The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2Mommsen, Theodor
History
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2
Mommsen, Theodor
Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
but under Vespasian a Roman garrison was stationed beyond the Armenian
frontier in the Iberian fortress Harmozika near Tiflis,[43] and
accordingly at this time Armenia also must have been militarily in the
Roman power. All these measures, however little they contained even a
threat of war, were pointed against the eastern neighbour. Nevertheless
Vologasus was after the fall of Jerusalem the first to offer to
the Roman crown-prince his congratulations on the strengthening of
the Roman rule in Syria, and he accepted without remonstrance the
encampment of the legions in Commagene, Cappadocia, and Lesser Armenia.
Nay, he even once more incited Vespasian to that Transcaucasian
expedition, and besought the sending of a Roman army against the Alani
under the leadership of one of the imperial princes; although Vespasian
did not enter into this far-seeing plan, that Roman force can hardly
have been sent into the region of Tiflis for any other object than for
closing the pass of the Caucasus, and in so far it represented there
also the interests of the Parthians. In spite of the strengthening of
the military position of Rome on the Euphrates, or even perhaps in
consequence of it--for to instil respect into a neighbour is a means
of preserving the peace--the state of peace remained essentially
undisturbed during the whole rule of the Flavians. If--as cannot be
surprising, especially when we consider the constant change of the
Parthian dynasts--collisions now and then occurred, and war-clouds
even made their appearance, they disappeared again as quickly.[44] The
emergence of a pseudo-Nero in the last years of Vespasian--he it was
who gave the impulse to the Revelation of John--might almost have led
to such a collision. The pretender, in reality a certain Terentius
Maximus from Asia Minor, but strikingly resembling the poet-emperor
in face, voice, and address, found not merely a conflux of adherents
in the Roman region of the Euphrates, but also support among the
Parthians. Among these at that time, as so often, several rulers seem
to have been in conflict with each other, and one of them, Artabanus,
because the emperor Titus declared against him, seems to have adopted
the cause of the Roman pretender. This, however, had no consequences;
on the contrary, soon afterwards the Parthian government delivered up
the pretender to the emperor Domitian.[45] The commercial intercourse,
advantageous for both parties between Syria and the lower Euphrates,
where just then king Vologasus called into existence the new emporium
Vologasias or Vologasocerta, not far from Ctesiphon, must have
contributed its part towards promoting the state of peace.
[Sidenote: The Parthian war of Trajan.]
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