menian throne and forced to flee to Syria. Such encroachment could scarcely be tolerated by the Romans, and about 166 another expedition began a march across Mesopotamia. Edessa was besieged, captured, and returned to its former ruler, Macnu VIII,[1] and the Parthian appointee, Waël, disappears. Next Nisibis, which had refused to ally itself with the Romans, was beset both by them and by the plague.[2] One of the Parthian commanders, Osroes, probably the same as the victor over Severianus, saved his life only by swimming the Tigris.[3] Perhaps it was this same expedition which pushed on far enough to the east to enable Verus to strike coins with the legend L. VERUS AUG. ARM. PARTH. MAX. MEDIC.[4]
In 168, or perhaps a few years later, when Martius Verus[5] was governor of Cappadocia, he sent his gen-
- ↑ A. von Gutschmid, "Untersuchungen über die Geschichte des Königreichs Osroëne, Mém. de l'Academie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, 7. sér., XXXV (1887), 29 and 49; Hill, Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia, p. xcvii; Lucian Quomodo hist. 22. Procopius De bello Persico ii. 12. 29 says the inhabitants revolted, murdered the Parthian garrison, and delivered the city to the Romans.
- ↑ Lucian Quomodo hist. 15. The reference to the plague dates the siege to about 166, if we place the fall of Seleucia in December, 165. Cf. CAH, XI, 347 f.
- ↑ Lucian Quomodo hist. 19.
- ↑ Mattingly and Sydenham, Rom. Imp. Coin., III, 328, No. 1455, struck between summer and December, 166; CIL, VIII, No. 965 = Dessau 365; Lucian Quomodo hist. 30; Capit. Verus 7. 2.
- ↑ CIL, III, p. 1991; CIL, XI, No. 1924 = Dessau 5503; PW, art. "Martius," No. 6; Lucius Verus to Fronto ii. 3 (Loeb, II, p. 194).
