of the two great rivals, Rome and Parthia, were not yet decided.
Hitherto Volagases, engaged in a contest with the Hyrcanians and with
other neighboring nations, whereto the flames of war had spread, had
found himself unable to take any personal part in the struggle in which
his brother and vassal had been engaged in the west. Now matters in
Hyrcania admitted of arrangement, and he was at liberty to give his
main attention to Armenian affairs. His presence in the West had become
absolutely necessary. Not only was Armenia lost to him, but it had been
made a centre from which his other provinces in this quarter might
be attacked and harassed. Tigranes, proud of his newly-won crown, and
anxious to show himself worthy of it, made constant incursions into
Adiabene, ravaging and harrying the fertile country far and wide.
Monobazus, unable to resist him in the field, was beginning to
contemplate the transfer of his allegiance to Rome, as the only means
of escaping from the evils of a perpetual border war. Tiridates,
discontented with the position whereto he found himself reduced, and
angry that his brother had not given him more effective support, was
loud in his complaints, and openly taxed Volagases with an inertness
that bordered on cowardice. Public opinion was inclined to accept and
approve the charge; and in Parthia public opinion could not be safely
contemned. Volagases found it necessary to win back his subjects'
good-will by calling a council of the nobility, and making them a formal
address: "Parthians," he said, "when I obtained the first place among
you by my brothers ceding their claims, I endeavored to substitute for
the old system of fraternal hatred and contention a new one of domestic
affection and agreement; my brother Pacorus received Media from my hands
at once; Tiridates, whom you see now before you, I inducted shortly
afterwards into the sovereignty of Armenia, a dignity reckoned the third
in the Parthian kingdom. Thus I put my family matters on a peaceful and
satisfactory footing. But these arrangements are now disturbed by the
Romans, who have never hitherto broken their treaties with us to their
profit, and who will now find that they have done so to their ruin. I
will not deny that hitherto I have preferred to maintain my right to the
territories, which have come to me from my ancestors, by fair dealing
rather than by shedding of blood--by negotiation rather than by arms;
if, however, I have erred in t