Parthia During the Time of Mithridates III (58/57-56 B.C.). An Attempt to Reconstruct Historical Events

Abstract

In the huge number of scientific works on the history of Parthia, there are no special studies devoted to the activities of the Parthian king Mithridates III (Mithridates IV – according to Assar’s chronology [4:96-97])2 . The exception is the scanty lines (5-10 sentences) in generalizing works on the political history of Parthia [7:83-83;6:42-44;22:31], a number of scientific articles [12:2211;17:57-58:19:168;39:211;4:96-97;44:442-443; 11:212-213] and dissertations [18:108;30:75], which in passing refer to the period of the reign of this king or his action. In all these studies circulates one and the same point of view that the Parthian king Phraates III was killed by his sons – Mithridates and Orodes, after which Mithridates III ascended the throne and started a war with Great Armenia. At the end of the war with Great Armenia, Mithridates III was sentenced by the Parthian Council of Elders to banishment from the kingdom of the “cruelty” he had shown. In his place, his brother Orodes II was appointed king, who was returned from exile by Surena. Interpreting the data of the sources in this way, the researchers did not try to find out what Marcus Justinus meant by Mitridates’s III “cruelty” and what meaning contemporaries of the events put into the notion of “exile”. Meanwhile, a thorough analysis of sources and the correct interpretation of these terms allows us to doubt Orodes II involvement in the murder of his father. Unsolved problems require solutions. At the same time, the lack of detailed studies on the biography of the king Mithridates III and the political history of Parthia in the era of king Mithridates III make this study quite timely.