| Word | American Tract Society - Definition |
| PARTHIA | Is supposed to have been originally a province of Media, on its eastern side, which was raised into a distinct kingdom by Arsaces, B. C. 250. It soon extended itself over a great part of the ancient Persian Empire, and is frequently put for that empire in Scripture, and other ancient writings. Parthia maintained itself against all aggressors for nearly five hundred years, and was not subjugated even by the Romans; but in A. D. 226, one of the descendants of the ancient Persian kings united it to his empire, and Persia resumed it former name and dynasty. The Parthians were celebrated, especially by the poets, for a peculiarity of their mode of fighting on horseback, which consisted in discharging their arrows while they fled. They would seem to have borne no very distant resemblance to the modern Cossacks. It is said the Parthians were either refugees or exiles from the Scythian nations. Jews and proselytes from among them were present at Jerusalem at the Pentecost, Ac 2:9. |