her rights. The remarkable intercourse between
the Roman commander-in-chief and the Parthian satraps
of the region of Media and even of the distant province
Elymais (between Susiana, Media, and Persia, in the
modern Luristan) seemed a commentary on this speech.(20)
The viceroys of this latter mountainous, warlike,
and remote land had always exerted themselves to acquire
a position independent of the great-king; it was the
more offensive and menacing to the Parthian government,
when Pompeius accepted the proffered homage of this
dynast. Not less significant was the fact that
the title of “king of kings,” which had
been hitherto conceded to the Parthian king by the
Romans in official intercourse, was now all at once
exchanged by them for the simple title of king.
This was even more a threat than a violation of etiquette.
Since Rome had entered on the heritage of the Seleucids,
it seemed almost as if the Romans had a mind to revert
at a convenient moment to those old times, when all
Iran and Turan were ruled from Antioch, and there
was as yet no Parthian empire but merely a Parthian
satrapy. The court of Ctesiphon would thus have
had reason enough for going to war with Rome; it seemed
the prelude to its doing so, when in 690 it declared
war on Armenia on account of the question of the frontier.
But Phraates had not the courage to come to an open
rupture with the Romans at a time when the dreaded
general with his strong army was on the borders of
the Parthian empire. When Pompeius sent commissioners
to settle amicably the dispute between Parthia and
Armenia, Phraates yielded to the Roman mediation forced
upon him and acquiesced in their award, which assigned
to the Armenians Corduene and northern Mesopotamia.
Soon afterwards his daughter with her son and her
husband adorned the triumph of the Roman general.
Even the Parthians trembled before the superior power
of Rome; and, if they had not, like the inhabitants
of Pontus and Armenia, succumbed to the Roman arms,
the reason seemed only to be that they had not ventured
to stand the conflict.
Organization of the Provinces
There still devolved on the general the duty of regulating
the internal relations of the newly-acquired provinces
and of removing as far as possible the traces of a
thirteen years’ desolating war. The work
of organization begun in Asia Minor by Lucullus and
the commission associated with him, and in Crete by
Metellus, received its final conclusion from Pompeius.
The former province of Asia, which embraced Mysia,
Lydia, Phrygia, and Caria, was converted from a frontier
province into a central one. The newly-erected
provinces were, that of Bithynia and Pontus, which
was formed out of the whole former kingdom of Nicomedes
and the western half of the former Pontic state as
far as and beyond the Halys; that of Cilicia, which
indeed was older, but was now for the first time enlarged
and organized in a manner befitting its name, and
comprehended also Pamphylia and Isauria; that of Syria,