A civil war between the two brothers soon erupted and Orodes II emerged victorious. Name Phraátēs () is the Greek form of the Parthian Frahāt (𐭐𐭓𐭇𐭕), itself from the Old Iranian *Frahāta- ("gained, earned"). The Modern Persian version is Farhād (). Background Phraates III was a son of Sinatruces (), who was presumably a son of the Parthian ruler Mithridates I (). The name of the Arsacid branch established by Sinatruces on the Parthian throne has been coined by the modern historian Marek Jan Olbrycht as the "Sinatrucids", which ruled the Parthian Empire from 78/77 BC to 12 AD. After the death of Mithridates II () the Parthian Empire fell into a state of turmoil and decline; the authority of the crown had declined, while the empire lost lands to its neighbours. The Artaxiad king of Armenia, Tigranes the Great (), took advantage of the Parthians' weakness and retook the "seventy valleys" he had previously ceded to Mithridates II. He also went on to conquer the Parthian colonies of Media Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene, Osroene, and northern Mesopotamia. Tigranes had also fought campaigns in other kingdoms, adding Syria, Cilicia and Coele-Syria to his vast kingdom. Reign When Phraates III came to the throne in 69 BC, he inherited an empire that could no longer be considered the supreme power in the Near East, because of the ascendancy of Armenia under Tigranes and Pontus under the latter's ally Mithridates VI Eupator (). However, this began to change; in the same year, the Roman commander Lucullus pushed Tigranes out of Syria and Cilicia, forcing him to retreat to Armenia, where Mithridates VI took refuge with him. Lucullus then marched towards Armenia, where he was likewise successful, forcing Tigranes and Mithridates VI to withdraw to the northern part of the country. From there they implored Phraates III to aid them in exchange for the lost Parthian lands of Gordyene, Adiabene, and northern Mesopotamia. This was not the first time the two allies had attempted to persuade the Parthians into an alliance against the Romans. A few years earlier (72 BC), Mithridates VI had asked Phraates III's father Sinatruces to join him; he declined, preferring to remain neutral. At the same time, Phraates III was in correspondence with Lucullus, who proposed an alliance between the two powers, seemingly with the guarantee that he would acknowledge Parthian demands against Tigranes. Although Lucullus had been successful in