Parthamaspates was a Parthian prince who ruled as a Roman client king in Mesopotamia, and later of Osroene during the early second century AD. He was the son of the Parthian emperor Osroes I.

Biography

After spending much of his life in Roman exile, he accompanied the emperor Trajan on the latter's campaign to conquer Parthia. Trajan originally planned to annex Ctesiphon as part of the Roman Empire, but ultimately decided instead to place Parthamaspates on his father's throne as a Roman client, doing so in 116. Trajan effectively crowned Parthamaspates as a king of Parthia. Following Roman withdrawal from the area, Osroes easily defeated Parthamaspates and reclaimed the Parthian throne. After his defeat in Parthia, Parthamaspates again fled to the Romans who then, as a consolation, granted him the co-rule of Osroene, a small Roman client state between Asia Minor and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. He was king of Osroene together with Yalur from 118 to 122, and afterwards sole ruler to 123. ANTONINUS PIUS

From his territory of Osroene, he is known to have traded with the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

, goods being sent by sea and through the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. Long after the failure of Parthamaspates, Rome still claimed to have control of Parthian land, as shown in a coin of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) with the image of a subdued "Parthia" offering the crown to him.

References

Sources

Clément Huart Clément Huart (16 February 1854 – 30 December 1926) was a French orientalist, publisher and translator of Persian, Turkish and Arabic writings. Biography The son of a lawyer, Clément Huart began studying Arabic at fourteen with Armand Ca ...

Louis Delaporte Louis Delaporte (Loches, January 11, 1842 – Paris, May 3, 1925) was a French explorer and artist, whose collection and documentation of Khmer art formed the nucleus of exhibitions in Paris, originally at the 1878 Paris Exposition and later at ...

, ''L'Iran antique : Élam et Perse et la civilisation iranienne'', Albin Michel, coll. « L'Évolution de l'Humanité », Paris, 1943, . * {{Rulers of the Ancient Near East 2nd-century Parthian monarchs Roman client rulers 2nd-century monarchs in the Middle East Rulers of Osroene People of the Roman–Parthian Wars 2nd-century Iranian people Iranian exiles