Parthĕnius, a river of Paphlagonia, which, after separating Bithynia, falls into the Euxine sea, near Sesamum. It received its name either because the virgin Diana (παρθενος) bathed herself there, or perhaps it received it from the purity and mildness of its waters. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 104.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 2.——A mountain of Arcadia, which was said to abound in tortoises. Here Telephus had a temple. Atalanta was exposed on its top and brought up there. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 54.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A favourite of the emperor Domitian. He conspired against his imperial master, and assisted to murder him.——A river of European Sarmatia. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 49.——A friend of Æneas killed in Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 748.——A Greek writer, whose romance, de Amatoriis Affectionibus has been edited in 12mo, Basil, 1531.
Parthĕnon, a temple of Athens, sacred to Minerva. It was destroyed by the Persians, and afterwards rebuilt by Pericles in a more magnificent manner, and still exists. All the circumstances which related to the birth of Minerva were beautifully and minutely represented in bas-relief, on the front of the entrance. The statue of the goddess, 26 cubits high, and made of gold and ivory, passed for one of the masterpieces of Phidias. Pliny, bk. 34.
Parthĕnŏpæus, a son of Meleager and Atalanta, or, according to some, of Milanion and another Atalanta. He was one of the seven chiefs who accompanied Adrastus the king of Argos in his expedition against Thebes. He was killed by Amphidicus. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 9, ch. 19.——A son of Talaus.
Parthĕnŏpe, one of the Sirens.——A daughter of Stymphalus. Apollodorus.——A city of Campania, afterwards called Neapolis, or the new city, when it had been beautified and enlarged by a colony from Eubœa. It is now called Naples. It received the name of Parthenope from one of the Sirens, whose body was found on the sea-shore there. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 564.—Strabo, bks. 1 & 5.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12, li. 167.—Silius Italicus, bk. 12, li. 33.
Parthia, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the west by Media, south by Carmania, north by Hyrcania, and east by Aria, &c., containing, according to Ptolemy, 25 large cities, the most capital of which was called Hecatompylos, from its hundred gates. Some suppose that the present capital of the country is built on the ruins of Hecatompylos. According to some authors, the Parthians were Scythians by origin, who made an invasion on the more southern provinces of Asia, and at last fixed their residence near Hyrcania. They long remained unknown and unnoticed, and became successively tributary to the empire of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians. When Alexander invaded Asia, the Parthians submitted, like the other dependent provinces of Persia, and they were for some time under the power of Eumenes, Antigonus, Seleucus, Nicanor, and Antiochus, till the rapacity and oppression of Agathocles, a lieutenant of the latter, roused their spirit, and fomented rebellion. Arsaces, a man of obscure origin, but blessed with great military powers, placed himself at the head of his countrymen, and laid the foundation of the Parthian empire, about 250 years before the christian era. The Macedonians attempted in vain to recover it; a race of active and vigilant princes, who assumed the surname of Arsacides, from the founder of their kingdom, increased its power, and rendered it so formidable, that, while it possessed 18 kingdoms between the Caspian and Arabian seas, it even disputed the empire of the world with the Romans, and could never be subdued by that nation, which had seen no people on earth unconquered by their arms. It remained a kingdom till the reign of Artabanus, who was killed about the year 229 of the christian era, and from that time it became a province of the newly re-established kingdom of Persia, under Artaxerxes. The Parthians were naturally strong and warlike, and were esteemed the most expert horsemen and archers in the world. The peculiar custom of discharging their arrows while they were retiring full speed, has been greatly celebrated by the ancients, particularly by the poets, who all observe that their flight was more formidable than their attacks. This manner of fighting, and the wonderful address and dexterity with which it was performed, gained them many victories. They were addicted much to drinking, and to every manner of lewdness, and their laws permitted them to raise children even by their mothers and sisters. Strabo, bks. 2, 6, &c.—Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 11.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 31, &c.; Æneid bk. 7, li. 606.—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, &c., Fasti, bk. 5, li. 580.—Dio Cassius, bk. 40.—Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 5.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 25.—Polybius, bk. 5, &c.—Marcellinus.—Herodian, bk. 3, &c.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 230; bk. 6, li. 50; bk. 10, li. 53.—Justin, bk. 41, ch. 1.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 19, li. 11; bk. 2, ode 13, li. 17.
Parthini, a people of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 29, ltr. 12; bk. 33, ch. 34; bk. 44, ch. 30.—Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 19.—Cicero, Against Piso, ch. 40.
Parthytēne, a province of Parthia, according to Ptolemy, though some authors support that it is the name of Parthia itself.
Parysădes, a king of Pontus, B.C. 310. Diodorus.——A king of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, who flourished 284 B.C.
Parysătis, a Persian princess, wife of Darius Ochus, by whom she had Artaxerxes, Memnon, and Cyrus the younger. She was so extremely partial to her younger son, that she committed the greatest cruelties to encourage his ambition, and she supported him with all her interest in his rebellion against his brother Memnon. The death of Cyrus at the battle of Cunaxa, was revenged with the grossest barbarity, and Parysatis sacrificed to her resentment all such as she found concerned in his fall. She also poisoned Statira the wife of her son Artaxerxes, and ordered one of the eunuchs of the court to be flayed alive, and his skin to be stretched on two poles before her eyes, because he had, by order of the king, cut off the hand and the head of Cyrus. These cruelties offended Artaxerxes, and he ordered his mother to be confined in Babylon; but they were soon after reconciled, and Parysatis regained all her power and influence till the time of her death. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.—Ctesiphon.
Pasargada, a town of Persia, near Carmania, founded by Cyrus on the very spot where he had conquered Astyages. The kings of Persia were always crowned there, and the Pasargadæ were the noblest families of Persia, in the number of which were the Achæmenides. Strabo, bk. 15.—Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 26.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 125.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8.