[27] The fact of the deposition and execution, and the time, are attested by Dio, xlix. 32, and Valerius Maximus, ix. 15, ext. 2; the cause or the pretext must have been connected with the Armenian war. [28] The account of the seizure of Armenia is wanting, but the fact is clearly apparent from Tacitus, _Ann._ xi. 9. To this connection probably belongs what Josephus, _Arch._ xx. 3, 3, tells of the design of the successor of Artabanus to wage war against the Romans, from which Izates the satrap of Adiabene vainly dissuades him. Josephus names this successor, probably in error, Bardanes. The immediate successor of Artabanus III. was, according to Tacitus, _Ann._ xi. 8, his son of the same name, whom along with his son thereupon Gotarzes put out of the way; and this Artabanus IV. must be here meant. [29] The statement of Petrus Patricius (_fr._ 3 Müll.) that king Mithradates of Iberia had planned revolt from Rome, but in order to preserve the semblance of fidelity, had sent his brother Cotys to Claudius, and then, when the latter had given information to the emperor of those intrigues, had been deposed and replaced by his brother, is not compatible with the assured fact that in Iberia, at least from the year 35 (Tacitus, _Ann._ vi. 32) till the year 60 (Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 26), Pharasmanes, and in the year 75 his son Mithradates (_C. I. L._ iii. 6052) bore rule. Beyond doubt Petrus has confused Mithradates of Iberia and the king of the Bosporus of the same name (I. 316, note 1), and here at the bottom lies the narrative, which Tacitus, _Ann._ xii. 18, presupposes. [30] If the coins, which, it is true, for the most part admit of being distinguished only by resemblance of effigy, are correctly attributed, those of Gotarzes reach to Sel. 362 Daesius = A.D. 51 June, and those of Vologasus (we know none of Vonones II.) begin with Sel. 362 Gorpiaeus = A.D. 51 Sept. (Percy Gardner, _Parthian Coinage_, pp. 50, 51), which agrees with Tacitus, _Ann._ xii. 14, 44. [31] Gorneae, called by the Armenians _Garhni_, as the ruins (nearly east of Erivân) are still at present named. (Kiepert.) [32] Even after the attack Tiridates complained _cur datis nuper obsidibus redintegrataque amicitia ... vetere Armeniae possessione depelleretur_, and Corbulo presented to him, in case of his turning as a suppliant to the emperor, the prospect of a _regnum stabile_ (Tacitus, _Ann._ xii. 37). Elsewhere too the refusal of the oath of fealty is indicated as the proper ground of war (Tacitus, _Ann._ xii. 34).