480), serving in the army on foot under the same commander as the Chorasmians, and equipped like them with bows and arrows, and with spears of no great length.

In another passage he mentioned their being compelled to pay the Persian water tax, and spoke of the great need which they had of water for the irrigation of their millet and sesame crops.
It is evident that these notices agree with the Persian accounts, both as to the locality of the Parthians and as to the fact of their subjection to the Persian government.

They further agree in assigning to the Parthians a respectable military character, yet one of no very special eminency.

On the ethnology of the nation, and the circumstances under which the country became an integral part of the Persian dominions, they throw no light.

We have still to seek an answer to the questions, "Who were the Parthians ?" and "How did they become Persian subjects ?" Who were the Parthians?
It is not until the Parthians have emerged from obscurity and become a great people that ancient authors trouble themselves with inquiries as to their ethnic character and remote antecedents.