Phraates IV of Parthia
 |
Arsaces |
, civilized, friend of Greeks). The date ΕΟΣ is year 275 of the
Seleucid era, corresponding to
38â€"
37 BC.]]
King
Phraates IV of Parthia, son of
Orodes II, ruled the
Parthian Empire from
37â€"
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.
Phraates was attacked in
36 BC by the Roman general
Mark Antony, who marched through
Armenia into Media Atropatene, and was defeated and lost the greater part of his army. Antony, believing himself betrayed by
Artavasdes, king of Armenia, invaded his kingdom in
34 BC, took him prisoner, and concluded a treaty with another Artavasdes, king of
Atropatene.
But when the war with
Octavian broke out, Antony could not maintain his conquests; Phraates recovered Atropatene and drove
Artaxes, the son of Artavasdes, back into Armenia. But by his many cruelties Phraates had roused the indignation of his subjects, who raised
Tiridates II to the throne in
32 BC. Phraates was restored by the
Scythians, and Tiridates fled into
Syria. The Romans hoped that
Augustus would avenge the defeat of the Roman general
Marcus Licinius Crassus on the Parthians, but he contented himself with a treaty, by which Phraates gave back the prisoners and the conquered eagles; the kingdom of Armenia also was recognized as a Roman dependency. Soon afterwards Phraates, whose greatest enemies were his own family, sent five of his sons as hostages to Augustus, thus acknowledging his dependence on Rome (the hostages included
Tiridates III, whom the Romans later tried to install as a vassal king in
AD 35). This plan he adopted on the advice of an Italian
concubine whom he made his legitimate wife under the name of "the goddess
Musa"; her son
Phraates V, commonly called Phraataces (a diminutive form), he appointed successor. About
2 BC he was murdered by Musa and her son.
*
*
Junianus Justinus,
Historiarum Philippicarum, xlii
*
Dio Cassius,
Plutarch,
Josephus
