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Quote of the day: Urgulania's influence, however, was so f
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Annals by Tacitus
Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
Book XI Chapter 10: Problems in Parthia (cont.)[AD 47]
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He then visited the strongest governments, and was eager to recover Armenia, but was stopped by Vibius Marsus, governor of Syria, who threatened war. Meanwhile Gotarzes, who repented of having relinquished his throne, at the solicitation of the nobility, to whom subjection is a special hardship in peace, collected a force. Vardanes marched against him to the river Charinda, a fierce battle was fought over the passage, Vardanes winning a complete victory, and in a series of successful engagements subduing the intermediate tribes as far as the river Sindes, which is the boundary between the Dahae and the Arians. There his successes terminated. The Parthians, victorious though they were, rebelled against distant service. So after erecting monuments on which he recorded his greatness, and the tribute won from peoples from whom no Arsacid had won it before, he returned covered with glory, and therefore the more haughty and more intolerable to his subjects than ever. They arranged a plot, and slew him when he was off his guard and intent upon the chase. He was still in his first youth, and might have been one of the illustrious few among aged princes, had he sought to be loved by his subjects as much as to be feared by his foes. The murder of Vardanes threw the affairs of Parthia into confusion, as the people were in doubt who should be summoned to the throne. Many inclined to Gotarzes, some to Meherdates, a descendant of Phraates, who was a hostage in our hands. Finally Gotarzes prevailed. Established in the palace, he drove the Parthians by his cruelty and profligacy to send a secret entreaty to the Roman emperor that Meherdates might be allowed to mount the throne of his ancestors.

Event: Problems in Parthia.

Exim validissimas praefecturas invisit; et reciperare Armeniam avebat, ni a Vibio Marso, Syriae legato, bellum minitante cohibitus foret. atque interim Gotarzes paenitentia concessi regni et vocante nobilitate, cui in pace durius servitium est, contrahit copias. et hinc contra itum ad amnem Erinden; in cuius transgressu multum certato pervicit Vardanes, prosperisque proeliis medias nationes subegit ad flumen Sinden, quod Dahas Ariosque disterminat. ibi modus rebus secundis positus: nam Parthi quamquam victores longinquam militiam aspernabantur. igitur extructis monimentis, quibus opes suas testabatur nec cuiquam ante Arsacidarum tributa illis de gentibus parta, regreditur ingens gloria atque eo ferocior et subiectis intolerantior; qui dolo ante composito incautum venationique intentum interfecere, primam intra iuventam, sed claritudine paucos inter senum regum, si perinde amorem inter popularis quam metum apud hostis quaesivisset. nece Vardanis turbatae Parthorum res inter ambiguos quis in regnum acciperetur. multi ad Gotarzen inclinabant, quidam ad Meherdaten prolem Phraatis, obsidio nobis datum: dein praevaluit Gotarzes; potitusque regiam per saevitiam ac luxum adegit Parthos re s mittere ad principem Romanum occultas