bellion to the subject peoples. The example
may have been followed in cases of which we hear nothing; for the
condition of the more remote portions of the empire was for the most
part unknown to the Romans. When Persia, about A.D. 220, revolted from
Artabanus, it was no doubt with a conviction that the Parthians were no
longer the terrible warriors who under Mithridates I. had driven all
the armies of the East before them like chaff, or who under Orodes and
Phraates IV. had gained signal victories over the Romans. It is true
that Artabanus had contended not unsuccessfully with Macrinus. But the
prestige of Parthia was far from being re-established by the result of
his three days' battle. Rome retained as her own, notwithstanding his
success, the old Parthian province of Mesopotamia, and was thus, even in
the moment of her weakness, acknowledged by Parthia to be the stronger.
The Persians are not likely to have been braver or more warlike at the
time of their revolt from Artabanus than in the days when they were
subjected by Mithridates. Any alteration, therefore, in the relative
strength of the two peoples must be ascribed to Parthian decline,
since it cannot have been owing to Persian advance and improvement. To
conclude, we may perhaps allow something to the personal qualities of
Artaxerxes, who appears to have possessed all the merits of the typical
Oriental conqueror. Artabanus was among the most able of the later
Parthian monarchs; but his antagonist was more than this, possessing
true military genius. It is quite possible that, if the leaders on the
two sides had changed places, the victory might have rested, not with
the Persians, but with the Parthians.

CHAPTER XXII.

_On the Architecture and Ornamental Art of the Parthians._

The modern historian of Architecture observes, when he reaches the
period with which we have had to deal in this volume, that, with the
advent of Alexander, Oriental architecture disappears, and that its
history is an absolute blank from the downfall of the Achaemenians in
B.C. 331 to the rise of the Sassanians, about A.D. 226. The statement
made involves a certain amount of exaggeration; but still it expresses,
roughly and strongly, a curious and important fact. The Parthians were
not, in any full or pregnant sense of the word, builders. They did not
aim at leaving a material mark upon the world by means of edifices
or other great works. They lacked the spirit which had impel