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134
POLITICAL HISTORY OF PARTHIA

chains. The fact that Octavian had attempted to enlist the aid of Artavasdes[1] may have provoked Antony's action. The Armenians, who knew nothing of this intrigue, found in the seizure of their king a permanent grievance against Rome.[2]

Antony thereupon subdued the country with comparative ease and drove the king's eldest son, Artaxes, about whom the Armenians had rallied, out of the country to refuge with Phraates. After the region had been garrisoned, Antony went back to Egypt. The Armenian king and his wife and children and much booty were given as presents to Cleopatra. The king eventually graced a triumph and later was put to death.[3] Antony's son Alexander was made king of Armenia, Media, and Parthia—that is, from the Euphrates to India![4]

In 33 b.c. Antony again penetrated as far as the Araxes River, where he made a treaty with the Median king, an alliance against Octavian and the Parthians. Troops were exchanged, the Median king received a part of Armenia, and Antony secured Iotape, daughter of the ruler, for his son. The standards taken at the defeat of Statianus were also returned.

Not long afterward the Parthians together with

  1. Dio Cass. xlix. 41. 5, possibly also Vergil Georg. iv. 560.
  2. Tac. Ann. ii. 3.
  3. Plut. Antony 50 and Demetrius et Antonius 5; Josephus Bell. i. 363 and Ant. xv. 104 f.; Strabo xi. 14. 15.
  4. Plut. Antony 54. 4; Dio Cass. xlix. 41.