This trip of Tiridates affords us glimpses of Zoroastrianism which unite with other scraps of evidence to show that in the second half of the first century after Christ a wave of oriental reaction was taking place. On the coins of the contemporary Parthian king Vologases I the altar appears for the first time in the history of Arsacid numismatics,[1] and the figure of a man making an offering before a similar object is frequent.[2] Under this same ruler all of the scattered remains of the manuscript or oral traditions of the Avesta were ordered collected.[3] For the first time Pahlavi appears on the coins in addition to the traditional Greek, which has by now become hopelessly corrupt.[4]
The period of peace which followed the temporary settlement of the Armenian question is responsible for a dearth of information on Parthia. There is even considerable doubt as to the length of the reign of Vologases I; it probably extended to 79/80.[5] Military preparations on a large scale were made by Rome in the years 66 and 67: a new legion, the I Italica, was created;[6] and one of the crack legions, the XIV Gemina (Martia Victrix), was started on the journey to the eastern front.[7] At the time of his
- ↑ Wroth, Parthia, Pl. XXIX 11 f.
- ↑ Ibid., Pl. XXIX 8–10.
- ↑ Zend-Avesta. I. Vendidad, tr. by Darmesteter, pp. xxxviii–xli.
- ↑ Wroth, Parthia, pp. 182 f.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. xlix f.; McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, p. 192.
- ↑ Suet. Nero 19; Dio Cass. lv. 24. 2.
- ↑ Tac. Hist. ii. 11, 27, 66; W. Schur, Die Orientpolitik des Kaisers Nero (Klio, Beiheft XV [1923]), pp. 107 ff.
