DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45399#0024
14
NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA.
ambassadors reached him from Vologeses, offering him an aid of 40,000 Parthian horse, an
offer which Vespasian had the good sense to decline.1 And as he on this occasion declined aid,
he was able in turn to refuse to give it some time later, when Vologeses, hard pressed by the
Alani, who had overrun Media, begged the loan of some Roman soldiery,2 with Titus or Domitian
as captain. It must have been at about the same time that Hyrcania threw off the Parthian
yoke, for Josephus,3 writing of the fourth year of Vespasian’s reign, speaks of an independent
King of the Hyrcanians, who may very probably have been a new barbarian invader. It was
also the first Vologeses who built the city of Vologesocerta.4
A curious question has vexed the Parthian historians, namely, whether this Vologeses I.
reigned until Pacorus mounted the throne, about 77 a.d., or whether other kings occupied
part of that period. We know from the statements of Tacitus that a Vologeses was king
after 70, but some numismatists have supposed that there are in the coins such differences in
type and the portrait of the king, before the year 60 and after it, that we must suppose a
second and younger Vologeses to have succeeded the first at that time. Others, most un-
reasonably, have termed this second king Artabanus. But to procure the insertion of a king
not known to historians numismatic evidence should be strong and undeniable; and it may
be doubted if such is here the case. I shall resume this subject hereafter, in the strictly
numismatic part of the present essay.
We know, on numismatic evidence, that the reign of Pacorus II. extended from May, 78,
to February, 96; also, that he was quite a youth at the time of his accession; but regarding
the events of his reign, we have little information. He appears to have sold5 Osrhoene to
Abgarus for a large sum of money, which looks as if he were in great straits, and, in fact,
Dio tells us6 that at the time of Trajan’s invasion, Parthia had suffered much, and was still
suffering from civil wars. This circumstance may explain how it was that, when, in the
year 89, a Pseudo-Nero appeared on the Euphrates, and the Parthians were quite inclined to
support his claims to the Boman purple, the Parthian King mentioned in this connexion,
nameless in Suetonius,7 is by the late writer, Zonaras,8 called Artabanus. And however little
we might be inclined to accept the mere statement of Zonaras, it is rendered credible by coins
which give us the name of Artabanus as Parthian King in 80/81 a.d. Other coins, which
seem to belong to this period, or to the early part of the reign of Chosroes, are some drachms
bearing in Pehlvi letters the name of a King Mithradates. A copper coin published below,
bearing the same head as these drachms, seems to be dated a.s. 424. Of the prince who issued
these pieces we have no trustworthy information at all. The name does, indeed, occur in a
passage os Malala.9 This late writer tells us, that in the tune of Trajan there was a King of
Persia (a Parthian by race) named Meerdotes, who had a son named Sinatruces. Meerdotes fell
in battle; Sinatruces captured Antioch from the Bomans. Parthamaspates, son of Osdroes, King
1 Tac. Hist. iv. 51. 2 Sueton. Domit. 2. 3 Josephus, B. J. vii. 7, 4.
4 Pliny, N. H. vi. 26, 122. Pliny speaks of the city as recently built (nuper).
5 Suidas ad. voc. aiv7]r-s). 6 Dio C. lxviii. 26. 7 Suetonius Nero, 57.
8 Zonaras, Ann. xi. 18. 9 Joh. Malala, Chronogr. l. xi.
NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA.
ambassadors reached him from Vologeses, offering him an aid of 40,000 Parthian horse, an
offer which Vespasian had the good sense to decline.1 And as he on this occasion declined aid,
he was able in turn to refuse to give it some time later, when Vologeses, hard pressed by the
Alani, who had overrun Media, begged the loan of some Roman soldiery,2 with Titus or Domitian
as captain. It must have been at about the same time that Hyrcania threw off the Parthian
yoke, for Josephus,3 writing of the fourth year of Vespasian’s reign, speaks of an independent
King of the Hyrcanians, who may very probably have been a new barbarian invader. It was
also the first Vologeses who built the city of Vologesocerta.4
A curious question has vexed the Parthian historians, namely, whether this Vologeses I.
reigned until Pacorus mounted the throne, about 77 a.d., or whether other kings occupied
part of that period. We know from the statements of Tacitus that a Vologeses was king
after 70, but some numismatists have supposed that there are in the coins such differences in
type and the portrait of the king, before the year 60 and after it, that we must suppose a
second and younger Vologeses to have succeeded the first at that time. Others, most un-
reasonably, have termed this second king Artabanus. But to procure the insertion of a king
not known to historians numismatic evidence should be strong and undeniable; and it may
be doubted if such is here the case. I shall resume this subject hereafter, in the strictly
numismatic part of the present essay.
We know, on numismatic evidence, that the reign of Pacorus II. extended from May, 78,
to February, 96; also, that he was quite a youth at the time of his accession; but regarding
the events of his reign, we have little information. He appears to have sold5 Osrhoene to
Abgarus for a large sum of money, which looks as if he were in great straits, and, in fact,
Dio tells us6 that at the time of Trajan’s invasion, Parthia had suffered much, and was still
suffering from civil wars. This circumstance may explain how it was that, when, in the
year 89, a Pseudo-Nero appeared on the Euphrates, and the Parthians were quite inclined to
support his claims to the Boman purple, the Parthian King mentioned in this connexion,
nameless in Suetonius,7 is by the late writer, Zonaras,8 called Artabanus. And however little
we might be inclined to accept the mere statement of Zonaras, it is rendered credible by coins
which give us the name of Artabanus as Parthian King in 80/81 a.d. Other coins, which
seem to belong to this period, or to the early part of the reign of Chosroes, are some drachms
bearing in Pehlvi letters the name of a King Mithradates. A copper coin published below,
bearing the same head as these drachms, seems to be dated a.s. 424. Of the prince who issued
these pieces we have no trustworthy information at all. The name does, indeed, occur in a
passage os Malala.9 This late writer tells us, that in the tune of Trajan there was a King of
Persia (a Parthian by race) named Meerdotes, who had a son named Sinatruces. Meerdotes fell
in battle; Sinatruces captured Antioch from the Bomans. Parthamaspates, son of Osdroes, King
1 Tac. Hist. iv. 51. 2 Sueton. Domit. 2. 3 Josephus, B. J. vii. 7, 4.
4 Pliny, N. H. vi. 26, 122. Pliny speaks of the city as recently built (nuper).
5 Suidas ad. voc. aiv7]r-s). 6 Dio C. lxviii. 26. 7 Suetonius Nero, 57.
8 Zonaras, Ann. xi. 18. 9 Joh. Malala, Chronogr. l. xi.