Note 5 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS.

In Egypt, whose court ceremonial, as doubtless that of all the states of the Diadochi, is based on that ordained by Alexander, and in so far upon that of the Persian empire, the like title seems to have been conferred also personally (Franz, C. I. Gr. iii. 270). That the same occurred with the Arsacids, is possible. Among the Greek-speaking subjects of the Arsacid state the appellation μεγιστᾶνες seems in the original stricter use to denote the members of the seven houses; it is worthy of notice that megistanes and satrapae are associated (Seneca, Ep. 21; Josephus, Arch. xi. 3, 2; xx. 2, 3). The circumstance that in court mourning the Persian king does not invite the megistanes to table (Suetonius, Gai. 5) suggests the conjecture that they had the privilege of taking meals with him. The title τῶν πρώτων φίλων is also found among the Arsacids just as at the Egyptian and Pontic courts (Bull. de corr. Hell. vii. p. 349).