bgr_590322 - PARTHIA - PARTHIAN KINGDOM - MITHRIDATES I Drachme

PARTHIA - PARTHIAN KINGDOM - MITHRIDATES I

(171-138 BC)

Phraates I had several sons (and daughters), but he chose his younger brother, Mithridates I, as his successor because he appreciated his qualities. We can deduce that the sovereign had acquired absolute power, being able to afford not to follow the tradition which reserved the throne for the eldest son. Mithridates first undertook an expedition to the east, taking back from the powerful Greco-Bactrian Empire the lands ceded under Arsaces II. Then he turned west and took Media from the Seleucids (148 BC). This first war of conquest gave him access to Mesopotamia, which would be for several centuries the privileged battlefield between the Parthians (then the Sassanids) and the Seleucids, then the Romans. Within a few years, Mithridates I had raised Parthia to the rank of a great power..