Actually, calling it a fail is a bit of a stretch. It was a savagely effective strategy, very successfully employed, for example, to keep the romans at bay. It also required awesome skills in both horse riding and archery. But I still think it's a bit silly it worked so well.
And yes, this is the origin of the expression 'parting shot'.
Sources:
Wikipedia, Parthian Shot
Dictionary.com, Parthian Shot
Alireza Shapour Shahbazi, Parthian Army, Iran Chamber Society
Lieke Meulenbroek, The Parthian Shot: Kingship and Coinage in the early Arsacid Empire, University of Utrecht (page 33) (or the cached version here)
Meh, another wanna be cool (or "kewl", however you want to spell it) blog about random things.
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