Parthian Prosperity and Eastern Challenges
Parthian Rule in Seleucia
Seleucia, the key commercial center of Iraq, thrived even more under the Parthians than it did under the Seleucids. In the first century A.D., its population reached an impressive 600,000 inhabitants. The Parthians, favoring rural life, left their Greek citizens undisturbed. Interestingly, the Greeks continued to mint coins dating back to Seleucus I’s reign (312 B.C.). Beyond Seleucia, the Parthians established a military camp across the Tigris, laying the foundation for the future city of Ctesiphon Maccabean Struggles and Parthian Rise.
Eastern Frontier Challenges
Mithradates, in his final three years, grappled with issues on the eastern frontier. The Huns, defeating and displacing the Tocharians (Yuezhi), triggered a chain reaction affecting the Parthians. Tocharians moved westward into Central Asia, displacing the Scythians, who subsequently raided Parthian and Bactrian
Maccabean Struggles and Parthian Rise
Jonathan’s Leadership and Tragedy
Both Alexander I and Demetrius II sought allies, leading to favorable peace terms with the Maccabees. Jonathan became the civil and military governor of Judaea. Unfortunately, another contender for the Seleucid throne, Trypho, murdered Jonathan in 142 B.C Parthian Expansion and Seleucid Decline.
Simon Takes Charge
Mattathias’s last living son, Simon, continued Jonathan’s work. In exchange for Jewish support against Trypho’s rebellion, Demetrius II granted full independence, renouncing tribute claims. Simon became the hereditary high priest and king. However, his reign ended tragically; after defeating Antiochus VII, Simon was assassinated by his son-in-law Ptolemy, who aspired to the throne. Ptolemy was defeated by Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus I, who became the next king, leading Israel in new directions.
Parthia’s Philhellenic
Parthian Expansion and Seleucid Decline
Seleucus II’s Eastern Campaign
Initially, the Seleucids were preoccupied with challenges in the west. Around 232 or 231 B.C., Seleucus II ventured eastward to quell a rebellion led by Tiridates. Sensing the superior strength of Seleucus, Tiridates strategically retreated to the steppe, prompting Seleucus to pursue him to the Jaxartes (Syr Dar’ya) River. However, alarming news from Syria compelled Seleucus to turn back, allowing Tiridates to re-occupy the abandoned district and annex Hyrcania along the Caspian Sea Parthian Prosperity and Eastern Challenges.
Challenges Faced by Artabanus I
Artabanus I (211-191) faced significant challenges during the reign of Antiochus the Great. Defeated in battle, Artabanus lost half his kingdom to the Greeks and acknowledged Seleucid overlordship to retain his throne. The succeeding king, Priapathius (191-176), seized the opportunity to recover Hyrcania
Antiochus III’s Eastern Campaigns and Power Dynamics
Antiochus in Bactria and Beyond
In the following two years, Antiochus engaged in a prolonged struggle with his Bactrian counterpart, Euthydemus I, resulting in a stalemate. The prolonged siege of Bactra, the capital, proved fruitless, leading Antiochus to a crucial realization—he possessed the capability to defeat eastern adversaries, but lacked the resources to permanently garrison the vast region. Consequently, he opted for peace with Bactria. Euthydemus retained his crown, contributed elephants to the Seleucids Antiochus the Great and the Shifting Fortunes, and solidified the peace by having his son Demetrius marry Antiochus’s daughter.
Antiochus then ventured across the Hindu Kush into the Kabul valley, forging an alliance with one of the last Mauryan emperors of India, acquiring more elephants. Despite the campaign’s success, its strategic impact was limited, leaving Parthian and Bactria
Antiochus the Great and the Shifting Fortunes
Antiochus III’s Reversal of Fortunes
Antiochus III (223-187) emerged as the sole Seleucid monarch capable of halting the kingdom’s decline. Despite his efforts to rebuild Alexander’s empire, he faced an insurmountable obstacle—the rising power of the Roman Republic, which marked the beginning of the nation that would later dominate the New Testament era The Splendor of Pergamun.
Strategic Victories and Setbacks
Antiochus showcased his military prowess by reclaiming Atropatene under Seleucid rule in 220. Launching the Fourth Syrian War (219-217) against Egypt, he aimed to exploit the weaknesses of Egypt’s ruler, Ptolemy IV. Despite marching with his war elephants down the Levant, Antiochus suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Raphia (217), just south of Gaza. Forced to retreat to Syria, the Orontes River once again marked the border between the northern and southern kingdoms.
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The Splendor of Pergamun
Champions of Hellenism
Eumenes I Breaking Free and Expanding
Eumenes I (263-241), the nephew and adopted son, liberated Pergamun from the Seleucid rule. Forming an alliance with Ptolemy III, he seized a piece of Seleucid territory. His successor, Attalus I (241-197), achieved a remarkable victory against the Galatians Antiochus III’s Eastern Campaigns and Power Dynamics, posed challenges for the Seleucids, and meddled in Greek affairs. While officially advocating Hellenism in Asia Minor, many Greeks viewed him as a Roman tool as Rome began asserting itself in the region.
Pergamun’s Modest Monarchs
Despite their equal authority, the kings of Pergamun, including Eumenes I and Attalus I, lived more modestly compared to their counterparts. A key factor in their success was avoiding internal power struggles and family conflicts, unlike other Greek monarchies. Devoted to cultu
Enhancing Grammar for Bulgarian
Verb Forms A Flexible Approach
Performance of the Grammar
The grammar performs well in recognizing complex tense forms with auxiliaries and full-content verbs. However, to build a comprehensive grammar for compound verb forms, it is crucial to learn from rare syntagmatic patterns, enriching the paradigmatic knowledge.
Handling Discontinuity
Discontinuous compound verb forms with adverbial and nominal inserts pose a challenge for the current grammar. To address this, rules identifying shorter segments within the verb complex (auxiliary and main verb chunks) can be applied. This approach, moving from syntagmatic realization to paradigmatic knowledge, is consistent with methodologies in other languages. Exploring discontinuity in relation to main verb forms, such as passive participles separated by adverbials, is essential for refinement Evaluating the Application.
Leveraging Treebank Construction
Evaluating the Application
Evaluating the Application of Regular Grammars for Bulgarian Verb Forms
Some Preliminary Evaluation of the Grammar Application
The application of Recognizer 2 enables correct delimitation and markup of the majority of the longest compound verb form patterns. Experiments with a newspaper corpus reveal that chunks identified by Recognizer 1 are often adjacent within the longest compound verb form patterns in communicatively unmarked written prose. The paradigmatic representation of word order within the verb complex, considering the “communicative organization of Bulgarian sentences” as outlined in Avgustinova 1997 Building a Two-Level Grammar, supports this conclusion.
Here are numerical insights into the application of the regular grammars
In a 4292-word text, Recognizer 1 identifies 536 occurrences of main verbs with or without small words, 164 occurrences of auxiliary verbs with or without sma
Building a Two-Level Grammar
Cascade for Recognizing Bulgarian Verb Forms
In the MV rule explained below, the element is the context node. XPath expressions are employed to search the local tree structure for PCDATA strings of the ph element (representing the running word string) and the ta element (indicating the correct morphosyntactic tag) to match input words to the regular expression. In the rule, input words are ordered pairs of ph content and ta content, with irrelevant content marked by the # symbol, like <“da”,”#”> or <“#”,”Pp@d@@@t”>. The grammar specifies the elements in the XML document to which it is applied (e.g., paragraph, head, and highlighted elements).
Currently, the regular grammar cascade for recognizing compound verb forms consists of two levels. Recognizer 1 includes rules operating on the first level, producing:
Verb forms with a single main verb or a main verb accompanied by small words Read more