annals, were such as naturally tended towards civil strife,
and as were apt to produce in Parthia internal difficulties, if not
disorders or commotions. Phraataces soon found that he would have a hard
task to establish his rule. The nobles objected to him, not only for the
murder of his father, but his descent from an Italian concubine, and the
incestuous commerce which he was supposed to maintain with her. They had
perhaps grounds for this last charge. At any rate Phraataces provoked
suspicion by the singular favors and honors which he granted to a woman
whose origin was mean and extraction foreign. Not content with private
marks of esteem and love, he departed from the practice of all former
Parthian sovereigns in placing her effigy upon his coins; and he
accompanied this act with fulsome and absurd titles. Musa was styled,
not merely "Queen," but "Heavenly Goddess," as if the realities of slave
origin and concubinage could be covered by the fiction of an apotheosis.
It is not surprising that the proud Parthian nobles were offended by
these proceedings, and determined to rid themselves of a monarch whom
they at once hated and despised. Within a few years of his obtaining
the throne an insurrection broke out against his authority; and after a
brief struggle he was deprived of his crown and put to death. The nobles
then elected an Arsacid, named Orodes, whose residence at the time and
relationship to the former monarchs are uncertain. It seems probable
that, like most princes of the blood royal, he had taken refuge in a
foreign country from the suspicions and dangers that beset all
possible pretenders to the royal dignity in Parthia, and was living in
retirement, unexpectant of any such offer, when a deputation of Parthian
nobles arrived and brought him the intelligence of his election.
It might have been expected that, obtaining the crown under these
circumstances, he would have ruled well; but, according to Josephus (who
is here, unfortunately, our sole authority), he very soon displayed so
much violence and cruelty of disposition that his rule was felt to be
intolerable; and the Parthians, again breaking into insurrection, rid
themselves of him, killing him either at a banquet or on a hunting
excursion. This done, they sent to Rome, and requested Augustus to allow
Vonones, the eldest son of Phraates IV., to return to Parthia in order
that he might receive his father's kingdom. The Emperor complied
readily enough, since