Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

Parthian Sculpture from the South Liwan of the Main Palace at Hatra,
SHOWING Hellenic Inspiration.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE ORGANIZATION, RELIGION, AND ARCHITECTURE
OF THE PARTHIANS
For five centuries a people, or rather a camp, without past or future, without
a religion, an art, or a policy of its own, assumed the protectorate of the
East, and saved Asia from the arms of Rome.— Gardner, on the Parthians.
T/ie Organization of the Parthians.—From the
larger
point of view the history of Parthia is that of Persia and
Central Asia under the paramountcy of the Arsacidae, and
no attempt was made by this nomadic tribe to colonize or to
weld conquered peoples into a nation. The empire was
divided by the Caspian Gates into the upper kingdom with
eleven and the lower kingdom with seven provinces, but
the Parthians were, generally speaking, content to possess
the open country and their capitals, and so long as their
orders were obeyed and the tribute paid, they allowed the
subject populations to develop on their own lines. After
the conquest of a kingdom, it was either replaced under
its monarch who ruled as a
Vassal-king, or else a Satrap
termed a Vitaxa was appointed. In the former category,
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