Arsaces Vi. or Mithridates I.
MITHRIDATES I., son of Arsaces IV., whom Orosius (
5.4) rightly calls the sixth from Arsaces I., a man of distinguished bravery, greatly extended the Parthian empire.
He conquered Eucratides, the king of Bactria, and deprived him of many of his provinces.
He is said even to have penetrated into India and to have subdued all the people between the Hydaspes and the Indus.
He conquered the Medes and Elymaeans, who had revolted from the Syrians, and his empire extended at least from the Hindu Caucasus to the Euphrates. Demetrius Nicator, king of Syria, marched against Mithridates; he was at first suecessful, but was afterwards taken prisoner in B. C. 138. Mithridates, however, treated him with respect, and gave him his daughter Rhodogune in marriage; but the marriage appears not to have been solemnized till the accession of his son Phraates II. Mithridates died during the captivity of Demetrius, between B. C. 138 and 130.
He is described as a just and upright prince, who did not give way to pride and luxury.
He introduced among his people the best laws and usages, which he found among the nations he had conquered. (Justin,
41.6;
Oros. 5.4; Strab. xi. pp. 516, 517, 524, &c.: Appian,
App. Syr. 67; Justin,
36.1,
38.9;
J. AJ 13.9;
1 Maccab. c. ]4; Diod.
Exc. p. 597, ed. Wess.)
The reverse of the annexed coin has the inscription
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ.
