Parthia. mention of the Parthians, till the time of the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, when the latter sent ambassadors to solicit succour against his rivals. This Orodes was willing to grant upon condition that Syria was delivered up to him; but as Pompey would not consent to such a proposal, the succours were not only denied, but, after the battle of Pharsalia, be put Lucius Hirtius in irons, whom Pompey had again sent to ask assistance, or at least to desire leave to shelter himself in the Parthian dominions.

18

menced

Parthians

Antony.

19

Cæsar is said to have meditated a war against the Parthians, which in all probability would have proved fatal to them. His death delivered them from this danger. War com- But, not long after, the eastern provinces, being grievously oppressed by Mark Antony, rose up in arms; and against the having killed the tax-gatherers, invited the Parthians to by Mark join them and drive out the Romans. They very readily accepted the invitation, and crossed the Euphrates with a powerful army under the command of Pacorus, and Labienus a Roman general of Pompey's party. At first they met with great success, overran all Asia Minor, and reduced all the countries as far as the Hellespont and the Egæan sea, subduing likewise Phoenicia, Syria, and even Judea. They did not however long enjoy their new conquests for being elated with their victories, and despising the enemy, they engaged Ventidius, Antony's lieutenant, before Labienus had time to join them, and were utterly defeated. This so disheartened Labienus's army, that they all abandoned him; and he himself, being thus obliged to wander from place to place in disguise, was at last taken and put to death a Cyprus. Ventidius pursuPacorus de-ing his advantage, gained several other victories; and feated and at last entirely defeated the Parthian under Pacoarmy killed by Ventidius, rus, cutting almost the whole of them in pieces, and the prince himself among the rest. He did not, however, pursue this last victory as he might have done; being afraid of giving umbrage to Antony, who had already become jealous of the great honour gained by his lieutenant. He therefore contented himself with reducing those places in Syria and Phoenicia which the Parthians had taken in the beginning of the war, until Antony ar rived to take the command of the army upon himself. Orodes was almost distracted with grief on receiving the dreadful news of the loss of his army and the death of his favourite son. However, when time had restored the use of his faculties, he appointed Phrahates, the eldest but the most wicked, of all his children, to succeed him in the kingdom, admitting him at the same time to a share of the sovereign authority with himself. The consequence of this was, that Phrahates very soon attempted to poison his father with hemlock. But this, murdered. contrary to expectation, proving a cure for the dropsy, which an excess of grief had brought upon the king, the unnatural son had him stifled in bed, and soon after not only murdered all his own brethren, who were thirty in number, but cut off all the rest of the royal family, not sparing even his own eldest son, lest the discontented Parthians should place him, as he was already of age, on the throne.

20

Orodes

Many of the chief lords of Parthia being intimidated by the cruelty of Phrahates, retired into foreign countries and among those one Moncses, a person of great distinction, as well as skill and experience in war. This man, having fled to Antony, soon gained his confidence, and was by him easily prevailed upon to engage in a war

against his countrymen. But Phrahates justly dreading Parthia. the consequences of such a person's defection, sent a solemn embassy to invite him home on such terms as he should think fit to accept; which greatly provoked Antony; though he did not hinder him from returning, lest others should thereby be discouraged from coming over to him. He therefore dismissed him with great civility, sending ambassadors at the same time to Phrahates to treat of a peace. Thus he hoped to divert the Parthian monarch's attention from making the necessary preparations for war, and that he should be able to fall upon him in the spring when he was in no condition to make resistance. But herein he was greatly disappointed; for on his arrival at the Euphrates, which he intended to pass, and enter the Parthian dominions on that side, he found all the passes so well guarded, that he thought proper to enter Media with a design first to reduce that country, and then to enter Parthia.

21

This plan had been suggested to him by Artabazus Antony king of Armenia, who in the end betrayed him; for betrayed by Artabainstead of conducting the army the straight way from zus king of Zeugma on the Euphrates, to the Araxes which part- Armenia. ed Media from Armenia, and which was about 500 miles distant from the place whence he first set out, Artabazus led them over the rocks and mountains so far about, that the army had marched above 1000 miles before they reached the borders of Media, where they intended to begin the war. Thus they were not only greatly fatigued but had not sufficient time, the year being far spent, to put in execution the design on which they had come. However, as Antony was im patient to get back to Cleopatra, he left behind him most of the baggage of the army, and 300 waggons loaded with battering rams and other military engines for sieges; appointing Statianus, one of his lieutenants, with a body of 10,000 men, to guard them, and to bring them, by slow marches, after the army. With the rest of the forces he marched more than 300 miles before the rest, without allowing his men any respite till he arrived at Praaspa or Phrahata, the capital of Media, which he immediately invested. But the Parthians, well knowing that he could not make any progress without his military machines, passed by his army, in order to attack Statianus; which they did with such success, that the body commanded by him were all to a man cut off, Ten thou and all their military engines taken, among which was sand Roa battering ram 80 feet long.

Antony, notwithstanding this disaster, continued the siege of Praaspa; but was daily harassed by sallies of the garrison from within, and the enemy's army without. At last he began to think of a retreat when his provisions were almost exhausted, finding it impossible to become master of the city. But as he was to march 300 miles through the enemy's country, he thought proper first to send ambassadors to the Parthian monarch, acquainting him that the Roman people were willing to allow him a peace, provided he would restore the standards and prisoners taken at Carrhæ. Phrahates received the ambassadors, sitting on a golden throne; and, after having bitterly inveighed against the avarice and unbounded ambitition of the Romans, told them that he would not part with the standards and prisoners; but that if Antony would immediately raise the siege of Praaspa, he would suffer him to retire unmolested.

Antony, who was reduced to great straits, no sooner received

22

mans cut

off.

23 Antony

thia in

great dis

tress.

Parthia. received this answer than he broke up the siege, and marched towards Armenia. However, Phrahates was not so good as his word; for the Romans were attacked leaves Par- by the enemy no fewer than 18 times on their march, and were thrice in the utmost danger of being cut off. A famine also raged in the Roman army; upon which they began to desert to the enemy; and indeed Antony would probably have been left by himself, had not the Parthians, in a very cruel as well as impolitic manner, murdered all those who fled to them in sight of the rest. At last, after having lost 32,000 men, and being redueed to such despair that he was with difficulty prevented from laying violent hands on himself, he reached the river Araxes; when his men, finding themselves out of the reach of the enemy, fell down on the ground, and kissed it with tears of joy.

24

Parthia subdued by Tra

jan.

Antony was no sooner gone, than the kings of Media and Parthia quarrelled about the booty they had taken; and after various contests Phrahates reduced all Media and Armenia. After this, being elated with his conquests, he oppressed his subjects in such cruel and tyrannical manner, that a civil war took place; in which the competitors were alternately driven out and restored, till the year 50, when one Vologeses, the son of Gortarzes, a former king, became peaceable possessor of the throne. He carried on some wars against the Romans, but with very indifferent success, and at last gladly consented to a renewal of the ancient treaties with that powerful people.

From this time the Parthian history affords nothing remarkable till the reign of the emperor Trajan; when the Parthian king, by name Cosdroes, infringed the treaty with Rome, by driving out, the king of Arme`nia. Upon this Trajan, who was glad of any pretence to quarrel with the Parthians, immediately hastened into Armenia. His arrival there was so sudden and unexpected, that he reduced almost the whole country without opposition; and took prisoner Parthamasiris, the king whom the Parthians had set up. After this he entered Mesopotamia, took the city of Nisibis, and reduced to a Roman province the whole of that wealthy country.

Early in the spring of the following year, Trajan, who had kept his winter quarters in Syria, took the field again; but was warmly opposed by Cosdroes.— He found him encamped on the banks of the Euphrates, with a design to dispute his passage; which he did with such vigour, that the emperor, after having several times attempted to ford that river, and been always repulsed with great slaughter, was obliged to cause boats to be built on the neighbouring mountains, which he privately conveyed from thence on carriages to the water side; and having in the night time formed a bridge with them, he passed his army the next day; but not without great loss and danger, the Parthians harassing his men the whole time with incessant showers of arrows, which did great execution. Having gained the opposite bank, he advanced boldly into Assyria, the Parthians flying everywhere before him, and made himself master of Arbela. Thence he pursued his march; subduing, with incredible rapidity, countries where the Roman standard had never been before displayed. Babylonia, or the province of Babylon, voluntarily submitted to him. The city itself was, after a vigorous resistance, taken by storm; by which means he became master of 4

all Chaldea and Assyria, the two richest provinces of F the Parthian empire. From Babylon he marched to Ctesiphon, the metropolis of the Parthian monarchy; which he besieged, and at last reduced. But as to the particulars of these great conquests, we are quite in the dark; this expedition, however glorious to the Roman name, being rather hinted at than described, by the writers of those times. While Trajan was thus making war in the heart of the enemy's country, Cosdroes, having recruited his army, marched into Mesopotamia, with a design to recover that country, and cut off all communication between the Roman army and Syria. On his arrival in that province, the inhabitants flocked to him from all parts; and most of the cities, driving out the garrisons left by Trajan, opened their gates to him. Hereupon the emperor detached Lucius and Maximus, two of his chief commanders, into Mesopotamia, to keep such cities in awe as had not revolted, and to open a communication with Syria. Maximus was met by Cosdroes; and having ventured a battle, his army was entirely defeated, and himself killed. But Lucius being joined by Euricius and Clarius, two other commanders sent by Trajan with fresh supplies, gained considerable advantages over the enemy, and retook the cities of Nisibis and Seleucia, which had revolted.

25

Roman en

peror, but

And now Trajan, seeing himself possessed of all the best and most fruitful provinces of the Parthian empire, but at the same time being well apprised that he could not, without a vast expence, maintain his conquests, nor keep in subjection so fierce and warlike a people at such a distance from Italy; resolved to set over them a king of his own choosing, who should hold the crown of him and his successors, and acknowledge them as his lords and sovereigns. With this view he repaired to Ctesiphon; and having there assembled the chief men of the nation, he crowned one of the royal family, by name Parthanaspates, king of Parthia, obliging all who were Parthapresent to pay him their allegiance. He chose Partha- naspates naspates, because that prince had joined him at his first appointed entering the Parthian dominions, conducted him with king by th great fidelity, and shown on all occasions an extraordinary attachment to the Romans. Thus the Parthians soon after were at last subdued, and their kingdom made tributary driven out. to Rome. But they did not long continue in this state of subjection for they no sooner heard of Trajan's death, which happened shortly after, than, taking up arms, they drove Parthanaspates from the throne; and recalling Cosdroes, who had retired into the country of the Hyrcanians, openly revolted from Rome. Adrian, who was then commander in chief of all the forces in the east, and soon after acknowledged emperor by the army, did not wish, though he was at that time in Syria with a very numerous army, to engage in a new war with the Parthians; but contented himself with preserving the ancient limits of the empire, without any ambitious prospects of further conquests. Therefore, in the beginning of his reign, he abandoned those provinces beyond the Euphrates which Trajan had conquered; withdrew the Roman garrisons from Mesopotamia; and, for the greater safety of other places, made the Euphrates the boundary of, and barrier in, those parts, posting his legions along the banks of that river.

:

26

Unsuccess

with the

Cosdroes died after a long reign, and was succeeded ful wars of Vologeses by his eldest son Vologeses: in whose reign the Alani, breaking into Media, then subject to the Parthians, Romans. committed

Parthia, Artabanus was heard to say, that the battle was only Parti. begun, and that he would continue it till either the Parthians or Romans were all to a man cut in pieces. But Macrinus, being well apprised that the king came highly enraged against Caracalla in particular, and dreading the consequences which would attend the destruction of his army, sent a herald to Artabanus, acquainting him with the death of Caracalla, and proposing an alliance between the two empires. The king, understanding that his great enemy was dead, readily embraced the proposals of peace and amity, upon condition that all the prisoners who had been taken by the treachery of Caracalla should be immediately restored, and a large sum of money paid him to defray the expences of the war.

30

The Per

and over

These articles being performed without delay or he sitation, Artabanus returned into Parthia, and Macrinus to Antioch.

As Artabanus lost on this occasion the flower of sians revolt his army, Artaxerxes, a Persian of mean descent, but throw the of great courage and experience in war, revolting from Parthian the Parthians, prevailed on his countrymen to join him, empire. and attempt the recovery of the sovereign power, which he said they had been unjustly deprived of, first by the Macedonians, and afterwards by the Parthians, their vassals. Artabanus, upon the news of this revolt, marched with the whole strength of his kingdom to suppress it; but being met by Artaxerxes at the head of a no less powerful army, a bloody battle ensued, which is said to have lasted three days. At length the Parthians, though they behaved with the utmost bravery, and fought like men in despair, were forced to yield to the Persians, who were commanded by a more experienced leader. Most of their troops were cut off in the flight; and the king himself was taken prisoner, and soon after put to death at Artaxerxes's order. The Parthians having lost in this fatal engagement both their king and their army, were forced to submit to the conqueror, and become vassals to a nation which had been subject to them for the space of 475 years.

For an account of the manners, customs, &c. of the ancient Parthians, see the article PERSIA.

PARTI, PARTIE, Party, or Parted, in Heraldry, is applied to a shield or escutcheon, denoting it divided or marked out into partitions.

PARTI per pale, is when the shield is divided perpendicularly into two halves, by a cut in the middle from top to bottom.

PARTI per fess, is when the cut is across the middle from side to side.

PARTI per bend dexter, is when the cut comes from the upper corner of the shield on the right hand, and descends athwart to the opposite lower corner. PARTI per bend sinister, is when the cut, coming from the upper left corner, descends across to the oppo

site lower one.

All these partitions, according to M. de la Colombiere, have their origin in the cuts and bruises that have appeared on shields after engagements; and be ing proofs of the dangers to which the bearers had been exposed, they gained them esteem; for which reason they were transmitted to posterity, and became arms and marks of honour to their future families.

1

PARTIALITY. See SELF-partiality and PRE- Par

JUDICE.

PARTICIPLE, in Grammar, an adjective formed of a verb; so called because it participates partly of the properties of a noun, and partly of those of a verb. See GRAMMAR.

PARTICLE, in Physics, the minute part of a body, an assemblage of which constitutes all natural bodies.

In the new philosophy, particle is often used in the same sense with atom in the ancient Epicurean philosophy, and corpuscle in the later. Some writers, however, distinguish them; making particle an assemblage or composition of two or more primitive and physically indivisible corpuscles or atoms; and corpuscle, or little body, an assemblage or mass of severa! particles or secondary corpuscles. The distinction, however, is of little moment; and, as to most purposes of physics, particle may be understood as synonymous with corpuscle. Particles are then the elements of bodies it is the various arrangement and texture of these, with the difference of the cohesion, &c. that constitute the various kinds of bodies, hard, soft, liquid, dry, heavy, light, &c. The smallest particles or corpuscles cohere, with the strongest attractions, and always compose larger particles of weaker cohesion; and many of these cohering compose larger particles, whose vigour is still weaker; and so on for divers successions, till the progression end in the largest particles, on which the operations in chemistry, and the colours of natural bodies, depend, and which, by cohering, compose bodies of sensible bulks.

The cohesion of the particles of matter, according to the Epicureans, was effected by hooked atoms; the Aristotelians thought it managed by rest, that is, by nothing at all. But Sir Isaac Newton shows it is by means of a certain power whereby the particles mutually attract or tend toward each other, which is still perhaps giving a fact without a cause. By this attraction of the particles he shows that most of the phenomena of the lesser bodies are effected, as those of the heavenly bodies are by the attraction of gravity. See ATTRACTION and COHESION.

PARTICLE, a term in Theology, used in the Latin church for the crumbs or little pieces of consecrated bread, called in the Greek church μgides. The Greeks have a particular ceremony, called Tav μερίδων, of the particles, wherein certain crumbs of bread, not consecrated, are offered up in honour of the Virgin, St John Baptist, and several other saints. They also give them the name of googa, oblatio. Gabriel archbishop of Philadelphia wrote a little treatise express Tg TWI

gider, wherein he endeavours to show the antiquity of this ceremony, in that it is mentioned in the liturgies of St Chrysostom and Basil. There has been much controversy on this head between the reformed and catholic divines. Aubertin and Blondel explain a passage in the theory of Germanus patriarch of Constantinople, where he mentions the ceremony of the particles as in use in his time, in favour of the former; Messieurs de Port Royal contest the explanation; but M. Simon, in his notes on Gabriel of Philadelphia, endeavours to show that the passage itself is an interpolation, not being found in the ancient copies of Ger

manus,

Pa