Sanatruces of Parthia

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Coin of Sanatruces of Parthia from the mint at Rhagae. The reverse shows a seated archer carrying a bow. The Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ [Ε]ΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟ[Σ] (great king Arsaces, civilized, friend of Greeks).

King Sanatruces of Parthia (also Sinatruces or Sanatruk, ca. 157 - 70 BC) ruled the Parthian Empire from c. 77 to c. 70 BC. He was a member of the Arsacid house, who, in the troubled times after the death of Mithridates II in ca. 88 BC was made king by the Sacaraucae Scythians, an Indo-European tribe akin to the Parthians who had invaded Iran in about 77 BC^[1]. He was eighty years old and reigned seven years; his successor was his son Phraates III.

Another Sanatruces (Sanatrucius), the son of Mithridates IV is mentioned as an ephemeral Parthian king in AD 115 by John Malalas, in his Chronographia.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Afghanistan, ancien carrefour entre l'est et l'ouest", p181, ISBN 2503516815

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Lucian, Macrob., 15;
• Phlegon of Tralles, The Olympiads, preserved in Photius, Bibliotheca, 97.
• Appian, Mithridates, 104.
• Dio Cassius, xxxvi. 45.