Euphrates, said to have been made at the insistence of his staff.[1]
That stern disciplinarian Avidius Cassius,[2] a native Syrian, was given command of the army and the task of whipping the legions into fighting shape. Early in 163 Statius Priscus took the offensive and advanced into Armenia. He seized the capital, Artaxata,[3] and, although he did not destroy it,[4] he founded a "new city" (Caenepolis, later Valarshapat; Armenian, Nor Khalakh) not far away. The ruler of Armenia who was thus deposed appears to have been Aurelius Pacorus,[5] whose name proves that he had been given Roman citizenship by M. Aurelius. The new Roman appointee was one Sohaemus,[6] whose enthronement was signalized by a new inscription on the coins of Verus, REX ARMEN. DAT.[7]
At least one year elapsed between Priscus' advance into Armenia and the time when Cassius began a
- ↑ Capit. Verus 7. 6.
- ↑ PW, art. "Avidius," No. 1.
- ↑ Capit. Marcus Antoninus 9. 1 and Verus 7. 1; Lucian Quomodo hist. 20.
- ↑ As the evidence presented by F. Cumont, Fouilles de Doura-Europos (Paris, 1926), p. 334 and notes, shows.
- ↑ CIG, III, No. 6559; Asin. Quad. fr. 9 (J, II A, p. 449); Fronto Epist. ii. 1 (Loeb, II, p. 144).
- ↑ Some Roman candidate would certainly be placed upon the throne shortly after the capture of Artaxata, and the reference in Fronto Epist. ii. 1 (Loeb, II, p. 144), written at the end of the Armenian campaign, clearly belongs about this time. Cf. PW, art. "Sohaemus," No. 5.
- ↑ Mattingly and Sydenham, Rom. Imp. Coin, III, 255, Nos. 511–13.
