cupying the country. Tiberius desired to have the struggle formally ended and instructed Vitellius to that effect late in a.d. 36. Artabanus expressed his willingness and met the Roman commander on a bridge of boats across the Euphrates. Each was escorted by a guard. We do not know the terms agreed upon, but not long afterward Artabanus' son Darius was sent to Rome to live.[1] Negotiations completed, Herod Antipas, the Jewish tetrarch and a Roman ally, invited both leaders to a rich feast in a tent erected on the bridge. Among other objects, Josephus says that the Parthians presented the Romans with a Jewish giant some seven cubits in height! After the banquet Vitellius went to Antioch and Artabanus to "Babylon."[2]
Struggle after struggle between contenders for the throne for over half a century had reduced Parthia to a state of anarchy, and the good effects of the strong rule of Artabanus had been largely negated by his contest with Tiridates. This situation is clearly reflected in the coinage, for from the beginning of the Christian era until about a.d. 40 there are frequent intervals for which no royal coins are known. The kings were either not in possession of the mint cities
- ↑ Josephus Ant. xviii. 101–3. Cf. Dio Cass. lix. 17. 5 and 27. 2 f.; Suet. Vitellius 1. 4 and Gaius 19; all of these either place this incident in the reign of Gaius or leave the question unsettled. See Eugen Taubler, Die Parthernachrichten bei Josephus (Berlin, 1904), pp. 33–39.
- ↑ Josephus Ant. xviii. 103 f. This is probably an early case of confusion between Babylon and Seleucia.
