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POLITICAL HISTORY OF PARTHIA

dates II, by whom he was well treated.[1] This event, which took place in 87 b.c.,[2] is the last dated occurrence in the reign of Mithradates II, and we have evidence which suggests that he died soon thereafter. Mithradates had controlled Iran, including Kurdistan, and northern Mesopotamia,[3] while Gotarzes held sway in Babylonia.[4] Upon the death of his great opponent the personal name of Gotarzes was immediately dropped from the tablets, since there was no longer necessity for a distinction between contenders for the title, and he appears simply as Arsaces, king.[5]

Mithradates II had been a friend and ally of Tigranes of Armenia. On his death the latter felt free, not to say urged, to proceed against Gotarzes, who

  1. Josephus Ant. xiii. 384–86. Justin xlii. 4 is confused between Mithradates II and Mithradates III; Trog. Pomp. xlii was apparently not the source of error, since he places a number of kings between Mithradates and Orodes.
  2. The last coins of Demetrius are dated 88/87 b.c.; see Ernest Babelon, Les rois de Syrie, d'Arménie, et de Commagène (Paris, 1890), p. clxxii, and J. Eckhel, Doctrina numorum veterum, III (2d ed.; Vindobonae, 1828), 245.
  3. Note the Iranian characteristics of his drachms, Wroth, Parthia, Pl. VIII, on which Mithradates appears as an old man. Ms. Avroman I, dated 87 b.c., was found in Kurdistan. On Mesopotamia see p. 48.
  4. Tablets dated in the reign of "Arsaces who is called Gotarzes" continue until 87 b.c.; see Epping and Strassmaier in ZA, VI (1891), 222 and 226.
  5. Reisner, Hymnen, Nos. 27, 49, and 55; Epping and Strassmaier in ZA, V (1890), 355.