e persons composing it, there was
a difficulty sometimes in providing for their subsistence upon the road.
The court comprised the usual extensive harem of an Oriental prince,
consisting of a single recognized queen, and a multitude of secondary
wives or concubines. The legitimate wife of the prince was commonly
a native, and in most cases was selected from the royal race of the
Arsacidae but sometimes she was the daughter of a dependent monarch,
and she might even be a slave raised by royal favor from that humble
position. The concubines were frequently Greeks. Both wives and
concubines remained ordinarily in close seclusion, and we have little
mention of them, in the Parthian annals. But in one instance, at any
rate, a queen, brought up in the notions of the West, succeeded in
setting Oriental etiquette at defiance, took the direction of affairs
out of the hands of her husband, and subsequently ruled the empire in
conjunction with her son. Generally, however, the Parthian kings were
remarkably free from the weakness of subservience to women, and managed
their kingdom with a firm hand, without allowing either wives or
ministers to obtain any undue ascendency over them. In particular, we
may note that they never, so far as appears, fell under the baleful
influence of eunuchs, who, from first to last, play a very subordinate
part in the Parthian history.

The dress of the monarch was commonly the loose Median robe, which had
been adopted from the Medes by the Persians. This flowed down to the
feet in numerous folds, enveloping and concealing the entire figure.
Trousers and a tunic were probably worn beneath it, the latter of linen,
the former of silk or wool. As head-dress, the king wore either the mere
diadem, which was a band or ribbon, passed once or oftener round the
head, and terminating in two long ends which fell down behind, or else a
more pretentious cap, which in the earlier times was a sort of Scythian
pointed helmet, and in the later a rounded tiara, sometimes adorned with
pearls or gems. His neck appears to have been generally encircled with
two or three collars or necklaces, and he frequently wore ear-rings in
his ears. The beard was almost always cultivated, and, with the hair,
was worn variously. Generally both hair and beard were carefully curled;
but sometimes they depended in long straight locks, Mostly the beard was
pointed, but occasionally it was worn square. In later times a fashion
arose of puffin