A Critical Review of the Historiographical Sources For the History of the Parthian Empire (247 B.C. – 228 A.D.): the Case of Apollodorus of Artemita and Arrian of Nicomedia

Abstract

This article is linked to the awakening of critical interest in the Parthian Empire and aims at discussing two of the main historiographical sources for the history of this political unity established in 247 B.C. after a military victory over the Seleucids: Apollodorus of Artemita and Arrian of Nicomedia. The selection of these two ancient historians (both authors of a Parthica) is due to the facts that Apollodorus was the first to record the manipulation of the Achaemenid ancestry by the Parthians as part of their strategy of political legitimation, and that Arrian became the main author to inherit the Greco-Parthian historiography (represented by Apollodorus) in the Roman literary tradition.