to explain matters and to request the return of his brothers. The Roman reply was addressed baldly to "Phraataces" and directed that he lay aside the title of king and withdraw from Armenia.[1] The Parthian answered with equal rudeness. Alarmed by the turn affairs had taken, Tigranes of Armenia attempted to make peace with Augustus and was sent to Gaius with a promise of favorable action. Not long after this Tigranes died fighting some barbarians, perhaps on the northern frontier, and Erato abdicated.
When Gaius reached the Euphrates, Phraataces, now thoroughly aroused by active intervention on the part of Rome, held an interview with him on an island, while the armies were drawn up on opposite banks. Later the two dined, first on the Roman side and then on the Parthian, pledging their good faith thus in typical eastern fashion. One of the officers, Velleius Paterculus, a youthful tribune with Gaius, aptly describes Phraataces as an excellent youth.[2] The terms arranged appear to have favored the Romans, for it was agreed that the Parthians should drop all claim to Armenia and that the four Parthian princes should stay in Rome.[3]
In a.d. 2 Phraataces and Musa his mother were
- ↑ Dio Cass. lv. 10. 20.
- ↑ Vell. Pat. ii. 101. 1.
- ↑ Cf. the passage from Antipater of Thessalonica urging Gaius on to the Euphrates, Anthol. Palat. ix. 297, and the mentions of Armenia and the Araxes in Crinagoras ibid. 430. See also Suet. Nero 5. 1 and Tiberius 12. 2; Plut. Reg. imp. apophtheg. 207. 10.
