Sanatruces II of Parthia, was a pretender to the throne of the

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

during the disputed reign of his uncle

Osroes I Osroes I (also spelled Chosroes I or Khosrow I; ''Husrōw'') was a Parthian contender, who ruled the western portion of the Parthian Empire from 109 to 129, with a one-year interruption. For most of his reign he contended with the rival king Vo ...

. He is only known from the writings of the Byzantine historian John Malalas (''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 The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

in 116 in favor of the puppet ruler Parthamaspates, Sanatruces and his father, Osroes' brother Mithridates, together claimed the diadem and continued the struggle against the Romans in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

. Trajan then marched southward to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

, defeated them, and declared Mesopotamia a province of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

.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 Commagene () was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Orontid dynasty, Orontids, a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian origin, that had ruled over the Satrapy of Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ...

. 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 took over Mithridates' realm, but another son of Mithridates, Vologases IV, 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 of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

, lxviii, 17–33. * John Malalas, ''Chronographia''. * Aelius Spartianus, ''Vita Hadrian'', v, 13. * Pausanias, v, 12. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanatruces 02 Of Parthia 2nd-century Parthian monarchs 2nd-century Iranian people