But the campaign was not fated to be a complete success, for while the troops were engaged in looting Seleucia one of the periodical epidemics, probably of smallpox,[1] swept over the armies. The situation became so acute that the Romans were forced to retreat and leave behind large quantities of booty.[2] Many soldiers died of disease and famine on the homeward road,[3] and the remainder carried the scourge into the Roman world, whence it spread rapidly westward until it reached the Rhine and Gaul.[4]
Our scanty sources on this campaign might be supplemented if we could place the numerous but scattered references in Lucian. We find, for example: "Arsaces was in the act of slaying his mistress, while the eunuch Arbaces drew his sword upon him; the guards were dragging Spatinus the Mede out from the banquet by the foot, with the lump on his brow from the golden cup."[5]
The Roman withdrawal must have been followed by a rapid Parthian advance over the invaded territory. Sohaemus was evidently driven from the Ar-
- ↑ Heinrich Haeser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten (3d ed.; Jena, 1875–82), III, 24–33. This plague is mentioned in Chinese records; see Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, p. 175. See also Amm. Marcel. xxiii. 6. 24; Capit. Verus 8. 2.
- ↑ Mšiḥa Zkha, p. 12 (tr. p. 88).
- ↑ Dio Cass. lxxi. 2. 4.
- ↑ Amm. Marcel. xxiii. 6. 23; Capit. Verus 8.
- ↑ Lucian Icaromenippus 15 (translation of H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler). Cf. also Lucian Menippus 10 and Tyrannus 6. Eusebius Chron. (ed. Karst, p. 222) mentions Vologases' attack and the triumph of Verus.
