Sanatruces II of Parthia, was a pretender to the throne of the Parthian Empire during the disputed reign of his uncle

Osroes I Osroes I (also spelled Chosroes I or Khosrow I; xpr, 𐭇𐭅𐭎𐭓𐭅 ''Husrōw'') was a Parthian Empire, Parthian contender, who ruled the western portion of the Parthian Empire from 109 to 129, with a one-year interruption. For the whole of ...

. He is only known from the writings of the Byzantine historian

John Malalas John Malalas ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Malálas''; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey). Life Malalas was of Syrian descent, and he was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in ...

(''Chronographia''), who is often not very reliable. The person of this ruler and the related events remain therefore enigmatic. When Osroes was deposed by the invading Emperor Trajan in 116 in favor of the puppet ruler

Parthamaspates Parthamaspates was a Parthian prince who ruled as a Roman client king in Mesopotamia, and later of Osroene during the early second century AD. He was the son of the Parthian emperor Osroes I. Biography After spending much of his life in Roman e ...

, Sanatruces and his father, Osroes' brother Mithridates, together claimed the diadem and continued the struggle against the Romans in Mesopotamia. Trajan then marched southward to the Persian Gulf, defeated them, and declared Mesopotamia a province of the Roman Empire.A. D. H. Bivar, ''The Political History of Iran under the Arsadis'', in: E. Yarshater (editor), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods, Part 1'', 1981, , p. 90 After the Romans withdrew, Osroes drove out Parthamaspates and reclaimed the Parthian throne. Mithridates V eventually succeeded Osroes about 129 and reigned to about 140, when he died in an attack on Roman Commagene. Sanatruces, whom he had appointed his successor, predeceased him, also falling in a battle with the Romans. Thus the pair's earlier "reign" during the abortive campaign of 116 proved Sanatruces' sole taste of kingship. His father's longtime rival

Vologases III Vologases III ( xpr, 𐭅𐭋𐭂𐭔 ''Walagash'') was king of the Parthian Empire from 110 to 147. He was the son and successor of Pacorus II (). Vologases III's reign was marked by civil strife and warfare. At his ascension, he had to deal w ...

took over Mithridates' realm, but another son of Mithridates,

Vologases IV Vologases IV ( xpr, 𐭅𐭋𐭂𐭔 ''Walagash'') was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 147 to 191. He was the son of Mithridates V (). Vologases spent the early years of his reign re-asserting Parthian control over the Kingdom of Char ...

, eventually came to the throne after the death of Vologases III in 147.

References

Ancient Sources

Dio Cassius Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

, lxviii, 17–33. *

, ''Chronographia''. *

Aelius Spartianus The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...

, ''Vita Hadrian'', v, 13. * Pausanias, v, 12. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanatruces 02 Of Parthia 2nd-century Parthian monarchs 2nd-century Iranian people