. The
new monarch had to rid Parthia of her invaders at as little cost as
possible, before he could allow himself to turn his attention to any
other matter whatsoever. Nor did this, under the circumstances, appear
to be an easy task. The flower of the Parthian troops had been destroyed
in the late battle, and it was not easy to replace them by another
native army. The subject-nations were at no time to be depended upon
when Parthia was reduced to straits, and at the present conjecture some
of the most important were in a condition bordering upon rebellion.
Himerus, the viceroy left by Phraates in Babylonia, had first driven
the Babylonians and Seleucians to desperation by his tyranny, and then
plunged into a war with the people of Mesene, which must have made it
difficult for him to send Artabanus any contingent. Fortunately for the
Parthians, the folly or moderation of their enemies rendered any great
effort on their part unnecessary. The Greeks, content with having
revenged themselves, gave the new monarch no trouble at all: the
Scythians were satisfied with plundering and wasting the open country,
after which they returned quietly to their homes. Artabanus found
himself quit of the immediate danger which had threatened him almost
without exertion of his own, and could now bend his thoughts to the
position of his country generally, and the proper policy to pursue under
the circumstances.

For there was a second and more formidable danger impending over the
State--a danger not casual and temporary like the one just escaped, but
arising out of a condition of things in neighboring regions which had
come about slowly, and which promised to be permanent. To give the
reader the means of estimating this danger aright, it will be necessary
to take a somewhat wide view of the state of affairs on the northern
and north-eastern frontiers of Parthia for some time previously to the
accession of Artabanus, to trace out the causes which were at work,
producing important changes in these regions, and to indicate the
results which threatened, and those which were accomplished. The
opportunity will also serve for giving such an account of the chief
races which here bordered the empire as will show the nature of the
peril to which Parthia was exposed at this period.

In the wide plains of Northern Asia, extending from the Arctic Ocean to
the Thian Chan mountains and the Jaxartes, there had been nurtured from
a remote antiquity a nomad