d an enormous booty into their own country. Soon after this, Volagases
must have died. The coins of his successor commence in June, A.D. 78,
and thus he cannot have outlived by more than three years the irruption
of the Alani. If he died, as is most probable, in the spring of A.D. 78,
his reign would have covered the space of twenty-seven years. It was an
eventful one for Parthia. It brought the second period of struggle with
the Romans to an end by compromise which gave to Rome the shadow and
to Parthia the substance of victory. And it saw the first completed
disintegration of the Empire in the successful revolt of Hyrcania--an
event of evil portent. Volagases was undoubtedly a monarch of
considerable ability. He conducted with combined prudence and firmness
the several campaigns against Corbulo; he proved himself far superior
to Paetus; exposed to attacks in various quarters from many different
enemies, he repulsed all foreign invaders and, as against them,
maintained intact the ancient dominions of the Arsacidae. He practically
added Arminia to the Empire. Everywhere success attended him, except
against a domestic foe. Hyrcania seceded during his reign, and it may
be doubted whether Parthia ever afterwards recovered it. An example was
thus set of successful Arian revolt against the hitherto irresistible
Turanians, which may have tended in no slight degree to produce the
insurrection which eventually subverted the Parthian Empire.

The successor of Volagases I. was Pacorus, whom most writers on Parthian
history have regarded as his son. There is, however, no evidence of this
relationship; and the chief reason for regarding Pacorus as belonging
even to the same branch of the Arsacidse with Volagases I. is his youth
at his accession, indicated by the beardless head upon his early coins,
which is no doubt in favor of his having been a near relation of the
preceding king. PLATE III., Fig 1. The Parthian coins show that his
reign continued at least till A.D. 93; it may have lasted considerably
longer, for the earliest date on any coin of Chosroes is AEr. Seleuc.
421, or A.D. 110. The accession of Chosroes has been conjecturally
assigned to A.D. 108, which would allow to Pacorus the long reign of
thirty years. Of this interval it can only be said that, so far as our
knowledge goes, it was almost wholly uneventful. We know absolutely
nothing of this Pacorus except that he gave encouragement to a person
who pretended to be Ner