ARSACES

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 650 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ARN-AUD

ARSACES , a Persian name, which occurs on a Persian seal, where it is written in cuneiform characters. The most famous Arsaces was the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of the Parni, one of the nomadic Scythian or Dahan tribes in the desert

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

of the Caspian Sea. A later tradition, preserved by Arrian, derives Arsaces I. and Tiridates from the Achaemenian king Artaxerxes II., but this has evidently no historical value. Arsaces, seeking

refuge

REFUGE

before the Bactrian king Diodotes, invaded

Parthia

PARTHIA

, then a province of the Seleucid empire, about 250 B.C. (Strabo xi. p. 515, cf. Arrian p. 1, Muller, in Photius, Cod. 58, and

Syncellus

SYNCELLUS

p. 284). After two years (according to Arrian) he was killed, and his brother Tiridates, who succeeded him and maintained himself for a short time in

Parthia

PARTHIA

, during the dissolution of the Seleucid empire by the attacks of

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

III. (247 ff.), was defeated and expelled by Seleucus II. (about 238). But when this king was forced, by the rebellion of his brother, Antiochus Hierax, to return to the west, Tiridates came back and defeated the Macedonians (Strabo xi. pp. 513, 515; Justin xli. 4; Appian, Syr. 65; Isidorus of Charax II). He was the real founder of the Parthian empire, which was of very limited extent until the final decay of the Seleucid empire, occasioned by the Roman intrigues after the death of Antiochus I V. Epiphanes (165 B.C.) , enabled Mithradates I. and his successors to conquer Media and B abylonia. Tiridates adopted the name of his brother Arsaces, and after him all the other Parthian kings (who by the historians are generally called by their proper names), amounting to the number of about thirty, officially

wear

WEAR

only the name Arsaces. With very few exceptions only the name APEAKHE (with various epithets) occurs on the coins of the Parthian kings, and the obverse generally shows the seated
ARSENAL
figure of the founder of the dynasty, holding in his hand a strung bow. The Arsacidian empire was overthrown in A.D. 226 by Ardashir (Artaxerxes), the founder of the Sassanid empire, whose conquests began about A.D. 212. The name Arsaces of Persia is also borne by some kings of Armenia, who were of Parthian origin. (See PERSIA and PARTFIA.) (ED. M.)
ARS-AN-DER-MOSEL, a town of Germany, in the imperial province

Alsace

ALSACE (Ger. Elsass)

-Lorraine, 5 M. S. of Metz on the railway to Noveant. It has a handsome Roman Catholic church and extensive foundries. In the vicinity are the remains of a Roman aqueduct, which formerly spanned the valley. Pop. 5000.

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