v16_0091 - PARTHIAN KINGDOM - PHRAATES III Drachme

PARTHIAN KINGDOM - PHRAATES III

(70-57 BC)

Phraates III is the grandson of Mithridates I and the son of Sinatruces (77-70 BC).. -VS. ), who became king when he was over eighty years old. He is also the nephew of Phraates II (138-127 BC).. -VS. ). He would have succeeded his father in 70 BC.. -VS. He found himself immediately confronted with the Roman power. Tigranes, king of Armenia and Syria was finally defeated by Lucullus in 69 BC.. -VS. Lucullus, whose luxury of the table remained proverbial, bogged down in the East and was finally replaced by Pompey who annexed the province of Syria in 63 BC.. -VS. Armenia was in the Arsacid orbit and the Romans planned to annex it which could seem inadmissible in the eyes of the Parthian monarch. Diplomatic and economic relations had been rather good with the Romans until then.. On the other hand, Phraates had to face the rebellion of Darius of Media Atropene in 70 BC.. -VS. , Arsacid prince by his mother. Finally his sons, Mithridates III and Orodes II revolted against the paternal authority of Phraates III and ended up murdering him.. On the death of the Arsacid ruler, a major conflict with the insatiable Romans, who dreamed of seizing the kingdom's wealth and controlling the silk and spice routes, became inevitable..