Parthian Mesopotamia: Arsacid rule from Ctesiphon

The frame

Two pages of the Met's timeline name "Parthian rule: Arsacid dynasty": the page for 1000 B.C.-1 A.D. dates it "ca. 138 B.C.-224 A.D.", and the page for 1-500 A.D. 138 B.C.-224 A.D., without "ca.". According to the first page, the Parthians from Iran under Mithridates I seized Mesopotamia from Seleucid control and established their capital on the Tigris at Ctesiphon, across the river from Seleucia; under them Mesopotamia became the nexus of the Silk Road and the Spice Route. According to the overview of the second page, from 138 B.C. until the coming of Islam in 636/37 A.D. Mesopotamia was dominated first by the Parthian and then by the Sasanian empires from Iran. Sources 1, 2.

Boundaries and overlaps

The start differs between sources. The Parthian key-events entry on the first page opens "ca. 139 B.C.", and the Kelsey Museum's page places the Parthian conquest of Seleucia in 141 BCE. The regions differ too: on the site's Iran timeline the Parthian period begins in 247 BCE, and the Parthians "from Iran" took Mesopotamia later. UNESCO's page on Ashur adds a problem of its own: it dates the Parthian revival of the city to "the 1st and 2nd centuries AD", but elsewhere has the site abandoned "at the end of the Parthian period (2nd century BC)" with no further occupation; the two cannot both be right. The end, 224 CE, is shared: according to the timeline, Ardashir I (r. 224-41) founded the Sasanian dynasty from southwest Iran and ended Parthian rule. At Seleucia, Level I is dated 115-227 CE and crosses that boundary. Sources 1, 2, 3, 4.

On this site

Three articles are placed in this period. "Hatra: an Arab kingdom under Parthian influence" reads UNESCO's page on the fortified city that grew from a small village in the first century BC into a large kingdom in the middle of the second century AD. "Ashur in the Parthian period: burials and a four-iwan palace" sets the more than 1,000 Parthian-period burials counted by UNESCO beside the palace which, according to the Met's timeline, has the earliest example of four iwans opening onto a central square. "Seleucia on the Tigris: a Hellenistic city in four levels" is also placed in the previous period; three of its levels are dated to the time of Parthian rule. Sources 5, 4, 2, 3.