his subjects possessed into fortified places, and laid waste the whole of the open country, so that it should afford no sustenance to an invading army.  He then took up a position on the lower Zab, or Caprius, and stood prepared to resist an attack upon his territory.  Volagases advanced to the opposite bank of the river, and was preparing to invade Adiabene, when news reached him of an important attack upon his eastern provinces.  A horde of barbarians, consisting of Dahse and other Scythians, had poured into Parthia Proper, knowing that he was engaged elsewhere, and threatened to carry fire and sword through the entire province.  The Parthian monarch considered that it was his first duty to meet these aggressors; and leaving Izates unchastised, he marched away to the north-east to repel the external enemy.

Volagases, after defeating this foe, would no doubt have returned to Adiabene, and resumed the war with Izates, but in his absence that prince died.  Monobazus, his brother, who inherited his crown, could have no claim to the privileges which had been conferred for personal services upon Izates; and consequently there was no necessity for the war to be renewed.  The bones of Izates were conveyed to the holy soil of Palestine and buried in the vicinity of Jerusalem.  Monobazus was accepted by Volagases as his brother’s successor without any apparent reluctance, and proved a faithful tributary, on whom his suzerain could place complete dependence.

The quarrel with Izates, and the war with the Dahee and Sacse, may have occupied the years A.D. 52 and 53.  At any rate it was not till A.D. 54, his fourth year, that Volagases resumed his designs against Armenia.  Rhadamistus, though he had more than once had to fly the country, was found in possession as king, and for some time he opposed the progress of the Parthian arms; but, before the year was out, despairing of success, he again fled, and left Volagases to arrange the affairs of Armenia at his pleasure.  Tiridates was at once established as king, and Armenia brought into the position of a regular Parthian dependency.  The claims of Rome were ignored.  Volagases was probably aware that the Imperial throne was occupied by a mere youth, not eighteen years old, one destitute of all warlike tastes, a lover of music and of the arts, who might be expected to submit to the loss of a remote province without much difficulty.  He therefore acted as if Rome had no rights in this part of Asia, established his brother at Artaxata, and did not so much as send an embassy to Nero to excuse or explain his acts.  These proceedings caused much uneasiness in Italy.  If Nero himself cannot be regarded as likely to have felt very keenly the blow struck at the prestige of the Empire, yet there were those among his advisers who could well understand and appreciate the situation.  The ministers of the young prince resolved that efforts on the largest scale should be made.  Orders were at once issued