Assyrians and capturing the kingdom of Urartu. They were largely absorbed into the Parthians from the Arsacid Empire onwards, while southern Medes were absorbed into the Persians. This is not only a rough assumption, but is confirmed in the course of the Eranian-Parthian narrative and events. For example, Kuroš, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, was himself of Median descent on his mother’s side and his grandfather was the last Median king. Also, since Mihrdāt II, the Median component constituted an important basic structure of the later Parthian ethnogenesis. 

Besides the Medes, there was another Eranian people, which was very closely related to the ancient Parthians and probably formed the most similar Eranian people to them – we are talking about the Bactrians. This characteristic is to be traced back to geographical, but especially to linguistic and cultural aspects. (Further articles related to this topic will be linked soon in this section).

Ellerbrock, U., Winkelmann, S. 2012. Die Parther – Die vergessene Grossmacht. Philipp von Zabern Verlag, Darmstadt.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Alani, in Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Alani, retrieved in June 30th, 2022.

Richardson, J.S. Visigothic Spain to c. 500, in Spain, in Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Romanization#ref70357, retrieved July 15th, 2022.