The Parthian Empire: Introduction and Historiography

This is the first episode of a six part series on the Parthian Empire from its rise to its decline and eventually its fall.

This is originally titled "Long Distance Trade and the Parthian Empire:
Reclaiming Parthian Agency from an Orientalist
Historiography," and has been shortened for YouTube purposes.

The Parthian Empire has long been disregarded in the historiography because of the relative scarcity of primary sources and the lingering effects of orientalism which hang over the secondary sources that do exist. This thesis aims to refute the orientalist practices that have thus far defined the rise and fall of the Parthian Empire and return their political and military agency.

I accomplished this through a study of the Parthian Empire in relation to their control over the Silk Road and other long-distance trade routes, with particular effort placed towards linking the periods of success and failure within the Parthian Empire to the status of the long-distance trade routes and who dominated them at the time.

I found that the periods of Parthian success and dominance in the Near East, particularly regarding their relations with the Roman Republic and Empire, correlate strongly with their control over the Silk and Steppe Roads, as well as the rise and fall of the maritime Spice Route.

In conclusion, this shows that the political and military history of the Parthian Empire is better understood in terms of their political-economic history than some vague orientalist idea that the Parthians are ‘destined’ to collapse simply because they are not ‘western’.

This wonderful work was written by the awesome and esteemed Evan J. Jones and was narrated by the wonderful and excellent D. W. Draffin.

The author has given his permission to use his fundamental work and I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I did.

Attribution: Jones, Evan J. (Evan Jeffery), "Long Distance Trade and the Parthian Empire: Reclaiming Parthian Agency from an Orientalist
Historiography" (2018). WWU Graduate School Collection. 692.

DW Draffin is an audiobook narrator, stage actor, and independent author.

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[studyofantiquityandthemidd]

What are your thoughts on episode one of our series on the Parthian Empire? To support the channel check out the links in the video description above! Need a professional actor or narrator? Check out the links above to the speaker that you enjoyed throughout this presentation! Below is an educational resource.

[TheMercian]

It’s sad that the only reason I knew the Parthians exist is because of Rome: Total War.

Looking forward to the rest of this study.

[LuisAldamiz]

I respect Parthia because they killed Crassus, the ruthless vanquisher of Spartacus, and his son, the unprovoked invader of my Aquitanian nation. Go Parthians!

[colly]

RIP Nick Barksdale. You brought us years of historical education and enlightenment. Thank you to the team.

[BubblewrapHighway]

Whenever I think of Parthia, I can't help but picture Crassus' troops getting stapled to the ground by horse archers.

[Dragons_Armory]

I am glad that the article calls out the oversimplified 19th century narratives with really constrained the Parthians to a stereotype, Much still needs to be learned about them :)

[kaarlimakela]

I see Armenia up there holding through all this time, toppling majorly only twice, but never losing cultural distinctiveness.
Way to go!

[YoreHistory]

Covering this period myself, great work! It's one of my favorite periods and regions of and for history.

[almighty]

Hopefully you make a series on the Sasanian Empire even tho I love the Parthian empire both has such great and rich history.

[drraoulmclaughlin]

Highly commendable! - more scholars should place their work online to inform and encourage debate...

[flyingtigers]

*This is an excellent and very necessary geopolitical/socioeconomic analysis.*

[sagethinker]

Partians and Persians were both iranian tribes

[Keihan]

Many turks and Europeans want to believe that parthians were of their origin, but never come and watch videos like this.
What we know in Iran about the origins of the ancient parthians is that these people were called Parnian (their nomadic tribal name) originally from "Amu darya" river region of modern day uzbakistan (by the time was home to only Iranic people)
They moved south to the region called "Parthowan" meaning "land of the sunrise" in Persian, which is how you basicly say "the east", this word later changed to "khurasuan" which means the same thing in persian (the people of the east) this name was later confused with "Parthia" for the romans and europians, which made them to belive that their nomadic name was parthia, which is wrong, their nomadic name was parnian, from Land of Parthowa, and the word Parthia was what they called their horseback archers, the word "Parth" mean who his shot never misses (Parthian in plural form), this was basicly a legendary name they have gained in all of the Ariyans lands, largely in their empire's region due to their skill in horseback archery and because most of their army always have been horse archers the romans started to call them "parthian" hens if you could ask them who they are they would answer that they are "Parthowan" which is ment that they were eastern Iranics.

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[matthewjbarron]

34:46 and following lists historical records of Parthia. Thank you. This presentation is excellent!

[metzyahrosenstein]

Broke my shoulder trying to make a parthian shot from the back of a friends horse as a teen, didn't manage to stay on its back. 10/10 won't try again, people used to die from horse falls all the damn time.

[RoesingApe]

No one will ever convince me that Parthia isn't just Persia with a lisp.

[willek]

I'm not pointing fingers, because I don't know the answer, but there's something about loaded emphasis on grievances that irks me the wrong way. The bitter tone, the harsh judgement, exempli gratia. When you initiate your story from enslavement to a grudge, the path a head demand reparations as if you're a better person. It puts your sharp judgement on a pedestal, so high it's bound to be judged even harsher by your successor when he or she look upon your work. It's totally ok, even a duty to mention historiography in detail, but this comes of as emotional and dependent. As I said, I'm not here to point fingers. I'm no Parthian scholar, but the aim of the script could've been written a degree towards the goal of being informative, neutral and independent in my opinion.

[jason.h.zager]

what is Partian and Persian difference?are they the same?

[mushtaqbhat]

Kudos to you, Jones and Draffin!
One of the most captivating podcasts I have ever heard.

It is really  appreciated that Evan is challenging the highly opinionated accounts of ancient scholars that extant western historiography has so willingly assimilated. Perhaps reluctant to expend more energy needed here to lighten the darker corners of their subject of enquiry, the modern western scholars felt it safer to stick to the classical paradigm, by echoing the dismissive judgment about the regimes, rulers and political- and socio-cultural organizations of the Middle East and Central Asia, thereby making it easier to assume that they had no importance for the modern world. In case of Parthians, one can assume, that alone by maintaining the trade route for only some time, they may have accelerated the East-West trade and created damand that in turn may have facilitated the search for other routes or improvement in the existing ones. Both of momentous consequences for the world. A trade route that would bring amongst many other things, printing technology to west in the middle ages.

Yes, unfortunatly it is easier to cover up one's ignorance by using a customized set of terminolgies, such as oriental despots, despotism, feudalism, theocracies. That way the writers do not need to do their homework. No need to search for local sources, later Persian or Arab records or other non western sources. Even Marxist happily indulge in such overarching unspecificity.

I was really fascinated by Evan's line of argument and have always wished for such an immensely needed new perspective that is as analytical, as critical, as pioneering, as unprejudiced as it is bold and liberating. And this I am saying as someones quite familiar with both the worlds.
Exceptional!
And absolutely refreshing!