cial
value.

It must have been soon after he received back his daughter that Chosroes
died. His latest coins bear a date equivalent to A.D. 128; and the Roman
historians give Volagases II. as king of Parthia in A.D. 133. It
has been generally supposed that this prince was Chosroes' son, and
succeeded him in the natural course; but the evidence of the Parthian
coins is strong against these suppositions. According to them, Volagases
had been a pretender to the Parthian throne as early as A.D. 78, and had
struck coins both in that year and the following one, about the date of
the accession of Pacorus. His attempt had, however, at that time failed,
and for forty-one years he kept his pretensions in abeyance; but about
A.D. 119 or 120 he appears to have again come forward, and to have
disputed the crown with Chosroes, or reigned contemporaneously with
him over some portion of the Parthian kingdom, till about A.D. 130,
when--probably on the death of Chosroes--he was acknowledged as sole
king by the entire nation. Such is the evidence of the coins, which in
this case are very peculiar, and bear the name of Volagases from first
to last. It seems to follow from them that Chosroes was succeeded, not
by a son, but by a rival, an old claimant of the crown, who cannot have
been much younger than Chosroes himself.

CHAPTER XIX.

_Reign of Volagases II. Invasion of the Alani. Communications between
Volagases and Antoninus Pius. Death of Volagases II. and Accession of
Volagases III. Aggressive War of Volagases III. on Rome. Campaign of
A.D. 162. Verus sent to the East. Sequel of the War. Losses suffered by
Parthia. Death of Volagases III._

Volagases II. appears to have occupied the Parthian throne, after the
death of Chosroes, for the space of nineteen years. His reign has a
general character of tranquillity, which agrees well with the advanced
period of life at which, according to the coins, he first became
actual king of Parthia. It was disturbed by only one actual outbreak of
hostilities, an occasion upon which Volagases stood upon the defensive;
and on one other occasion was for a brief period threatened with
disturbance. Otherwise it seems to have been wholly peaceful. So far
as appears, no pretenders troubled it. The coins show, for the years
between A.D. 130 and A.D. 149, the head of but one monarch, a head of a
marked type, which is impossible to be mistaken. [PLATE III., Fig. 4.]

The occasion upon which actua