Vologases I of Parthia
Vologases I of Parthia (Persian: ولاش يکم) sometimes called Vologaeses or Vologeses or following Zoroastrian usage, Valakhsh (Persian: بلاش Balāsh, flourished 1st century) ruled the Parthian Empire from about 51 to 78.
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Rise to Power [edit]
Vologases I was a Prince of Iranian and Greek ancestry. He was one of the sons born to Vonones II from a Greek concubine,[1][2] he succeeded his father in 51. He gave the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus II, and occupied Armenia for another brother, Tiridates I. This led to a long war with the Roman Empire (54–63), which was ably conducted by the Roman general Corbulo.
The power of Vologases I was weakened by an attack of the Dahae and Saka nomads, a rebellion of the Hyrcanians, and the usurpation of his son Vardanes II. According to Josephus, he was prevented from attacking the vassal king of Adiabene by an invasion of the eastern nomads. At last, a peace was concluded, by which Tiridates I was acknowledged as king of Armenia, but had to become a vassal of the Romans; he went to Rome, where Roman emperor Nero gave him back the diadem; from that time an Arsacid dynasty ruled in Armenia under Roman supremacy.
Vologases I was satisfied with this result and honored the memory of Nero (Suetonius Nero, 57), though he stood in good relations with Vespasian also, to whom he offered an army of 40,000 archers in the war against Vitellius. Soon afterwards the Alans, a great nomadic tribe beyond the Caucasus, invaded Media and Armenia; Vologases I applied in vain for help to Vespasian. It appears that the Persian losses in the east also could not be repaired; Hyrcania remained an independent kingdom. Vologases I died in about 78 and was succeeded by his other son Vologases II.
Vologases I and the Iranian Revival [edit]
His reign is marked by a decided reaction against Hellenism. He was influential in reverting the Hellenization by going back to Iranian customs and traditions of Achaemenid times. He replaced the Greek alphabet with Aramaic script. On some of his coins the initials of his name appear in Aramaic letters. He reverted the Greek names of Iranian cities to Iranian names. According to Zoroastrianism texts, Vologases I ordered the collection of the ancient Avestan texts. On some of his coins a fire temple can be seen and this tradition continued for several hundred years to the end of Sassanians.
He built cities including Vologesocerta (Balashkert or Balashgerd or Balashkard, literally Balash built it) in the neighborhood of Ctesiphon with the intention of drawing to this new town the inhabitants of Seleucia on the Tigris. Another town founded by him is Vologesias on a canal of the Euphrates, south of Babylon (near Al-Hirah).
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Vologases I of Parthia
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| Preceded by Vonones II |
Great King (Shah) of Parthia 51–78 |
Succeeded by Vologases II |
Footnotes [edit]
- ^ Tarn, William Woodthorpe (2010). The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 1108009417, 9781108009416 Check
|isbn=value (help). "...for earlier Arsacids married their half- sisters or other princesses, and the first king whose mother was a Greek concubine Vologases I, A.D. 57-77; the statement cannot be earlier than his reign." - ^ Bunson, Matthew (1995). A Dictionary of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 454. ISBN 0195102339, 9780195102338 Check
|isbn=value (help). "VOLOGASES I (d. 80 A.D.) King of Parthia from circa 51 to 80 A.D.; the greatest of the five kings who would bear his name, although Parthia was troubled throughout his reign on both its eastern and western borders. He was the son of VONONES II, a one-time monarch of Media-Atropatene. His mother was reportedly a Greek concubine."
References [edit]
- Tacitus, Annals xii–xv; Histories, iv.
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, vii, xx; The Jewish War, vii.
- Pliny vi. 122.
- Suetonius, Vespasian, 6; Nero, 57; Domitian, 2.
- Cassius Dio lxii, lxiii, lxvi.
- Aurelius Victor Epit. 15, 4.
- Theodor Nöldeke, Zeitschrift der deutschen-morgenl. Gesellschaft, xxviii.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
