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of the Arsacids. A confusion arises only when you mix up, as Justin and some modem historians do, the Parni and the Parthi.46

As a matter of fact, local defections from the Empire, such as that of Parni, were a common occurrence in the immense monarchy of the Seleucids, and often led to temporary establishment of petty "dynasts," like that of Arsaces. and Tiridates.47 Nothing, then, is more likely than that Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, who, as his coins show,48 prepared his secession methodically, left undisturbed the rebel tribe, settled at the frontier next the satrapy of Parthia49 and raiding the latter. But after his secession, during the war of Laodice,50 Diodotus, quite naturally, drove out the Parni from his new kingdom.51 Diodotus' defection and the fraternal war between Seleucus II and Antiochus Hierax crumbled the Seleucid authority in the East and so Tiridates was able to override Parthia and then Hyrcania52 and plant his domination there. In fact, we are told that Tiridates invaded Parthia when he had heard of Seleucus II's defeat by the Gauls, This fateful battle at Ancyra occurred, probably in 239 (see above paragraph). The occupation of Parthia by the Parni and the establishment of the Parthian Empire, then, took place about 238 B.C. But the earliest evidence referring to the Arsacids assigns their beginnings to the reign of Antiochus 11. The so-called Arsacid Era, attested as in use before 141 B.C.53 has as its starting point the year 247-6 B.C.54 How to explain this apparent divergence between literary tradition and the chronological statement? The Arsacid Era was the dating "as the king reckons."55 The kings of Parthia, like those of Pontus, of Bithynia, etc., imitated the Seleucid computation with one of their own. These reckonings were not calculated from a fixed event (as the eras are in the proper sense of the term) but by numbered regnal years. Only this numbering was continuous without breaks at each succession.56 But if the Arsacid Era is the counting of regnal years of the Parthian dynasty, how could it start in 247-6? At this date, Antiochus II, victorious in the war against Ptole-

46. The confusion is committed already by the first modern historian of the Arsacids, J. Foy Vaillant, Arsacidarum Imperium, I, 1725, p. 2.
47. Cf. Rostovtzeff (see n. 26), p. 502; Walbank, JHS, 1942, p. 9. Classic is the case of Philetaerus of Pergamum who began to strike coins in his own name during the Syrian war, about 274. Cf. Newell, The Pergamene Mint under Philetaerus, 1936.
48. See now Newell, EM, p. 247; Tarn, p. 72.
49. See Tarn, p. 82; Sturm, RE s.v. Ochus (XVII, 1770).
50. Cf. Newell, EM, p. 249, who points out that the royal title may have been assumed only by Diodotus II.
51. Strabo XI, 9,2 (515 C) ; Just. XLI, 4, 5.
52. Just. XLI, 4,8.
53. Olmstead (see n. 19), p. 13
54, Kugler, Sternkunde II, 444; Olmstead, l.c. It is often stated (e.g. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, IV, 1, p. 670, n. 1) that Eusebius' Chronicle gives

   

Olymp. 132, 3 (250-49 B.C.) as the beginning of the Parthian history. But Eusebius' authentic date was Olymp. 133 (248-244 B.C.) (Hieronymus; the list of the Olympiads in the Armenian translation). There was, of course, no era beginning in 380 B.C. as supposed by Allotte de la Füye, Mission de Perse, XX, 1928, p. 29. If the bronze coin with the date "191" (121-0 B.C.) really shows the head of Mithridates I, the piece would only prove that Mithridates' portrait was still reproduced after his death, as often happened in Hellenistic numismatics.
55. See, e.g. The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Report VII-VIII, p. 428.
56. I re-state here these elementary facts (above, pp. 73-74) because the nature of Arsacid (and Seleucid) computation is mistaken even in scholarly works. In a recent work on Iranian religions the Arsacid Era is presented, e.g., as based upon a "zarvanic" theological conception.

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