CHAPTER XI
THE DOWNFALL OF THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE
AT THE accession of the new emperor, Hadrian, in 117, Roman foreign policy underwent a definite change. Claims to the new provinces which Trajan had attempted to add were dropped, and the frontier was once more to be limited to the old Euphrates boundary.[1] Along with these changes went an increased respect for the ability of the provincial,[2] who began to take more and more part in the government, not only in the provinces but also in Rome itself.
To honor the activities of Trajan in the Orient, Hadrian established the Parthian Games, which were celebrated for many years.[3] Parthia herself was ap-
- ↑ Eutrop. Brev. viii. 6. 2; Spart. Hadrian 5. 3 and 9. 1. These provinces were only partially held, and even so under military control, for from one to three years at the most. Thus they should not be included on maps illustrating the greatest extent of the Roman Empire. A comparable situation would be the inclusion of Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine on a similar map of the Parthian empire.
- ↑ Cf. the changed attitude in Juvenal Sat. viii. 47 ff. from the scorn of i. 103 ff. and iii. 60 ff. The last is the famous passage on the Syrian Orontes flowing into the Tiber. The accession of Hadrian had taken place about the time book vii was written.
- ↑ Dio Cass. lxix. 2. 3; CIL, I, pp. 377 f., and II, No. 4110 = Dessau 2931. Coins which might indicate military operations by Hadrian against
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