The Parthians: an empire on the rise

The rise of the Parthian Empire had significant ramifications and implications for the history of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. This chapter focuses primarily on the development of the Parthian Empire from the reign of Mithradates I through to the reign of Vologaeses I (ad 51–78) when the impact of the Parthian imperial expansion was felt most dramatically by the Seleucids and Romans in the Near East. The reign of Vologaeses saw Rome and Parthia come to a long-term arrangement over Armenia, and the agreement became a baseline of negotiations between the two powers for centuries. The chapter also makes some broad observations on the structure of the Parthian Empire and the extent to which previously negative historical perspectives about the Parthians have changed in recent scholarship.