DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45399#0020
10
NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA.
the high priesthood,1 and the Romans encountered nothing but disaster, until the arrival os
Ventidius. Then, however, fortune at once changed sides. Labienus, who had gone so far
as to strike in Syria gold coins bearing his own portrait, as if he supposed himself the equal
of the rulers of Rome, was first slain, and soon after Pacorus sell in the midst of a gallant
attack. Having lost their leaders, the Parthian troops hastily retreated homewards. Nor was
Orodes less crushed than his army by the loss of Pacorus. None of his other sons seemed
worthy to mount the throne, and he knew not which to prefer. When, at length, he had
selected Phraates, that prince, fearing perhaps lest his father’s mind should change, had him
assassinated in the year b.c. 37. The coins of Orodes give one the impression, which is other-
wise confirmed, that he was a great administrator, the second ktlctttis of the Parthian power
after the first Mithradates, and that in his time the Parthian rule took a new vitality, which
sustained it sor centuries in rivalry to the great power of Rome, which acknowledged no other
equal.
Phraates IV. began his reign in true Oriental fashion, by murdering all his brothers, as
a necessary precaution before he began murdering other people. The invasion of Antonius
occurred in the first year of his reign. It ended not so disastrously, indeed, as had that of
Crassus, but yet in a manner little likely to raise his military reputation. His retreat is said
so to have inssamed the vanity and ferocity of the Parthian King, that the latter became
intolerable to his people, who set up in his absence one Tiridates, who was probably an Arsacid,2
and who seems to have issued tetradrachms in the year 32 b.c. Not long aster, Phraates re-
turned with a Scythian army, and Tiridates took resuge with Augustus. It is worthy of note
that a genuine Arsacid seems at all times to have been able to collect an army among the
Sakas of the east. Later, when Augustus had put down all his rivals, and was beginning to
consider the advisability of a sresh invasion of Parthia, Phraates thought it prudent to adopt
every means of conciliation. He restored the prisoners and the standards of Crassus, and sent
as hostages to Rome four of his sons,3 among whom was Vonones, with their wives and
children.
He married late in life an Italian slave, called by Josephus, Thermusa,4 but whose
name is given as Thea Musa on coins. The latter may well have been an adopted name, just
as some of the Kings of Syria adopted the name of Apollo or Dionysus.5 Whatever her name,
she must have had talent; and her effigy and name are the sole memorial left to us of the
Queens of Parthia. Her son Phraataces was made heir, to the detriment of the elder sons os
the King, and proceeded on this to assassinate his father.
With Phraates the dates on Parthian tetradrachms become usual, and are of the greatest
value for determining the length of the reigns of kings and other points in chronology. No
1 Josephus, B. J. i. 13, 1. 2 Justin xlii. 5.
3 Strabo, xvi. 1, 28. The names of two of these sons, Seraspadanes and Rhodaspes, occur in an inscription now at Rome.
4 Josephus, A. J. xviii. 2, 4. I believe that the MS. reading is 0E< MOY<:A; and there is great probability in the
suggestion of M. de Longperier that this may be a mere corruption of 0 E A MOY^A- The name Thermusa does not sound Italian.
6 Mr. Thomas gives another explanation in his Early Sassanian Inscriptions, p. 122, and prefers 0EAC MOYCHC.
NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA.
the high priesthood,1 and the Romans encountered nothing but disaster, until the arrival os
Ventidius. Then, however, fortune at once changed sides. Labienus, who had gone so far
as to strike in Syria gold coins bearing his own portrait, as if he supposed himself the equal
of the rulers of Rome, was first slain, and soon after Pacorus sell in the midst of a gallant
attack. Having lost their leaders, the Parthian troops hastily retreated homewards. Nor was
Orodes less crushed than his army by the loss of Pacorus. None of his other sons seemed
worthy to mount the throne, and he knew not which to prefer. When, at length, he had
selected Phraates, that prince, fearing perhaps lest his father’s mind should change, had him
assassinated in the year b.c. 37. The coins of Orodes give one the impression, which is other-
wise confirmed, that he was a great administrator, the second ktlctttis of the Parthian power
after the first Mithradates, and that in his time the Parthian rule took a new vitality, which
sustained it sor centuries in rivalry to the great power of Rome, which acknowledged no other
equal.
Phraates IV. began his reign in true Oriental fashion, by murdering all his brothers, as
a necessary precaution before he began murdering other people. The invasion of Antonius
occurred in the first year of his reign. It ended not so disastrously, indeed, as had that of
Crassus, but yet in a manner little likely to raise his military reputation. His retreat is said
so to have inssamed the vanity and ferocity of the Parthian King, that the latter became
intolerable to his people, who set up in his absence one Tiridates, who was probably an Arsacid,2
and who seems to have issued tetradrachms in the year 32 b.c. Not long aster, Phraates re-
turned with a Scythian army, and Tiridates took resuge with Augustus. It is worthy of note
that a genuine Arsacid seems at all times to have been able to collect an army among the
Sakas of the east. Later, when Augustus had put down all his rivals, and was beginning to
consider the advisability of a sresh invasion of Parthia, Phraates thought it prudent to adopt
every means of conciliation. He restored the prisoners and the standards of Crassus, and sent
as hostages to Rome four of his sons,3 among whom was Vonones, with their wives and
children.
He married late in life an Italian slave, called by Josephus, Thermusa,4 but whose
name is given as Thea Musa on coins. The latter may well have been an adopted name, just
as some of the Kings of Syria adopted the name of Apollo or Dionysus.5 Whatever her name,
she must have had talent; and her effigy and name are the sole memorial left to us of the
Queens of Parthia. Her son Phraataces was made heir, to the detriment of the elder sons os
the King, and proceeded on this to assassinate his father.
With Phraates the dates on Parthian tetradrachms become usual, and are of the greatest
value for determining the length of the reigns of kings and other points in chronology. No
1 Josephus, B. J. i. 13, 1. 2 Justin xlii. 5.
3 Strabo, xvi. 1, 28. The names of two of these sons, Seraspadanes and Rhodaspes, occur in an inscription now at Rome.
4 Josephus, A. J. xviii. 2, 4. I believe that the MS. reading is 0E< MOY<:A; and there is great probability in the
suggestion of M. de Longperier that this may be a mere corruption of 0 E A MOY^A- The name Thermusa does not sound Italian.
6 Mr. Thomas gives another explanation in his Early Sassanian Inscriptions, p. 122, and prefers 0EAC MOYCHC.