Gotarzes II
king of the Parthian Empire intermittently from 40 AD to 51 AD
Gotarzes II (Parthian: 𐭂𐭅𐭕𐭓𐭆 Gōtarz) was king of the Parthian Empire from 40 to 51. He was an adopted son of Artabanus II. When his father died in 40, his brother Vardanes I was to succeed to the throne. However, the throne was seized by Gotarzes II. Gotarzes II eventually was able to gain control of most of Parthia forcing Vardanes to flee to Bactria. With the death of Vardanes in c. 46, Gotarzes II ruled the Parthian Empire until his death. Gotarzes II was succeeded by his uncle Vonones II.
Origins
Little is known of the early life of Gotarzes II prior to his becoming King of Parthia. Although Gotarzes II was a son of Artabanus II, it is unknown whether he was a biological or adoptive son. Josephus calls Gotarzes II the brother of Vologases I. Tacitus, on the other hand, does not explicitly describe Gotarzes II as a son of Artabanus II. However, he refers to him as a Parthian usurper who was responsible for the murder of his brother, Artabanus, and his family.
The Roman sources are obscure on his background; however, other surviving evidence reveals a lot more about the origins of Gotarzes II. An inscription on a rock relief that was discovered by Rawlinson at Sarpul-I-Zohab on a main road in Iranian Kurdistan introduces him as Gotarzes, son of Gev. From this inscription, it has been surmised that Gotarzes II was the son of a Hyrcanian nobleman called Gev who served as satrap in that region.
“Gotarzes II” enters the record as king of the Parthian Empire intermittently from 40 AD to 51 AD. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gotarzes, king and Parthian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q342802. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gotarzes II” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.