They showed their own sense of this inferiority by an affectation of Persian manners.

But this affectation was not very successful.

It is evident that in art, in architecture, in manners, in habits of life, the Parthian race reached only a low standard; they stood to their Hellenic and Iranian subjects in much the same relation that the Turks of the present day stand to the modern Greeks; they made themselves respected by their strength and their talent for organization; but in all that adorns and beautifies life they were deficient.

The Persians must, during the whole time of their subjection to Parthia, have been sensible of a feeling of shame at the want of refinement and of a high type of civilization in their masters.
Again, the later sovereigns of the Arsacid dynasty were for the most part of weak and contemptible character.

From the time of Volagases I.to that of Artabanus IV., the last king, the military reputation of Parthia had declined.