Acts 2:9; Parthians, i.e. Jews settled in Parthia. Parthia proper lay S. of Hyreania, E. of Media; but in the apostles' time the Parthian empire stretched from India to the Tigris and from the Kharesm desert to the southern ocean. Arsaces (256 B.C.), revolting from the Seleucid successors of Alexander the Great, founded it. Rising out of the ruins of the Persian empire it was the only power that Rome dreaded, the Roman Crassus having been defeated by Parthians at Carrhae (Haran). Selencia was a chief city, also Hecatompylon. Ecbatana was their kings' summer residence. Mithridates I ruled from the Indian Koosh to the Euphrates. Horsemen and bowmen were their chief force, expert in terribly injuring any enemy who durst follow them in flight. In A.D. 226 the last Arsacid yielded the kingdom to the Persians revolting under Artaxerxes. They were Scythic Tatars of the Turanian race. The arch at Tackt-i-Bostan shows they were not unskillful in art.