TRAJAN IN ARMENIA AND MESOPOTAMIA
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this picture in view, it is not difficult to understand why the Roman forces met with little opposition.[1]
After his visit to Edessa, Trajan passed westward to Antioch, where he spent the winter of 114/15. For his exploits, particularly the taking of Nisibis and Batnae, Trajan was awarded the title of "Parthicus," but this was not confirmed until after the capture of the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon.[2] Coins with the legend ARMENIA ET MESOPOTAMIA IN POTESTATEM P. R. REDACTAE commemorate the formation of the two provinces.[3] At Antioch, early in 115,[4] the emperor had a narrow escape during the terrible earthquake which destroyed a large part of the city. While the shocks rocked the city and towering Mount
- ↑ The numismatic evidence confirms the conclusion reached on the basis of other sources by Longden, "Parthian Campaigns of Trajan," JRS, XXI (1931), 12, that Parthia was in a chaotic state.
- ↑ Dio Cass. lxviii. 28; Longden, op. cit., pp. 5 f.; cf. Strack, Untersuch. zur röm. Reichsprägung., I, 36–42. A. von Domaszewski, "Die politische Bedeutung des Traiansbogens in Benevent," Jahreshefte des Österreichischen archäologischen Institutes in Wien, II (1899), 185 ff., thinks the conquest of Mesopotamia shows on the Beneventum arch; but E. Groag, "Die Adoption Hadrians," Mitt. des Kaiserlich Deutschen archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung, XIV (1899), 273 f., objects, since he believes the arch was not finished until the time of Hadrian.
- ↑ Mattingly and Sydenham, Rom. Imp. Coin., II, 289, No. 642; cf. also ibid., p. 270, No. 375; Strack, Untersuch. zur röm. Reichsprägung, I, 223; Eutrop. Brev. viii. 3; Malalas xi (ed. Dindorf, p. 274).
- ↑ Upon this very uncertain date hangs the chronology of the succeeding years; nearly all the works mentioned take up this question. The system here followed is that of Longden, "Parthian Campaigns of Trajan," JRS, XXI (1931), 2–7, which seems to agree consistently with the new material from Dura-Europus and Seleucia.
