to the south through the Iron Gates of the Caucasus[1] and thence into Media Atropatene. Pacorus, brother of Vologases I, installed in that country at the accession of Vologases to the Parthian throne, was driven into some remote spot. His harem fell into the hands of the Alani, but he succeeded in ransoming his wife and concubines. The hordes continued their march westward and defeated Tiridates, king of Armenia, within the confines of his own country, where they nearly captured him with a lasso. Satiated with booty, they returned eastward.
In 75 Vologases appealed to Rome for aid against the Alani, but Vespasian did not send either Titus or Domitian as the Parthian monarch had requested.[2] There was a Roman force in at least one of the passes of the Caucasus,[3] and Vespasian aided Mithradates of Iberia to fortify his capital, Metskheta. While these precautions were ostensibly for the purpose of curbing the Alani, they might also have been directed
- ↑ There were Roman troops stationed here at one time, but possibly this was later, in 75; see Statius Silvae iv. 4. 61 ff.
- ↑ Suet. Domitian 2. 2; Dio Cass. lxv (lxvi. 15. 3).
- ↑ CIL, III, No. 6052, plus a minor correction by A. Aminraschwili quoted in Philol. Wochenschr., XLVIII (1928), col. 838. See also JA, 6. sér., XIII (1869), 93–103; C. de la Berge, Essai sur le règne de Trajan ("Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études," XXXII [Paris, 1877]), p. 163; Newton, Vesp. and Tit., pp. 19 f. The fact that almost every Roman campaign in Mesopotamia began with an expedition into Armenia disproves the belief of D. Magie, "Roman Policy in Armenia and Transcaucasia and Its Significance," Amer. Hist. Assoc., Annual Report for 1919, I (Washington, D.C., 1923), 300–303, that Roman interest in these regions was not military but commercial.
