The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
Roman influence and reduce the land to dependence on themselves. Warlike demonstrations on the part of Rome were generally sufficient to make the Parthian kings withdraw their pretensions to Armenia and adopt a respectful attitude to the Roman Emperor; for they were constantly hampered by wars on other frontiers of their dominion and by domestic dissensions. These repeated settlements of the Armenian question are marked by the same general features. Rival pretenders to the throne of Armenia are supported by Rome and Parthia; the Parthian kingdom is distracted by civil war or excited into discontent against the reigning monarch, and there is a movement in favor of some scion of the Arsacid house who is living in exile or as a hostage at Rome; he is supported by Roman arms, but by an inevitable reaction is soon rejected; and the war ends with the acknowledgment of Roman supremacy in some form in Armenia. It will be remembered that Tiberius had established the overlordship of Rome in 20B.C., that it was again confirmed by Gaius Caesar in 2 A.D.. Again, in 18 A.D., the Parthians submitted at the appearance of another presumptive heir to the Empire; and recently, the energetic action of Lucius Vitellius had thwarted the schemes of Artabanus III.
But what had been well done under the auspices of Tiberius, was immediately undone by the caprice of his successor. Gaius summoned Mithradates, the new king of Armenia, to Rome, deposed him, and sent him into exile. At the same time he recalled Vitellius in disgrace from his government of Syria. This was an opportunity for the Parthians, and they did not fail to seize the coveted land. Thus, when Claudius came to the throne, one of the tasks which devolved upon him was the recovery of Armenia. Mithradates was immediately recalled from exile, and, restored to his royal dignity, he set about recovering his kingdom with the help of his brother Pharasmanes, king of Iberia. Artabanus III was now dead, and Parthia was disturbed by a war for the succession between his sons Gotarzes and Vardanes. Gotarzes had come to the throne and made himself detested by his cruelties. One of his acts was the murder of his brother Artabanus, with his wife and son. His subjects accordingly sent for his other brother Vardanes, an enterprising prince, who was then at a distance of 400 miles from the court. He is said to have traversed this space in two days; and Gotarzes, completely surprised and terrified, fled. Seleucia alone, which had held out against his father, declined the rule of Vardanes, and the new king was impolitic enough to give way to his resentment at such a moment, and embarrass himself with the siege of a city secured by strong fortifications and abundant supplies. He thus gave Gotarzes time to collect an army of Hyrcanians and Dahae—Scythian races east of the Caspian sea,—and was then compelled to raise the siege, and march against his brother. He pitched his camp on the great Bactrian plain, which stretches between the Oxus and the Paropamisus (now the Hindoo Koosh). It was a favorable moment for Mithradates to re-establish his rule in Armenia, and the Armenians made no resistance when their governor, who had ventured on a battle, was slain. Some of the nobles inclined to Cotys, king of Little Armenia, but a letter from his overlord Claudius prevented that monarch from interfering. Some of the fortresses of Armenia received Roman garrisons. Meanwhile the armies of the Parthian brothers had met, but just as they were about to begin battle, they came suddenly to an agreement, through the discovery of a plot which Gotarzes revealed to his brother. They joined right hands, and Gotarzes yielded the sovranty to his brother, and, to avoid rivalry, retired into the wilds of Hyrcania. Vardanes was then able to force Seleucia, which had defied the Parthian government for seven years, to capitulate (43A.D.). Alter this success, he was preparing to invade Armenia, but was deterred by the threatening attitude of Vibius Marsus the legatus of Syria.
The struggle with Gotarzes soon broke out anew. That prince repented of his renunciation of the crown, and was urged by the discontented nobility to take up arms again. The conflict took place in the country between the Caspian and Herat; and Vardanes gained a great victory, and pushed his successes as far as the borders of the Dahae. He returned haughtier and more intolerable to his subjects than ever. A plot was concerted, and he was assassinated when he was intent upon the chase (45 A.D.). He was still in his first youth; but he would deserve, says the historian Tacitus, “to be ranked among the few greatest of even long-lived kings, if he had sought to be loved by his subjects as he sought to be feared by his enemies”.
Gotarzes immediately assumed the sovranty, but after some years his cruelty and profligacy drove the Parthians to send an embassy to Rome and beg that the prince Meherdates, the surviving son of Vonones, whom Germanicus had put to death in Cilicia, should be sent to dispute the Parthian throne with the hated Gotarzes (49 A.D.). The ambassadors represented that Parthia sent her kings’ sons as hostages to Rome, in order that when she grew tired of her own government she might fall back on the Emperor and the senate, and obtain a better king trained in Roman manners. Claudius improved the occasion by emphasizing the superiority of Rome and the submissiveness of the Parthians. He did not lose the opportunity of comparing himself to the divine Augustus, from whom the Parthians in like manner had sought a king (Vonones), but he omitted all reference to his uncle Tiberius, who had sent two kings to Parthia. He gave good advice to Meherdates, who was present, urging him to consider himself as a ruler among freemen, not as a despot among slaves; “the barbarians will like clemency and justice all the more, because they are unused to them”. Then turning to the ambassadors, he dwelled on the virtues of the young foster-child of Rome. Yet, even if his character should change, “it is well that subjects should bear with the caprices of kings. Frequent revolutions are unprofitable. Rome has now reached such a height, that she can afford to wish that even foreign peoples should enjoy repose”.
As L. Vitellius had formerly conducted Tiridates to the frontiers of the Parthian empire, so it devolved now upon C. Cassius, governor of Syria, to escort Meherdates to the Euphrates. There he was received by several Parthian potentates, including king Abgar of Osroene. Cassius gave the young prince sound advice, showing him that delay would be fatal, and that if he did not act quickly the enthusiasm of the barbarians would soon flag. But Meherdates was induced by Abgar to amuse himself for several days in Edessa, and then, instead of occupying Mesopotamia, where success seems to have been assured to him by Carenes, the governor of Mesopotamia, he proceeded by a circuitous route to Armenia, where, as winter was beginning, it was impossible to do much. He was joined by Carenes, and then advancing along the Tigris into Adiabene, whose king Izates pretended to espouse his cause, he occupied the historic site of Ninus, and gave it the name of Colonia Nini Claudia. Delay was fatal to Meherdates, even as it had been fatal to Tiridates, the pretender sent by Tiberius. His chief adherents, recognizing his incompetence, especially Abgar and Izates, deserted to Gotarzes, and then he decided to risk everything on a battle. The struggle seems to have taken place between the Tigris and Mount Zagros. Both sides fought with desperate courage. Carenes carried all before him, but, advancing too far, was surprised in the rear. This decided the issue. Meherdates yielded to false promises, and was led in chains to the victor, who despised him too much to put him to death, but rendered him harmless by the amputation of his ears.
But Gotarzes did not long survive his victory. He was succeeded (in summer 51 A.D.) by Vonones II, king of Media, who was followed, after a reign of a few months, by his son Vologeses I a capable and successful ruler (51-78 A.D.). One of the chief ends of the policy of Vologeses was to recover Armenia, and an opportunity was soon offered through an act of foul treachery on the part of the Iberian king. Pharasmanes had a son named Radamistus, tall, handsome, of remarkable bodily strength, trained in archery and riding, and the other accomplishments of his countrymen, and of high renown among the neighboring peoples. This ambitious youth declared too boldly his impatience of his father’s long old age, which kept him out of the little kingdom, which he perhaps hoped to extend. Pharasmanes, seeing that his son was prepared to grasp the power, if an occasion offered itself, tempted the youth with other prospects, and pointed to Armenia, suggesting that his brother Mithradates might be overthrown. A treacherous scheme was devised. Radamistus, feigning to have quarreled with his father, sought shelter at his uncle’s court, and there engaged in treasonable intrigues with some of the Armenian nobles. When the ground was prepared, Pharasmanes declared war against his brother on some trifling plea, and supplied his son with an army, with which he invaded and occupied Armenia (52 A.D.). Mithradates placed himself under the protection of the Roman garrison of the fortress of Gorneas, which was commanded by Caelius Pollio. Radamistus blockaded the place, and, unable to take it, attempted to bribe Pollio. But Casperius, a centurion, who held a secondary command, protested, and, having arranged a truce, proceeded to Pharasmanes, to induce him to withdraw the army. Pharasmanes replied in a conciliatory