e was admirably adapted for the
national defence on the broad plains of inner Asia, it was ill
suited for conquest, and, comparatively speaking, ineffective in more
contracted and difficult regions. The Parthian military system had not
the elasticity of the Roman--it did not in the same way adapt itself to
circumstances, or admit of the addition of new arms, or the indefinite
expansion of an old one. However loose and seemingly flexible, it
was rigid in its uniformity; it never altered; it remained under the
thirtieth Arsaces such as it had been under the first, improved in
details, perhaps, but essentially the same system. The Romans, on
the contrary, were ever modifying their system, ever learning new
combinations or new manoeuvres or new modes of warfare from their
enemies. They met the Parthian tactics of loose array, continuous
distant missiles, and almost exclusive employment of cavalry, with
an increase in the number of their own horse, a larger employment of
auxiliary irregulars, and a greater use of the sling. At the same time
they learnt to take full advantage of the Parthian inefficiency against
walls, and to practice against them the arts of pretended retreat and
ambush. The result was, that Parthia found she could make no impression
upon the dominions of Rome, and, having become persuaded of this by the
experience of a decade of years, thenceforth laid aside for ever the
idea of attempting Western conquests. She took up, in fact, from this
time, a new attitude, Hitherto she had been consistently aggressive. She
had labored constantly to extend herself at the expense successively of
the Bactrians, the Scythians, the Syro-Macedonians, and the Armenians.
She had proceeded from one aggression to another, leaving only short
intervals between her wars, and had always been looking out for some
fresh enemy. Henceforth she became, comparatively speaking, pacific. She
was content for the most part, to maintain her limits. She sought no
new foe. Her contest with Rome degenerated into a struggle for influence
over the kingdom of Armenia; and her hopes were limited to the reduction
of that kingdom into a subject position.

The death of Pacorus is said to have caused Orodes intense grief. For
many days he would neither eat nor speak; then his sorrow took another
turn. He imagined that his son had returned; he thought continually that
he heard or saw him; he could do nothing but repeat his name. Every now
and then, howeve