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Parthian Empire, 247BC-224AD
While other great empires of the east fell to the Romans, the Parthian Empire survived. The old satrapy of Parthia had seceded from the Seleucid Empire, and the Parni, an eastern Iranian people, took the opportunity to seize the northern part of the satrapy under their chieftain Arsaces. The Arsacids were either at war with, or vassals of, the Seleucids until that latter empire's fall, and thereafter were regional rivals for power with the Romans. The Romans had a difficult time dealing with the massed horse archery of the Parthian armies, and some of their greatest defeats were inflicted on them by these Iranian horsemen.
In the early period the Parthians were still fairly Hellenized in appearance, but gradually adopted more Iranian dress. The range will reflect this and other changes in appearance of the Parthians over time (chainmail was not used until later in the empire, for instance). The first releases are Parthians from the early period, when the Seleucids were the main foe, as well as infantry which can be used for client states or for eastern archers in the Seleucid army. The early horse archers can also be used as Parthian ("Parthyian") horse archers in Seleucid and other eastern armies in the period -- these are often depicted with head bands, but as that was possibly an indication of nobility, it has not been added to our models.
There's some controversy as to whether the Parthian cataphracts carried archery equipment, so the gortyos bowcase and quiver is provided separately in the cataphract and command sets, allowing the gamer to decide. It can be seen in the image of the early Parthian cataphracts, on the middle pose. Parthians used windsock dracos but were also well known for using cloth flags, the Romans in fact commenting on this, so the Parthian standardbearers are provided with both a draco and a flag pole.
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