[56] This is confirmed not only by Arrian, Peripl. c. 7, but by the officer of Hadrian’s time praepositus numerorum tendentium in Ponto Absaro (C. I. L. x. 1202).
[57] Comp. p. 75 note 2. The detachment probably of 1000 men (because under a tribune) doing garrison duty in the year 185 in Valarshapat (Etshmiazin) not far from Artaxata, belonged to one of the Cappadocian legions (C. I. L. iii. 6052).
[58] Hadrian’s efforts after the friendship of the Oriental vassal-princes are often brought into prominence, not without a hint that he was more than fairly indulgent to them (vita, c. 13, 17, 21). Pharasmanes of Iberia did not come to Rome on his invitation, but complied with that of Pius (vita Hadr. 13, 21; vita Pii, 9; Dio, lxix. 15, 2, which excerpt belongs to Pius).
[59] We still possess the remarkable report of the governor of Cappadocia under Hadrian, Flavius Arrianus, upon the mobilising of the Cappadocian army against the “Scythians” among his minor writings; he was himself at the Caucasus and visited the passes there (Lydus, de Mag. iii. 53).
[60] This we learn from the fragments of Dio’s account in Xiphilinus, Zonaras, and in the Excerpts; Zonaras has preserved the correct reading Ἀλανοί instead of Ἀλβανοί; that the Alani pillaged also the territory of the Albani, is shown by the setting of the exc. Ursin. lxxii.
[61] So he is named in Lucian, Hist. conscr. 21; if the same calls him (Alex. 27) Othryades, he is drawing here from a historian of the stamp of those whom he ridicules in that treatise, and of whom another Hellenised the same man as Oxyroes (Hist. conscr. c. 18).
[62] Syria was administered when the war broke out by L. Attidius Cornelianus (C. I. Gr. 4661 of the year 160; vita Marci, 8; C. I. L. iii. 129 of the year 162), after him by Julius Verus (C. I. L. iii. 199, probably of the year 163) and then by Avidius Cassius presumably from the year 164. The statement that the other provinces of the East were assigned to Cassius’s command (Philostratus, vit. Soph. i. 13; Dio, lxxi. 3), similarly to what was done to Corbulo as legate of Cappadocia, can only relate to the time after the departure of the emperor Verus; so long as the latter held the nominal chief command there was no room for it.
[63] A fragment probably of Dio (in Suidas s. v. Μάρτιος), tells that Priscus in Armenia laid out the Καινὴ πόλις and furnished it with a Roman garrison, his successor Martius Verus silenced the national movement that had arisen there, and declared this city the first of Armenia. This was Valarshapat (Οὐαλαρσαπάτ or Οὐαλεροκτίστη in Agathangelos), thenceforth the capital of Armenia. Καινὴ πόλις was, as Kiepert informs me, already recognised by Stilting as translation of the Armenian Nôr-Khalakh, which second name Valarshapat constantly bears in Armenian authors of the fifth century alongside of the usual one. Moses of Chorene, following Bardesanes, makes the town originate from a Jewish colony brought thither under king Tigranes VI., who according to him reigned 150–188; he refers the enclosing of it with walls and the naming of it to his son Valarsch II. 188–208. That the town had a strong Roman garrison in 185 is shown by the inscription C. I. L. iii. 6052.
[64] That Sohaemus was Achaemenid and Arsacid (or professed to be) and king’s son and king, as well as Roman senator and consul, before he became king of Great Armenia, is stated by his contemporary Jamblichus (c. 10 of the extract in Photius). Probably he belonged to the dynastic family of Hemesa (Josephus, Arch. xx. 8, 4, et al.) If Jamblichus the Babylonian wrote “under him,” this can doubtless only be understood to the effect that he composed his romance in Artaxata. That Sohaemus ruled over Armenia before Pacorus is nowhere stated, and is not probable, since neither Fronto’s words (p. 127 Naber), quod Sohaemo potius quam Vologaeso regnum Armeniae dedisset aut quod Pacorum regno privasset, or those of the fragment from Dio (?) lxxi. 1: Μάρτιος Οὐῆρος τὸν Θουκυδίδην ἐκπέμπει καταγαγεῖν Σόαιμον ἐς Ἀρμενίαν point to reinstatement, and the coins with rex Armeniis datus (Eckhel, vii. 91, comp. vita Veri, 7, 8) in fact exclude it. We do not know the predecessor of Pacorus, and are not even aware whether the throne which he took possession of was vacant or occupied.
[65] This is shown by the Mesopotamian royal and urban coins. There are no accounts in our tradition as to the conditions of peace.