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Phraates IV
King of Kings
Coin of Phraates IV, Mithradatkirt mint
King of the Parthian Empire
Reign37–2 BC
Coronation37 BC
PredecessorOrodes II
SuccessorPhraates V and Musa
Died2 BC
SpouseThea Musa
IssuePhraates V
Vonones I
Karen
DynastyArsacid dynasty
FatherOrodes II
MotherLaodice
ReligionZoroastrianism

Phraates IV (Parthian: Frahāt, literally; the one with [regal] glory) was king of the Parthian Empire from 37 BC to 2 BC. He was appointed successor to the throne in 37 BC, after the death of his brother Pacorus I. He soon murdered his father and all his thirty brothers.

Background

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Phraates was the son of Orodes II and the Commagene princess Laodice of Parthia. The original heir of Orodes II was his son Pacorus I, who was killed fighting Roman forces at the battle of Mount Gindarus. His death spurred a succession crisis in which Orodes II chose Phraates IV as his new heir.[1]

Reign

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Upon assuming the throne, Phraates IV eliminated rival claimants by killing and exiling his own brothers.[2] One of them, Monaeses, fled to Antony and convinced him to invade Parthia.[3] Antony defeated Parthia's Judaean ally Antigonus in 37 BC, installing Herod as a client king in his place.

The following year, when Antony marched to Erzurum, Artavasdes II of Armenia once again switched alliances by sending Antony additional troops. Antony invaded Media Atropatene (modern Iranian Azerbaijan), then ruled by Parthia's ally Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, with the intention of seizing the capital Praaspa, the location of which is now unknown. However, Phraates IV ambushed Antony's rear detachment, destroying a giant battering ram meant for the siege of Praaspa; after this, Artavasdes abandoned Antony's forces.[4]

The Parthians pursued and harassed Antony's army as it fled to Armenia. Eventually, the greatly weakened force reached Syria.[5] After this, Antony lured Artavasdes II into a trap with the promise of a marriage alliance. He was taken captive in 34 BC, paraded in Antony's mock Roman triumph in Alexandria, Egypt,[6] and eventually executed by Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.[7][8]

Antony attempted to strike an alliance with Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, whose relations with Phraates IV had recently soured. This was abandoned when Antony and his forces withdrew from Armenia in 33 BC; they escaped a Parthian invasion while Antony's rival Octavian attacked his forces to the west.[8] Following Antony's suicide in Egypt followed by that of his wife Cleopatra in 30 BC,[9] the Parthian ally Artaxias II reassumed the throne of Armenia.

Following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian consolidated his political power and in 27 BC was named Augustus by the Roman Senate, becoming the first Roman emperor.[10] Around this time, Tiridates II of Parthia briefly overthrew Phraates IV, who was able to quickly reestablish his rule with the aid of Scythian nomads.[11] Tiridates fled to the Romans, taking one of Phraates' sons with him. In negotiations conducted in 20 BC, Phraates arranged for the release of his kidnapped son. In return, the Romans received the lost legionary standards taken at Carrhae in 53 BC, as well as any surviving prisoners of war.[12] The Parthians viewed this exchange as a small price to pay to regain the prince.[13] Augustus hailed the return of the standards as a political victory over Parthia; this propaganda was celebrated in the minting of new coins, the building of a new temple to house the standards, and even in fine art such as the breastplate scene on his statue Augustus of Prima Porta.[14]

A close-up view of the breastplate on the statue of Augustus of Prima Porta, showing a Parthian man returning to Augustus the legionary standards lost by Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrhae

Along with the prince, Augustus also gave Phraates IV an Italian slave-girl, who later became Queen Musa of Parthia. To ensure that her child Phraataces would inherit the throne without incident, Musa convinced Phraates IV to give his other sons to Augustus as hostages. Again, Augustus used this as propaganda depicting the submission of Parthia to Rome, listing it as a great accomplishment in his Res Gestae Divi Augusti.[15] When Phraataces took the throne as Phraates V (r. c. 2 BC – 4 AD), Musa married her own son and ruled alongside him. The Parthian nobility, disapproving of both the incestuous relationship and the notion of a king with non-Arsacid blood, forced the pair into exile in Roman territory.[16]

Notes

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  1. ^ Bivar 1983, p. 58; Brosius 2006, p. 96; Kennedy 1996, pp. 80–81; see also Strugnell 2006, pp. 239, 245–246
  2. ^ Garthwaite 2005, p. 79
  3. ^ Bivar 1983, pp. 58–59; Kennedy 1996, p. 81
  4. ^ Bivar 1983, pp. 58–59
  5. ^ Bivar 1983, pp. 60–63; Garthwaite 2005, p. 80; Curtis 2007, p. 13; see also Kennedy 1996, p. 81 for analysis on Rome's shift of attention away from Syria to the Upper Euphrates, starting with Antony.
  6. ^ Roller 2010, p. 99
  7. ^ Burstein 2004, p. 31
  8. ^ a b Bivar 1983, pp. 64–65
  9. ^ Roller 2010, pp. 145–151
  10. ^ Roller 2010, pp. 138–151; Bringmann 2007, pp. 304–307
  11. ^ Bivar 1983, pp. 65–66
  12. ^ Garthwaite 2005, p. 80; see also Strugnell 2006, pp. 251–252
  13. ^ Bivar 1983, pp. 66–67
  14. ^ Brosius 2006, pp. 96–97, 136–137; Bivar 1983, pp. 66–67; Curtis 2007, pp. 12–13
  15. ^ Bivar 1983, p. 67; Brosius 2006, pp. 96–99
  16. ^ Bivar 1983, p. 68; Brosius 2006, pp. 97–99; see also Garthwaite 2005, p. 80

References

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  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Phraates". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Junianus Justinus, Historiarum Philippicarum, xlii
  • Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18.39-52

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/susa-iv-hellenistic-parthian-periods http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/class-system-iii

HistoryofIran/List of shahanshahs of the Sassanid Empire
Born: Unknown Died: 2 BC
Preceded by Great King (Shah) of Parthia
37–2 BC 		Succeeded by
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