Vologases III of Parthia
King of Parthia
Vologases III (Parthian: 𐭅𐭋𐭂𐭔 Walagash) was king of the Parthian Empire from 110 to 147. He was the son and successor of Pacorus II (r. 78–110).
Vologases III's reign was marked by civil strife and warfare. At his ascension, he had to deal with the usurper Osroes I (r. 109–129), who managed to seize the western part of the empire, which left Vologases III in control of its eastern parts. After Osroes I violated the Treaty of Rhandeia with the Romans by appointing Parthamasiris as the king of Armenia in 113, the Roman emperor Trajan (r. 98–117) invaded the Parthian lands, briefly seizing the Parthian cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon and reaching as far as the Persian Gulf. These gains were short-lived; all the Roman gains had been lost after Trajan's death in 117. Vologases III, whose eastern domains were untouched, took advantage of the weakened state of Osroes I to regain lost territory, and finally defeated him in 129. Another contender named Mithridates V shortly appeared afterwards, but was also defeated by Vologases III, in 140.
Vologases III had to face an invasion by the nomadic Alans from 134 to 136, while in the east, he sought to increase the political and military actions as a response to the enlargement of the Kushan Empire. Under the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161), disturbance once occurred in Armenia due to the Romans appointing a new king in Armenia.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q315461. VIAF identifies the subject as 89762054. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vologases III of Parthia” 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.