Following the joint campaign with
Caesarion in Arabia, the founder of the Neo-Bactrian empire
Sapadbizes crossed over the Persian Gulf to the court of
King Arsakes of Parthia with a small entourage. The bulk of his army crossed over into Gedrosia, but he was secure enough in his position to not require a grand escort. Together Sapadbizes and Caesarion sought to monopolize the highly lucrative east-west trade from Europe to the Far East. The campaign in south Arabia, a collaboration of unprecedented scale, had the sole intent of opening up an alternative route east-west, just as Roman infiltration into Albania and Bactrian settlement on the eastern Caspian shore would open an alternative route in the north. Above all else the success of their endeavor depended on cutting out the Parthian middle men who had traditionally levied tolls on merchants going east-west. To that end both were committed to the fomentation of civil war and dissension in Parthia as long as possible.
The young king Arsakes received Sapadbizes well. He had come to Sapadbizes' court an infant and spent his early years there. When he displaced his half-brother
Alexander Helios on the throne, he had maintained Sapadbizes' sister
Machene (one of Alexander Helios' wives) in her royal dignity. Her son,
Antonios, was one of two nephews Arsakes had adopted as his heirs when he ascended the throne, alongside the crown prince
Seleucus (Alexander Seleukos). The birth of Arsakes' own biological sons might have imperiled the safety of these boys, were it not for his overwhelming desire to obtain Sapadbizes' alliance against Alexander Helios, who still contested his reign in Media.
Rather fortuitously (or was it by design?) Sapadbizes arrived at the most crucial of moments. Alexander Helios had of late obtained the upper hand in the brotherly dispute, encroaching upon Arsakes' territory in Elam and threatening to finally displace him entirely from the throne. Arsakes (or his councilors, rather) had long sought foreign assistance for his rule. To that end they had actively sought the approval and friendship of Rome, though they were ultimately unsuccessful: following Alexander Helios’ refusal of aid to the usurping
Antyllus, Caesarion formally recognized him as a
rex socius et amicus populi Romani, a friend and ally of Rome (6BC). By the time that final slam of the door came, however, Arsakes had gotten the alliance he so desperately needed elsewhere.
By the terms of their alliance, the
Megas Basileus ('Great King') Arsakes recognized Sapadbizes as
Megas Basileus ton Basileion ('Great King of Kings'), a title reserved only for the greatest and most successful Parthian monarchs. Together they constituted a joint monarchy with Sapadbizes as the senior partner and Arsakes as his adopted heir. Coinage bearing both of their semblances was commissioned. Sapadbizes pledged to provide Arsakes the desperately needed military assistance against Alexander Helios and a company of war elephants. He further pledged to restore some of the Parthian lands he had seized in past times[1] and to give his sole daughter to Arsakes for wife. Finally he transferred to Arsakes the recently acquired ports in Arabia, in return for which Arsakes allowed him to extend his direct authority into Hyrcania.
Both Sapadbizes and Arsakes considered themselves heirs to the Imperial legacy of the great kings of the east - the Achaemenids, Seleucids and Arsacids. Arsakes possessed a direct link to this legacy, descending from these kings through both of his parents, while Sapadbizes was connected only by marriage[2]. On the other hand, Sapadbizes ruled over a true empire, holding sway over numerous client kings, while Arsakes ruled over a smaller domain and did not command the allegiance of sub-kings as Sapadbizes did. Their alliance legitimized both of their positions in the face of outside opposition, as well as providing for a clearly recognized, legitimate succession - an immediate necessity for Sapadbizes, who had no sons of his own.
The alliance allowed for greater exchange between Parthia and the Greco-Indo-Bactrian empire of Sapadbizes. Arsakes' hold on government was still far too precarious for him to enforce any meaningful levying of tolls on Bactrian merchants, though in fact most now preferred routes through Arabia, across the Caspian or up the Persian Gulf to Roman-held Tylos and then up through Roman Mesopotamia, evading his realm altogether. Even so the guarantee of peace - at least on his eastern frontier - was highly beneficial. As part of the commerce which did nevertheless occur Sapadbizes began officially sponsoring Zoroastrianism in his realm, identifying his divine patron Nanaya[3] with the Zoroastrian lady of the waters. Thus Sapadbizes refined the rather rudimentary cult of his divine mistress by attaching to it Zoroastrian teaching and ritual and the figure Oromades (
Ahura Mazda) as her consort[4]. The generally zealous Arsakes not only overlooked these innovations, but also held off on the persecution of Buddhists - a sect detested by Sapadbizes but comprising an even growing number of his subjects.
King and Zeus-Oromasdes-Sarapo
His ambitions thus satiated, Sapadbizes regressed to Chorasmia, where he conducted a campaign against the Scythians to his north. By this point Sapadbizes had removed the other 'kings' among his people (the Yuezhi), relegating them to inferior status and placing his own clansmen as
yabgu, that is, heads and chiefs over them. His daughter
Cleopatra Thais came forth to receive him into the realm. Though still in the first flower of youth she already exercised royal power in her father's absence, to the point of over-ruling male relatives and receiving tribute and homage in her own right. The client kings who previously attended on Sapadbizes now attended on her; like her mother, she was variously referred to as the Queen or Daughter of Heaven. Sapadbizes' present wife, a princess of Chorasmia, was her second and junior in all things.
Back west Arsakes went to lengths to avoid conflict with Alexander Helios, his own hands tied while he waited for the promised help to realize. Meanwhile Alexander penetrated further east than before, taking both Esfahan and Rhagae. Custody of the crown prince
Alexander Seleukos and a hefty tribute bought Alexander Helios off temporarily, allowing time for the promised reinforcements to arrive from Bactria and India. Upon their arrival Arsakes was finally able to reverse his policy and launch a full-scale invasion of Media. He met with initial success and was aided by internal rebellions and the support of Alexander’s disaffected queen
Iotapa, who had been repudiated in favor of Alexander’s favorite bride
Amoghabuta. Though the former queen did not long outlive this last act of defiance, Arsakes made significant inroads, his force of elephants decimating his brother's forces and recapturing Esfahan. These military successes marked Arsakes' full majority and his emancipation from the magi who had been his custodians and councilors to this point.
Emboldened by these exploits, he regressed to Estakhr for the winter, where his hitherto demure demeanor gave way to an excessive Zoroastrian piety and cruelty worthy of his most brutal ancestors. The persecution and slaughtering of Jews led to generalized unrest and the start of a mass exodus of Jews from Persia. Arsakes gleefully looted these subjects in order to maintain his troops and embellish his fire temples.
The following year (4BC) he was back in Esfahan, from where he attempted to take back Rhagae (the
Europos of the Seleucids). Forced to retreat, he set loose his troops on Juhudistan (Yahudiyya), a Jewish settlement adjoining
Gay, the Gabae of the Greeks; together the two communities comprised the city of Esfahan. When he fell through a window in his royal palace to an agonizing death, the Jewish people far and wide publicly rejoiced at the providential intervention of their God.
Arsakes' death caused an immediate crisis. The Megistanes, the royal council of magi, hurriedly sought to make peace with Alexander Helios by offering him the crown. Unfortunately for those desirous of peace Arsakes' sister-wife
Dareia thwarted, or at least delayed, such plans by orchestrating a palace coup and disposing of her rival
Irtasduna and the latter's son
Tiridates. She named herself
King and co-regent for her own son, the infant Phraates V, henceforth better known as
Phraatakes ('the Little Phraates')[5]. The princess Cleopatra Thais had at this time come forth with a grand retinue to Phra (Propasta) in Aria, where she was then awaiting an escort to bring her across to Esfahan - informed of her half-brother's death and the plot of her half-sister to capture her, she stole away immediately to the safety of her father's court.
Dareia Tryphaena Thea Ouraniae, Queen of Parthia
[1] Chorasmia, Dihistan (the land of the Dahae) and easternmost parts of Parthia proper and Aria.
[2] Sapadbizes was the son of Hyrcodes, a son of Heraios (a semi-Hellenized Yuezhi prince) and Thais, a Greco-Bactrian princess. Through Thais he was able to claim some vague, unspecified kinship with the Seleucids. Her father Amyntas, Indo-Greek King of Alexandria in Paropamisadae, provided a more certain (but far less glorious) descent from the satraps put in place by Alexander the Great and the early Seleucids.
[3] An Iranian goddess identified by the Greeks with Artemis. Also identified with Inana, Ishtar, Diana, etc. As Aredvi Sura Anahita she was integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon as the spiritual guardian of the waters, "the life-increasing, herd-increasing, fold-increasing, who makes prosperity for all countries". She was also a heavenly goddess associated with healing, wisdom and fertility.
[4] The uncreated god of Zoroastrianism.
[5] My take on OTL's Queen Thea Musa (Thermusa), an obscure girl given by Augustus to Phraates (Farhad) IV to seal peace between Rome and Parthia. She later slew her husband and married their son, Phraataces, minting coins as Musa, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΣΣΕΣ ΘΕΑ ΟΥΡΑΝΙΑΣ (
). Prior to her more than one Parthian queen ruled as 'king' in co-regency with immature heirs.