[36] The statement of Corbulo that Paetus bound himself on oath in presence of his soldiers and of the Parthian deputies to send no troops to Armenia till the arrival of Nero’s answer, is declared by Tacitus, Ann. xv. 16, unworthy of credit; it is in keeping with the state of the case, and nothing was done to the contrary.
[37] As, according to Tacitus, Ann. xv. 25 (comp. Dio, lxii. 22), Nero dismissed graciously the envoys of Vologasus, and allowed them to see the possibility of an understanding if Tiridates appeared in person, Corbulo may in this case have acted according to his instructions; but this was rather perhaps one of the turns added in the interest of Corbulo. That these events were brought under discussion in the trial to which he was subjected some years after, is probable from the statement that one of the officers of the Armenian campaign became his accuser. The identity of the cohort-prefect, Arrius Varus, in Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 9, and of the primipilus, Hist. iii. 6, has been without reason disputed; comp. on C. I. L. v. 867.
[38] In Ziata (Charput) there have been found two inscriptions of a fort, which one of the legions led by Corbulo over the Euphrates, the 3d Gallica, constructed there by Corbulo’s orders in the year 64 (Eph. epigr. v. p. 25).
[39] Nero intended inter reliqua bella, an Ethiopian one (Plin. vi. 29, comp. 184). To this the sending of troops to Alexandria (Tacitus, Hist. i. 31, 70) had reference.
[40] As the aim of the expedition both Tacitus, Hist. i. 6, and Suetonius, Ner. 19, indicate the Caspian gates, i.e. the pass of the Caucasus between Tiflis and Vladi-Kavkas at Darial, which, according to the legend, Alexander closed with iron gates (Plin. H. N. vi. 11, 30; Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 7, 4; Procopius, Pers. i. 10). Both from this locality and from the whole scheme of the expedition it cannot possibly have been directed against the Albani on the western shore of the Caspian Sea; here, as well as at another passage (Ann. ii. 68, ad Armenios, inde Albanos Heniochosque), only the Alani can be meant, who in Josephus, l.c. and elsewhere appear just at this spot and are frequently confounded with the Caucasian Albani. No doubt the account of Josephus is also confused. If here the Albani, with consent of the king of the Hyrcanians, invade Media and then Armenia through the Caspian gates, the writer has been thinking of the other Caspian gate eastward from Rhagae; but this must be his mistake, since the latter pass, situated in the heart of the Parthian kingdom, cannot possibly have been the aim of the Neronian expedition, and the Alani had their seats not on the eastern shore of the Caspian but to the north of the Caucasus. On account of this expedition the best of the Roman legions, the 14th, was recalled from Britain, although it went only as far as Pannonia (Tacitus, Hist. ii. 11, comp. 27, 66), and a new legion, the 1st Italic, was formed by Nero (Suetonius, Ner. 19). One sees from this what was the scale on which the project was conceived.
[41] In what connection he refused to Vespasian the title of emperor (Dio, lxvi. 11) is not clear; possibly immediately after his insurrection, before he had perceived that the Flavians were the stronger. His intercession for the princes of Commagene (Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 7, 3) was attended by success, and so was purely personal, by no means a protest against the conversion of the kingdom into a province.
[42] The four Syrian legions were the 3d Gallica, the 6th ferrata (both hitherto in Syria), the 4th Scythica (hitherto in Moesia, but having already taken part in the Parthian as in the Jewish war), and the 16th Flavia (new). The one legion of Palestine was the 10th fretensis (hitherto in Syria). The two of Cappadocia were the 12th fulminata (hitherto in Syria, moved by Titus to Melitene, Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 1, 3), and the 15th Apollinaris (hitherto in Pannonia, but having taken part, like the 4th Scythica, in the Parthian as in the Jewish war). The garrisons were thus changed as little as possible, only two of the legions already called earlier to Syria received fixed stations there, and one newly instituted was moved thither.—After the Jewish war under Hadrian the 6th ferrata was despatched from Syria to Palestine.
[43] At this time (comp. C. I. L. v. 6988), probably falls also the Cappadocian governorship of C. Rutilius Gallicus, of which it is said (Statius, i. 4, 78): hunc ... timuit ... Armenia et patiens Latii iam pontis Araxes, with reference presumably to a bridge-structure executed by this Roman garrison. That Gallicus served under Corbulo, is from the silence of Tacitus not probable.
[44] That war threatened to break out under Vespasian in the year 75 on the Euphrates, while M. Ulpius Trajanus, the father of the emperor, was governor of Syria, is stated by Pliny in his panegyric on the son, c. 14, probably with strong exaggeration; the cause is unknown.
[45] There are coins dated, and provided with the individual names of the kings, of (V)ologasus from the years 389 and 390 = 77–78; of Pacorus from the years 389–394 = 77–82 (and again 404–407 = 92–95); of Artabanus from the year 392 = 80–1. The corresponding historical dates are lost, with the exception of the notice connecting Titus and Artabanus in Zonaras, xi. 18 (comp. Suetonius, Ner. 57; Tacitus, Hist. i. 2), but the coins point to an epoch of rapid changes on the throne, and, apparently, of simultaneous coinage by rival pretenders.