tactics. Instead of measuring his strength
against that which still remained to Artabanus, he resumed the weapon of
intrigue so dear to his master, and proceeded by a lavish expenditure of
money to excite disaffection once more among the Parthian nobles. This
time conspiracy was successful. The military disasters of the last two
years had alienated from Artabanus the affections of those whom his
previous cruelties had failed to disgust or alarm; and he found himself
without any armed force whereon he could rely, beyond a small body of
foreign guards which he maintained about his person. It seemed to him
that his only safety was in flight; and accordingly he quitted his
capital and removed himself hastily into Hyrcania, which was in the
immediate vicinity of the Scythian Dahse, among whom he had been brought
up. Here the natives were friendly to him, and he lived a retired life,"
waiting" (as he said) "until the Parthians, who could judge an absent
prince with equity, though they could not long continue faithful to a
present one, should repent of their behavior to him."

Upon learning the flight of Artabamis, Vitellius advanced to the banks
of the Euphrates, and introduced Tiridates into his kingdom. Fortunate
omens were said to have accompanied the passage of the river; and these
were followed by adhesions of greater importance. Ornospades, satrap of
Mesopotamia, was the first to join the standard of the pretender with
a large body of horse. He was followed by the conspirator Sinnaces,
his father Abdageses, the keeper of the king's treasures, and other
personages of high position. The Greek cities in Mesopotamia readily
opened their gates to a monarch long domiciled at Rome, from whom they
expected a politeness and refinement that would harmonize better with
their feelings than the manners of the late king, bred up among the
uncivilized Scyths. Parthian towns, like Halus and Artemita, followed
their example. Seleucia, the second city in the Empire, received the new
monarch with an obsequiousness that bordered on adulation. Not content
with paying him all customary royal honors, they appended to their
acclamations disparaging remarks upon his predecessor, whom they
affected to regard as the issue of an adulterous intrigue, and as no
true Arsacid. Tiridates was pleased to reward the unseemly flattery
of these degenerate Greeks by a new arrangement of their constitution.
Hitherto they had lived under the government of a Sen