[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883) › c14.3 # Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c14.3 Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c14.3 - **Language:** English ### [c14.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14.3) George Smith gives the year 248 B.C. as the first year of the Parthian era. But as the first year of the Seleukidan era did not begin until October 312 B.C. or 311½, only three months of the year 248 at the very utmost can be assigned to the first year of the Parthian era. But if, as is quite possible, the Parthian era did not begin until about the middle of the Seleukidan year, its initial point would have been in April 247 B.C., or even later, instead of in October 248, and it would not have ended until April 246 or later. Now Antiochus II Theos died in January 246,† and as Strabo, Appian, and Suidas, all agree in assigning the revolt of the Parthians to the period immediately following the death of Antiochus II, I think there is a very strong reason for adopting some middle month of the year 247 B.C. as the initial point of the Parthian era. I had already adopted the year 246 for the rise of Bactrian independence, on the testimony of the authors above quoted, in my account of the Coins of Alexander’s successors in the East.‡ And as I have shown that the date of the death of Antiochus may easily have fallen within the first year of the Parthian era as now established by the cuneiform inscriptions, I think that the year 247 has a better claim to be considered the starting point of Parthian independence than the previous year 248. - [Previous: c14.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14.2) - [Next: c14.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14.4) - [Up: c14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c14.3) · Pramāṇa