Parthian Empire I

  General Description   The first ruler of the Parthian dynasty was Arsaces who lived at about 240 BCE ^[1] but the founder of the Parthian Empire (171 BCE - 40 CE period) was Mithridates I, who initiated the Parthian conquest of Persia and Babylonia from the Seleucids. ^[2] The Parthians were essentially "a military aristocracy" ^[3] that ruled the many different peoples (e.g. Persians, Greeks, Jews, Babylonians) who lived in Persia and Babylonia.
Parchments and ostra found at Dura-Europas show the Parthians had "an extensive and developed bureaucracy". ^[4] The Parthians, who were originally a nomadic tribe (the Parni) from northeastern Iran ^[4] , conquered Seleucid territory that already possessed municipal, provincial (satrapal) and central government. The Parthians had some centralized institutions but these were not based at a capital city but "moved from city to city along with their administration." ^[5]
The Parthian nobility was inserted into the regional governance structures they inherited ^[6] as satraps appointed by the king, while much of the rest of the territory consisted of directly granted personal fiefs ^[7] or vassal kingdoms. ^[8] In terms of central government the Parthian Arsacids retained the Achaemenid model (as had the Seleucids) which had departments called diwans "responsible for record-keeping, communication, budgeting, and taxation." The departments were run by individuals called dibirs who were themselves responsible to a first-minister. ^[5]

[1]: (Neusner 2008, 16) JAcob Neusner. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene.

[2]: (Neusner 2008, 16) Jacob Neusner. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene.

[3]: (Dabrowa 2012, 180) Edward Dabrowa. The Arcasid Empire. in Daryaee, Touraj ed. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford University Press.

[4]: (Koshelenko and Pilipko 1999, 146) G A Koshelenko. V N Pilipko. in Ahmad Hasan Dani. 1999. History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

[5]: Khodadad Rezakhani. 2016. Arsacid Society and Culture. Accessed 06.09.2016: https://iranologie.com/the-history-page/the-arsacid-empire/arsacid-society-and-culture/

[6]: (Neusner 2008, 18) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene.

[7]: (Neusner 2008, 18) Jacob Neusner. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene.

[8]: (Koshelenko and Pilipko 1994, 141) G A Koshelenko. V N Pilipko. Parthia. in Janos Harmatta. B N Puri. G F Etemadi. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizatins 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.