crossing. This victory Vardanes followed up with other successes until he was master of all the territory to the river Sindes, which separated the Dahae from the people of Aria.[1] There the troops refused to advance farther, and a monument was erected.
About the end of 45 the conflict between the brothers broke out again, and from 46/47 to 47/48 they were engaged in a struggle which terminated with the death of Vardanes. He was assassinated by the nobles, probably at the instigation of Gotarzes, while engaged in the national sport of the chase.[2] With the death of Vardanes, a thoroughly native king, the only hope of Gotarzes' opponents lay in appeal to Rome.
From this period onward the dates given in this volume are calculated on the basis of a readjustment in the calendar which took place between the years a.d. 16/17 and 46/47, almost certainly in the latter year. The 19-year cycle of intercalation introduced in 747 b.c. had been employed without change since 367 b.c. The calendar year was again brought into conformity with the solar year by the insertion of a full month so that henceforth the Macedonian month Xandicus instead of Artemisius corresponds to the Babylonian Nisan, the beginning of the year.[3]
- ↑ Tac. Ann. xi. 10. 3.
- ↑ McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, p. 190. Vardanes' coins stop in the fourth month of 45/46, but this proves only that Vardanes no longer held Seleucia. Furthermore, coins of 46/47 and 47/48 bear the personal name of Gotarzes and thus prove that he had a rival, who was most probably Vardanes.
- ↑ McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, pp. 151–53; cf. J. Johnson, Dura Studies (Roma, 1931), pp. 1–15.
