Seleucid–Parthian wars

Seleucid–Parthian Wars
Date 238 BC – 129 BC Location Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia Result Parthian victory
Belligerents
Seleucid Empire	Parthian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Andragoras  †, Diodotus I, Antiochus III, Demetrius II Nicator   Antiochus VII Sidetes  †	Arsaces I Mithridates I, Arsaces II Phraates II Surena

The Seleucid–Parthian wars were a series of conflicts between the Seleucid Empire and Parthia which resulted in the ultimate expulsion of the Seleucids from Persia and the establishment of the Parthian Empire. The wars were caused by Iranian tribes migrating into Central Asia and the inability of the Seleucids to properly defend or hold together their vast empire.

In 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great. Stretching from Syria to the Indus River and comprising most of Alexander's realm, the Seleucid state was the most powerful of the Diadochi kingdoms that sprang up after Alexander's death. Quickly however, the Seleucids ran into trouble trying to maintain such an extended realm, facing constant warfare against the other Hellenistic states in the west and with unrest amongst their Iranian peoples in the east.

Taking advantage of the Seleucids' preoccupation with the wars against a Celtic invasion of Asia Minor in the west, around 245 BC, Diodotus and Andragoras, the Seleucid satraps of Bactria and Parthia respectively, declared their remote provinces independent states. However, in 238, the Parni, an Iranian tribe from the central Asian steppes under Arsaces, invaded Andragoras' domain, defeated and killed him, and took over the land. The Parni then became known as the Parthians taking their name from the Seleucid province that they had conquered. They then began to try and conquer as much of the eastern Seleucid empire as possible. They were joined in this by the now independent province of Bactria. The Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos was at the time too busy fighting a war against Ptolemaic Egypt and so the Seleucids lost most of their territory east of Persia and Media.

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