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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections

58. Codex 58: Arrian, Parthica

Read Arrian’s¹ Parthica (History of Parthia) in seventeen books. He has also written the best account of the campaigns of Alexander of Macedon. Another work of his is Bithynica (History of Bithynia), relating the affairs of his native country. He also wrote an Alanica (History of the Alani).² In the Parthica he gives an account of the wars between Parthia and Rome during the reign of Trajan. He considers the Parthians to have been a Scythian race, which had long been under the yoke of Macedonia, and revolted, at the time of the Persian rebellion,³ for the following reason. Arsaces and Tiridates were two brothers, descendants of Arsaces, the son of Phriapetes. These two brothers, with five accomplices, slew Pherecles, who had been appointed satrap of Parthia by Antiochus Theos,⁴ to avenge an insult offered to one of them; they drove out the Macedonians, set up a government of their own, and became so powerful that they were a match for the Romans in war, and sometimes even were victorious over them. Arrian further relates that during the reign of Sesostris, king of Egypt, and landysus, king of Scythia, the Parthians removed from their own country, Scythia, to the land which they now inhabit. The emperor Trajan reduced them to submission but left them free under a treaty, and appointed a king over them.

This Arrian, called the “young Xenophon,” a philosopher and one of the pupils of Epictetus,⁵ flourished during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Antoninus. Owing to his remarkable learning he was entrusted with various offices of state, and was finally promoted to the consulship. He was also the author of other works: the Lectures of Epictetus his master, with eight books of which we are acquainted, and the Conversations of Epictetus in twelve books. His style is dry, and he is a genuine imitator of Xenophon.

It is said that he was also the author of other works, but they have not come into my hands. Certainly he does not lack rhetorical skill and power.

Notes

Flavius Arrianus, flourished during the latter half of the second century A.D., and died before 180. He was born at Nicomedia in Bithynia, studied philosophy under Epictetus and distinguished himself as a soldier. He was appointed governor of Cappadocia in 136, and consul in 146. He spent the rest of his life in his native city, where he held the lifelong office of priest of Demeter and Kore. In addition to the works here mentioned, he was the author of: A Voyage round the Euxine, a treatise on Tactics, the Order of Battle against the Alani (defeated by him while governor of Cappadocia), on the Chase, and an account of India, perhaps a continuation of the Anabasis (the account of Alexander’s campaigns), so named after the Anabasis of his model Xenophon.
Of which the Order of Battle against the Alani, referred to above, is a section.
Rebellantibus in the Latin versions of Schott and Muller (Frag. Hist. Gr. iii. 586). But can καταστραφέντων mean this? The more natural rendering; would seem to be: “which had long been under the yoke of Macedonia, the Persians having been subdued at the same time,” i.e. by the Seleucids.
Antiochus II (king 261-246 B.C.).
Of Hierapolis in Phrygia (c. A.D. 60-140), Stoic philosopher.