the troops of Orodes retook Seleucia under the leadership of his very able commander in chief,[1] who was the first to mount the walls. Babylon capitulated as the result of a famine caused by the long siege. Mithradates then voluntarily surrendered to Orodes, who considered him more enemy than brother and ordered him killed before his eyes.[2] Orodes apparently seized the entire issue of coins struck at Seleucia by Mithradates and restruck them with a design which shows Seleucia kneeling in submission while Orodes stretches out his right hand to assist her to rise.[3] By the execution of Mithradates late in 55 b.c.[4] Orodes was left sole ruler of the Parthians.
While this struggle between the two brothers was in progress, M. Licinius Crassus, then over sixty years of age,[5] was appointed to the Syrian command.[6]
- ↑ Plut. Crassus 21.
- ↑ Justin xlii. 4. 4.
- ↑ Allotte de la Fuÿe, "Monnaies arsacides de la collection Petrowicz," Rev. num., 1905, pp. 155 f.; H. Dressel, "Ein Tetradrachmon des Arsakiden Mithradates III," Zeitschrift für Numismatik, XXXIII (1922), 156–77. The coins assigned by Wroth, Parthia, pp. 56–60, to an "unknown king" are now generally given to Mithradates III, and those assigned to Mithradates III, pp. 61–67, to Orodes II. See also McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, p. 213 and n. 29.
- ↑ Dio Cass. xl. 12; Crassus heard that Orodes was but lately established on the throne.
- ↑ Plut. Crassus 17.
- ↑ The following is a partial bibliography on the campaign of Crassus. Primary sources: Ampelius 31; Appian Bell. civ. ii. 18; Caesar Bell. civ. iii. 31; Cicero De div. ii. 22; Dio Cass. xl. 12–27; Eutrop. Brev. vi. 18; Florus i. 46; Hegesippus Historia i. 21; Josephus Bell. i. 179–80 and Ant.
