CHAPTER VII
THE CONTEST FOR THE EUPHRATES
THE standards and captives taken from the armies of Crassus and Antony had been returned to Rome; faced with discord within her own domains, Parthia yielded them without a struggle. Shortly after their surrender in 20 b.c., Augustus sent as a present to Phraates, the Parthian king, an Italian slave girl named Musa.[1] Whether she was placed in a strategic position as a source of information or with the hope that she might influence the king, we have no means of knowing. By Musa Phraates had a son, also named Phraates[2] (V), better known by the diminutive Phraataces. After the birth of this male heir to the throne, the status of Musa was raised from that of concubine to queen.
When about 10 b.c. Phraataces attained sufficient age to become a candidate for the succession to the throne, Musa persuaded her husband to send his older children to Rome and thus to leave the field clear for her own son. Phraates invited M. Titius,[3]
- ↑ The son of Musa was old enough to rule Parthia in 2 b.c.; cf. p. 147.
- ↑ He is probably the Aphrahat the son of Aphrahat who ruled over Seleucia and Ctesiphon of Beth Aramaya according to Mar Mari in Acta martyrum et sanctorum, ed. Paul Bedjan (Paris, 1890–97), I, 68, § 7.
- ↑ PW, art. "Syria," col. 1629. Titius was governor from 10 to 9 b.c.
143
