On the east and southeast of the Caspian Sea, a mountainous district is marked on the ancient maps of the east--Parthia. It is generally believed by the learned that the people who occupied this country and were called Parthians, were of Scythian origin, and that the word Parthian in the Scythian language means _exile_. They were nomadic in their habits, but noted horsemen and well skilled in handling the bow and arrow. They were patient in bearing the yoke under the Assyrian, Median, and Persian governments. After the conquests of Alexander the Great they shared the fate of their more enlightened and powerful neighbors; but even the Parthians could not stand any longer the miserable rule of the successors of the Macedonian king. They revolted against Antiochus II, in 256, and during the reign of Seleucus II, under the leadership of Arsaces, they established their complete independence (238 B.C.), and began to extend their dominions into the east, and west, and north and south. Within less than a century, the Arsacide dynasty extended the boundaries of the Parthian empire from the Indus to the Euphrates and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Arsaces VI, or the Great, appointed his brother Valarsaces king over Armenia (149 B.C.), and these two countries, governed by one reigning family, were in full sympathy and accord with each other and for a long time in a firm alliance, becoming worthy antagonists of the Romans, who were pushing eastward over the territories once subdued by Alexander the Great. Among the successors of Valarsaces of the Arsacide dynasty of Armenia, Tigranes II, or the Great, immortalized himself, not only in the history of Armenia, but also in universal history. He had a long and glorious reign (98-36 B.C.). His name was the glory of his people, as it was also a terror to his foes. He extended his dominions from the Caucasian mountains to the Mesopotamian plains and from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.