The Arsacid kingdom in the 1st and 2nd cents. AD (to AD 224)
(1,917 words)
The Parthians, or to use the name of the ruling dynasty, the Arsacids, built a kingdom from the 3rd cent. BC in what is now Iran, taking the place of the Seleucids; it encompassed large parts of Mesopotamia, the south-eastern portion of Central Asia and some adjoining peripheral zones, and it formed the link between the Graeco-Roman world on the one hand and Central Asia (and China) on the other. Many details of its…