Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 127
Koh, a tract estimated by Professor Ruwlinson as
1500 miles, east and west, by a breadth in some parts
more than 400 miles : no inconsiderable part of which
comprises the most fertile regions of Middle and
Western Asia. Envy, however, if no better reason,
suggested an attempt to reduce his power, and the
Seleucid ruler Demetrius led an attack he perhaps
thought would be acceptable to some of the aggrieved
populations of the neighbourhood. In this, how-
ever, he miscalculated alike their feelings and the
real resources of the Parthian monarch. In one great
battle his army was completely destroyed, and he
himself was exhibited as a captive though, as it would
seem, with the treatment due to his rank, through
several of the provinces that had revolted ; a warning
to those who should in future attempt to thwart the
new Asiatic empire.
After a thirty-eight years' glorious reign, which fully
entitled him to adopt the proud designation of " King
of kings," he was the first of the Parthians to assume,
Mithradates died B.C. 136. This monarch was also the
first to wear the tiara, or tall stiff crown, which, with
some modifications, remained the royal headdress till
the final overthrow of the Sassanian dynasty by the
Muhammedans, A.D. 641. Like the Achaemenian
kings, those of the house of Arsakes occupied different
residences according to the season of the year.
Their winter they generally spent at Ctesiphon, and
the rest of the year at Ecbatana (Hamaddn), Tape
in Hyrcania, or Rhages (Rhey).
Mithradates was succeeded by his son Phraates II,
and a war with Syria would probably at once