The Road Network in the Arsakid State

Abstract

The topic of communication and routes in Parthia has rarely been studied comprehensively. The issue of road networks is clearly associated with Arsakid state and empire building, in particular with the military and administrative-political developments in Parthia. The system of roads and stations for royal and satrapal couriers and troops operated similarly to that of Achaemenid Persia. Travelling couriers, officials and soldiers could have used the staging posts (stathmoi). The very geographic and communications location of the Arsakid state determined its enormous strategic importance and generated powerful incentives for the development of long-distance trade in all directions in the Persian Gulf, southern Iran, Babylonia, Upper Mesopotamia, northwestern Iran, Greater Media, the countries of Ariane (Indo-Sakai, Indo-Parthians), and Caucasia. Land routes from China, northern India, and Central Asia leading to the Mediterranean ran through Iran, either via Khorasan, or via southern Iran through Karmania and Persis to Susiana and Babylonia. Merchant ships sailing from India to Parthia, Arabia and Egypt, had to use, in part, ports in the Persian Gulf and southern Iran (Karmania, Persis). Much of the trade in the Indian Ocean went to Mesene on the Persian Gulf and from there to Nabatea and Palmyra. Peoples and cities of the Arabian Peninsula were eager to trade with Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Iranian lands like Persis and Karmania.