"The same process recurs in so-called Parthian Mesopotamia after the defeat of Antiochus VII Sidetes in 129 B.C. In the last century B.c. the Seleucid kingdom has come to an end and Rome herself has to undertake the task of saving Syrian Hellenism from the Iranians who threaten it from the East and the Aramaeans who rise up against it from the depths of Syria itself."