all future efforts on the part of
Syria to reduce Parthia; the conditions of peace granted by Antiochus to
both countries, after a series of military successes, constituted almost
a proof that the yoke of Syria would never be re-imposed on either the
Parthian or the Bactrian nation.

With the departure of Antiochus from the East, about B.C. 206, we enter
upon a period when Parthian history is, for a quarter of a century,
almost a blank. Nothing more is known of Arsaces III. after Antiochus
retired; and nothing at all is known of his successor, Priapatius,
beyond his name and the length of his reign, which lasted for fifteen
years (from about B.C. 196 to 181). The reigns of these princes coincide
with those of Euthydemus and his son, Demetrius, in Bactria; and perhaps
the most probable solution of the problem of Parthian inactivity at this
time is to be found in the great development of Bactrian power which
now took place, and the influence which the two neighboring kingdoms
naturally exercised upon each other. When Parthia was strong and
aggressive, Bactria was, for the most part, quiet; and when Bactria
shows signs of vigorous and active life, Parthia languishes and retires
into the shade.

The Bactrian Kingdom, founded (as we have seen) a little before the
Parthian, sought from the first its aggrandizement in the East rather
than in the West. The Empire of Alexander had included all the countries
between the Caspian Sea and the Sutlej; and these tracts, which
constitute the modern Khorasan, Afghanistan, and Punjaub, had all been
to a certain extent Hellenized by means of Greek settlements and Greek
government. But Alexander was no sooner dead than a tendency displayed
itself in these regions, and particularly in the more eastern ones,
towards a relapse into barbarism, or, if this expression be too strong,
at any rate towards a rejection of Hellenism. During the early wars
of the "Successors" the natives of the Punjaub generally seized the
opportunity to revolt; the governors placed over the various districts
by Alexander were murdered; and the tribes everywhere declared
themselves free. Among the leaders of the revolt was a certain
Chandragupta (or Sandracottus), who contrived to turn the circumstances
of the time to his own special advantage, and built up a considerable
kingdom in the far East out of the fragments which had detached
themselves from what was still called the Macedonian Empire. When
Seleucus Nicator,