They bided their time; and when, in a battle with the Scythians, they saw the Parthian soldiery hard pressed and in danger of defeat, they decided matters by going over in a body to the enemy.

The Parthian army was completely routed and destroyed, and Phraates himself was among the slain.

We are not told what became of the victorious Greeks; but it is to be presumed that, like the Ten Thousand, they fought their way across Asia, and rejoined their own countrymen.
Thus died Phraates I., after a reign of about eight or nine years.
Though not possessing the talents of his father, he was a brave and warlike prince, active, enterprising, fertile in resources, and bent on maintaining against all assailants the honor and integrity of the Empire.

In natural temperament he was probably at once soft and cruel.
But, when policy required it, he could throw his softness aside and show himself a hardy and intrepid warrior.

Similarly, he could control his natural harshness, and act upon occasion with clemency and leniency.