The Parthians, an Iranian people of nomadic origins that dominated Mesopotamia and Iran from the middle of the 2nd century BC to 225 AD, were major rivals of the Roman Empire. This volume analyses the prolific textual and illustrative sources on the Parthians that accompanied Roman politics in order to answer two principal questions: How can the image of the Parthians help us to better understand the goals the Romans had for the areas east of the Euphrates? And, to what extent did they collect Greek and Roman reports on this people, which evoked recollections of both the Scythians and the Persians? French text.