[7] In the Parthian period, Hatra came to be seen as a cult center of the Shamash, and according to Manfred Krebernik its importance can be compared to Sippar and Larsa in earlier times.
[8] While it is assumed that religious activity in Uruk continued through the late Seleucid and early Parthian periods, a large part of the Bīt Rēš complex was eventually destroyed by a fire.
[10] According to a Greek inscription dated to 111 CE, the deity worshipped in Uruk in the early first millennium was apparently otherwise unknown Gareus, whose temple was built during the reign of Vologases I of Parthia in a foreign style resembling Roman buildings.
[12] It is assumed that the last remnants of the local religion and culture of Uruk disappeared by the time of the Sasanian conquest of Mesopotamia, even though the worship of individual deities might have outlasted cuneiform writing.
[13] After the fall of the Achaemenids to Alexander the Great in 330 BC, much of Iran came under the control of the Greco-Macedonian Seleucid dynasty, during which time Greek influence was felt in these areas.
In official iconography of the Parthian period, Mithras would take on the features of Apollo, on a coin from Susa that seems to represent him, dating from the reign of Artabanus II (12-38/40 AD).
Educated at Athens, he added to the Babylonian astrology of his father Greek ideas concerning the soul, the birth and destruction of bodies and a sort of metempsychosis.
[18] A certain Marinus, a follower of Bardaisan and a dualist, who is addressed in the "Dialogue of Adamantius", held the doctrine of a twofold primeval being; for the devil, according to him is not created by God.
Its existence in the seventh century is attested by Jacob of Edessa; in the eighth by George, Bishop of the Arabs; in the tenth by the historian al-Masudi; and even in the twelfth by al-Shahrastani.