The army moved westward and occupied Edessa. As Trajan approached this city Abgarus VII, its ruler, mindful of his previous failure to appear, sent his handsome young son, Arbandes, to meet the Emperor. Trajan chided the young man for his tardy arrival to share the labors of the campaign, to which Arbandes replied that he would have come before but for the Parthians, whom he feared. With the way thus paved by this agreeable emissary, Abgarus appeared before his city with a gift of two hundred and fifty horses and mailed horsemen, coats of mail, horses, and sixty thousand arrows. He also informed the Emperor that he would surrender claim to his land, even though he had purchased it at great price from Pacorus (cf. p. 217). Trajan took three coats of mail and returned the remainder. Abgarus was confirmed in his position as phylarch, though apparently there was a faction in Edessa which objected.[1]
Manisarus, perhaps a rebel Parthian vassal, against whom Osroes was conducting a campaign,[2] sent an embassy to seek peace from Trajan. Manisarus was ready to withdraw from those parts of Mesopotamia and Armenia which he had taken, but Trajan refused to treat with him until he came in person to make his promises good.[3] Sporaces, phylarch of Anthemusia, the district between Carrhae and Apamea on the
