The tale thus told, with no appearance of shame, by the Roman historian, Dio Cassius, is sufficiently disgraceful to Trajan, but it does not reveal to us the entire baseness of his conduct.  We learn from other writers, two of them contemporary with the events, that the pompous dismissal of Parthamasiris, with leave to go wherever he chose, was a mere pretence.  Trajan had come to the conclusion, if not before the interview, at any rate in the course of it, that the youth was dangerous, and could not be allowed to live.  He therefore sent troops to arrest him as he rode off from the camp, and when he offered resistance caused him to be set upon and slain.  This conduct he afterwards strove to justify by accusing the young prince of having violated the agreement made at the interview; but even the debased moral sense of his age was revolted by this act, and declared the grounds whereon he excused it insufficient.  Good faith and honor had been sacrificed (it was said) to expediency—­the reputation of Rome had been tarnished—­it would have been better, even if Parthamasiris were guilty, to have let him escape, than to have punished him at the cost of a public scandal.  So strongly was the disgrace felt that some (it seems) endeavored to exonerate Trajan from the responsibility of having contrived the deed, and to throw the blame of it on Exedares, the ex-king of Armenia and brother of Parthamasiris.  But Trajan had not sunk so low as to shift his fault on another.  He declared openly that the act was his own, and that Exedares had had no part in it.

The death of Parthamasiris was followed by the complete submission of Armenia.  Chosroes made no attempt to avenge the murder of his nephew, or to contest with Trajan the possession of the long-disputed territory.  A little doubt seems for a short time to have been entertained by the Romans as to its disposal.  The right of Exedares to be reinstated in his former kingdom was declared by some to be clear; and it was probably urged that the injuries which he had suffered at the hands of Chosroes would make him a sure Roman ally.  But these arguments had no weight with Trajan.  He had resolved upon his course.  An end should be put, at once and forever, to the perpetual intrigues and troubles inseparable from such relations as had hitherto subsisted between Rome and the Armenian kingdom.  The Greater and the Lesser Armenia should be annexed to the Empire, and should form a single Roman province.  This settled, attention was turned to the neighboring countries.  Alliance was made with Anchialus, king of the Heniochi and Macheloni, and presents were sent to him in return for those which his envoys had brought to Trajan.  A new king was given to the Albanians.  Friendly relations were established with the chiefs of the Iberi, Sauro-matse, Golchi, and even with the tribes settled on the Cimmerian Bosphorus.  The nations of these parts were taught that Rome was the power which the inhabitants even of the remote East and North had most to fear; and a wholesome awe was instilled into them which would, it was hoped, conduce to the general tranquillity of the Empire.