pendence,
and succeeded in making himself master of it. With this account, which
Strabo seems to prefer, agrees tolerably well that of Justin, who
says that "Arsaces, having been long accustomed to live by robbery
and rapine, attacked the Parthians with a predatory band, killed their
satrap, Andragoras, and seized the supreme authority." As there was
in all probability a close ethnic connection between the Dahae and the
Parthians, it would be likely enough that the latter might accept for
a king a chieftain of the former who had boldly entered their country,
challenged the Greek satrap to an encounter, and by defeating and
killing him freed them--at any rate for the time--from the Greek yoke.
An oppressed people gladly adopts as chief the head of an allied tribe
if he has shown skill and daring, and offers to protect them from their
oppressors.

The revolt of Arsaces has been placed by some as early as the year B.C.
256. The Bactrian revolt is assigned by most historians to that
year; and the Parthian, according to some, was contemporary. The
best authorities, however, give a short interval between the two
insurrections; and, on the whole, there is perhaps reason to regard the
Parthian independence as dating from about B.C. 250. This year was the
eleventh of Antiochus Theus, and fell into the time when he was still
engaged in his war with Ptolemy Philadelphus. It might have been
expected that when he concluded a peace with the Egyptian monarch in
B.C. 249, he would have turned his arms at once towards the east, and
have attempted at any rate the recovery of his lost dominions. But, as
already stated, his personal character was weak, and he preferred the
pleasures of repose at Antioch to the hardships of a campaign in the
Caspian region. So far as we hear, he took no steps to re-establish
his authority; and Arsaces, like Diodotus, was left undisturbed to
consolidate his power at his leisure.

Arsaces lived, however, but a short time after obtaining the crown. His
authority was disputed within the limits of Parthia itself; and he had
to engage in hostilities with a portion of his own subjects. We may
suspect that the malcontents were chiefly, if not solely, those of Greek
race, who may have been tolerably numerous, and whose strength would
lie in the towns. Hecatompylos, the chief city of Parthia, was among the
colonies founded by Alexander; and its inhabitants would naturally be
disinclined to acquiesce in the rule of