Fighting now broke out in earnest. Corbulo retained command of one division of the Roman forces while Cornelius Flaccus, a legate, took charge of the second, and Insteius Capito, camp prefect, of the third. Volandum, the strongest of the forts, fell by assault on the first day. All the male citizens were put to the sword and the noncombatants sold to the victorious forces. Punitive expeditions which the Roman commander sent out had little trouble in re ducing other strongholds. Such easy success induced him to set out to Artaxata with the intention of laying siege to it also. Tiridates had insufficient forces to withstand an attack for any length of time and therefore attempted to induce the Romans to break their formations and thus lay themselves open to attack by his cavalry. Because of their discipline and training under Corbulo the ranks stood firm and the ruse failed. Tiridates, determined not to risk an open battle, fled in the night, probably to take refuge with Vologases. Artaxata surrendered without a struggle.[1] The lives of the inhabitants were spared, but the walls were pulled down and the city burned.[2] Rome celebrated the victory by erecting statues and triumphal arches and creating new holidays.
- ↑ Dio Cass. lxii. 19–20; Tac. Ann. xiii. 39–41.
- ↑ Tac. Ann. xiii. 41. 3. This was probably the end of the campaign season, and, as suggested by Furneaux in his ed. of the Annals, II, 114, n. 2, the city may not have been destroyed until after the army had wintered there. Such compression of chronology would be typical of Tacitus' account of eastern affairs.
