of the most forward of the advancing tribes. But fortune,
unhappily, was adverse. How the battle was progressing we are not told;
but it appears that in the thick of an engagement Artabanus received
a wound in the forearm, from the effects of which he died almost
immediately. The death of the leader decides in the East, almost to a
certainty, the issue of a contest. We cannot doubt that the Parthians,
having lost their monarch, were repulsed; that the expedition failed;
and that the situation of affairs became once more at least as
threatening as it had been before Artabanus made his attempt. Two
Parthian monarchs had now fallen within the space of a few years in
combat with the aggressive Scyths--two Parthian armies had suffered
defeat. Was this to be always so? If it was, then Parthia had only to
make up her mind to fall, and, like the great Roman, to let it be her
care that she should fall grandly and with dignity.

CHAPTER IX.

_Accession of Mithridates II. Termination of the Scythic Wars.
Commencement of the struggle with Armenia. Previous history of Armenia.
Result of the first Armenian War. First contact of Rome with Parthia.
Attitude of Rome towards the East at this time. Second Armenian War.
Death of Mithridates._

On the death of Artabanus II., about B.C. 124, his son, Mithridates II.,
was proclaimed king. Of this monarch, whose achievements (according to
Justin) procured him the epithet of "the Great," the accounts which have
come down to us are extremely scanty and unsatisfactory. Justin, who is
our principal informant on the subject of the early Parthian history,
has unfortunately confounded him with the third monarch of the name, who
ascended the throne more than sixty years later, and has left us
only the slightest and most meagre outline of his actions. The other
classical writers, only to a very small extent, supplement Justin's
narrative; and the result is that of a reign which was one of the most
important in the early Parthian series, the historical inquirer at the
present day can form but a most incomplete conception.

It appears, however, from the account of Justin, and from such other
notices as have reached us of the condition of things at this time in
the regions lying east of the Caspian, that Mithridates was entirely
successful where his father and his cousin had signally failed. He
gained a number of victories over the Scythic hordes; and effectually
checked their direct progres