noble_family mithridates i of parthia
The ___MASK60___ (" Basileía tn Seleukidn ") was a Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty , which existed from 312 BC to 63 BC ; it was founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the Macedonian empire vastly expanded by Alexander the Great . Seleucus received Babylonia and , from there , expanded his dominions to include much of Alexander ' s near eastern territories . At the height of its power , it included central Anatolia , Persia , the Levant , Mesopotamia , and what is now Kuwait , Afghanistan , and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan . An empire is defined as " an aggregate of nations or people ruled over by an emperor or other powerful sovereign or government , usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom , as the former British Empire , French Empire , Brazilian Empire , Russian Empire , ___MASK94___ , Byzantine Empire or Roman Empire ." An empire can be made solely of contiguous territories such as the Austro - Hungarian Empire , or of territories far remote from the homeland , such as a colonial empire . Cyrus I ( Old Persian : " Kuruš ") or Cyrus I of Anshan or Cyrus I of Persia , was King of Anshan in Persia from to 580 BC or , according to others , from to 600 BC . He should not be confused with his famous ___MASK41___ Cyrus the Great , also known as Cyrus II . His name in Modern Persian is  , " Kurosh ", while in Greek he was called  , " Kros ". Arsaces I (" Arshak ") was the founder of the ___MASK78___ , and after whom all 30 + monarchs of the Arsacid empire officially named themselves . A celebrated descent from antiquity ( the Bagratid " line ") begins with Arsaces . Arsaces or Ashk has also given name to the city of Ashkabad . The Parthian Empire ( 247 BC  224 AD ), also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq . Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who , as leader of the Parni tribe , founded it in the mid - 3rd century BC when he conquered the region of Parthia in Iran ' s northeast , then a satrapy ( province ) in rebellion against the ___MASK60___ . Mithridates I of Parthia ( r . " c ". 171  138 BC ) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids . At its height , the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates , in what is now central - eastern Turkey , to eastern Iran . The empire , located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China , became a center of trade and commerce . Mithridates or Mithradates I ( Parthian : Mithradt , Persian :    , Mehrdd ) , ( ca . 195 BC -- 138 BC ) was king of the Parthian Empire from 165 BC to 132 BC , succeeding his brother Phraates I . His father was King Phriapatius of Parthia , who died ca . 176 BC ) . Mithridates I made Parthia into a major political power by expanding the empire to the east , south , and west . During his reign the Parthians took Herat ( in 167 BC ) , Babylonia ( in 144 BC ) , Media ( in 141 BC ) and Persia ( in 139 BC ) . Because of his many conquests and religious tolerance , he has been compared to other Iranian kings such as Cyrus the Great ( d . 530 BC ) , founder of the Achaemenid Empire . Cyrus II of Persia (" Kruš "; New Persian : " Krosh "; Hebrew :       " Koresh "; c . 600 or 576  530 BC ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great and also called Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks , was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire . Under his rule , the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East , expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus . From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east , Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen . Under his successors , the empire eventually stretched at its maximum extent from parts of the Balkans ( Bulgaria - Paeonia and Thrace - Macedonia ) and Eastern Europe proper in the west , to the Indus Valley in the east . His regal titles in full were The Great King , King of Persia , King of Anshan , King of Media , King of Babylon , King of Sumer and Akkad , and King of the Four Corners of the World .