In that year, at the insistence of Pharasmanes of Iberia, this tribe from the northeast invaded Albania, Media Atropatene, and finally Armenia and Cappadocia. Probably it was this invasion which is mentioned by Mšiḥa Zkha.[1] A hostile force, according to his account, was reported to have invaded Gorduene. Rakhbakht, governor of Adiabene, and the general "Arshak" (not the king) took command of the twenty thousand foot troops raised in Ctesiphon by Vologases and set out to the threatened area. There a chief named Kizo managed to trap the Parthians in a valley; they were saved only by the heroic efforts of Rakhbakht, who lost his life in the fighting. The Parthians were forced to withdraw, and the way into Mesopotamia was open to the invaders. But fortunate favored the Parthians, for at this critical juncture the homeland of the enemy was threatened by another people and they hastened eastward to repel the attack. Either the invaders of Gorduene or their own new foe or perhaps both of these groups must have been Alani. According to another account Vologases resorted to bribery in a vain attempt to stop their advance; but Flavianus Arrianus, the historian, who
- ↑ Pp. 6–10 (tr. pp. 81–86). On Mšiḥa Zkha, in addition to the Syriac text and French translation of Mingana, Sources Syriaques (Mosul, 1907), see also E. Sachau, Die Chronik von Arbela (APAW, 1915, No. 6) and F. Zorell, Chronica ecclesiae arbelensis … ("Orientalia christiana," VIII [Roma, 1927]); P. Peeters, "Le 'Passionnaire d'Adiabène,'" Analecta Bollandiana, XLIII (Bruxelles, 1925), 261–304; G. Messina, "La cronaca di Arbela," La civiltà cattolica, anno 83º (1932), III, 362–76.
