His dislike of the hunt and of traditional feasts, his free and open manners, his failure to show interest in horses—all these things caused the nationalists to call in another Arsacid, Artabanus III. He was king of Atropatene, but had connections on one side of his family with the Dahae.[1] On his first attempt to secure the throne, in a.d. 9/10, Artabanus was badly defeated and forced to retreat to the mountain fastnesses of his own kingdom. Vonones hastened to restrike the old tetradrachms of Musa and Phraataces with a design symbolic of his success, a winged Victory bearing a palm branch, and then to strike drachms in a similar style with the legend ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ ΟΝΟƜΝΗϹ ΝΕΙΚΗϹΑϹ ΑΡΤΑΒΑΝΟΝ.[2] But his triumph was short-lived, for Artabanus collected a second army and returned to the attack. This time Vonones was defeated and forced to flee to Seleucia on the Tigris. Artabanus followed, and many of his opponents were slain. The victor entered Ctesiphon and was proclaimed king about a.d. 12.[3] Vonones escaped from Seleucia to Armenia, which was then without a king, for Artavasdes III had been murdered
- ↑ Tac. Ann. ii. 3 and vi. 36 and 42; Josephus Ant. xviii. 48. See also PW, art. "Hyrkania," cols. 507 f., and Werner Schur, Die Orientpolitik des Kaisers Nero (Klio, Beiheft XV [1923]), pp. 70 ff. Vonones' existing coins are dated a.d. 9/10, 11/12, and 12/13; see McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, p. 187.
- ↑ Wroth, Parthia, pp. xliii and 143 f.
- ↑ Josephus Ant. xviii. 48–50; McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, p. 187. This Artabanus is probably the same one mentioned by Mar Mari in Acta martyrum et sanctorum, I, 79, § 8.
