The murder of Vardanes was immediately followed by the restoration of Gotarzes to the throne.  There may have been some who doubted his fitness for the regal office, and inclined to keep the throne vacant till they could send to Rome and obtain from thence one of the younger and more civilized Parthian princes.  But we may be sure that the general desire was not for a Romanized sovereign, but for a truly national king, one born and bred in the country.  Gotarzes was proclaimed by common consent, and without any interval, after the death of Vardanes, and ascended the Parthian throne before the end of the year A.D. 46.  It is not likely that his rule would have been resisted had he conducted himself well; but the cruelty of his temper, which had already once cost him his crown, again displayed itself after his restoration, and to this defect was added a slothful indulgence yet more distasteful to his subjects.  Some military expeditions which he undertook, moreover, failed of success, and the crime of defeat caused the cup of his offences to brim over.  The discontented portion of his people, who were a strong party, sent envoys to the Roman Emperor, Claudius (A.D. 49), and begged that he would surrender to them Meherdates, the grandson of Phraates IV. and son of Vonones, who still remained at Rome in a position between that of a guest and a hostage.  “They were not ignorant,” they said, “of the treaty which bound the Romans to Parthia, nor did they ask Claudius to infringe it.”  Their desire was not to throw off the authority of the Arsacidse, but only to exchange one Arsacid for another.  The rule of Gotarzes had became intolerable, alike to the nobility and the common people.  He had murdered all his male relatives, or at least all that were within his reach—­first his brothers, then his near kinsmen, finally even those whose relationship was remote; nor had he stopped there; he had proceeded to put to death their young children and their pregnant wives.  He was sluggish in his habits, unfortunate in his wars, and had betaken himself to cruelty, that men might not despise him for his want of manliness.  The friendship between Rome and Parthia was a public matter; it bound the Romans to help the nation allied to them—­a nation which, though equal to them in strength, was content on account of its respect for Rome to yield her precedence.  Parthian princes were allowed to be hostages in foreign lands for the very reason that then it was always possible, if their own monarch displeased them, for the people to obtain a king from abroad, brought up under milder influences.

This harangue was made before the Emperor Claudius and the assembled Senate, Meherdates himself being also present.  Claudius responded to it favorably.  He would follow the example of the Divine Augustus, and allow the Parthians to take from Rome the monarch whom they requested.  That prince, bred up in the city, had always been remarkable for his moderation.  He would (it was to be hoped) regard himself in his new position, not as a master of slaves, but as a ruler of citizens.  He would find that clemency and justice were the more appreciated by a barbarous nation, the less they had had experience of them Meherdates might accompany the Parthian envoys; and a Roman of rank, Caius Cassius, the prefect of Syria, should be instructed to receive them on their arrival in Asia, and to see them safely across the Euphrates.