Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

362 HISTORY OF PERSIA chap.
Empire, Armenia, which had been compelled to submit to
Antiochus Epiphanes, again threw off the Seleucid yoke.
Apparently this was accomplished through Parthian assist-
ance, as its new monarch, who reigned from 1 50 to 128 B.C.,
was an Arsacid prince, named Val-Arsaces. His son, who
waged war with Pontus, ruled until ti3 B.C., and was
succeeded by Artaxias, the Artavasdes of Justin. It was
about 100 B.C. when Mithradates invaded Armenia, and
although no account of the campaign has been preserved,
we learn from a remark by Strabo that Tigranes, the eldest
son of the Armenian king, was for some years a hostage in
Parthia. This clearly points to Parthian success ; but
Artavasdes kept his throne, and during the course of the
two following decades Armenia under Tigranes reached
the zenith of her power and ruled from the Gulf of Issus
to the shores of the Caspian Sea. In the history of Parthia,
the Armenian question constantly recurs as a matter of the
first importance.
The Expansion of Rome, 190-129 b.c.—When the
legions crushed Antiochus the Great at the battle of
Magnesia in 190 b.c, it seemed inevitable that the era
of independent kingdoms in Asia Minor and Syria must
speedily come to a close. But Rome, perhaps inspired
with statesmanlike prudence, withdrew, and for a generation
pursued a
policy of abstention, the different states being
allowed to act much as they pleased without any armed
intervention from the West. In 168 b.c. the battle of
Pydna and .the subsequent annexation of Macedonia
changed the situation, as the curt order to Antiochus
Epiphanes to evacuate Egypt clearly showed. A few years
later (151-145 b.c), a pretender appeared in Macedonia,
and the Achaeans also rose but the result was the sack of
;
Corinth and the final reduction of Hellas to subordination
under the Roman Governor of Macedonia, although at first
there was no direct administration by Rome. Carthage,
too, had been destroyed, its site being levelled to the
b.c Yet another
ground after its capture by Scipio in 146
event, perhaps in its direct effect the most important of all,
to the East. The rulers of
brought Rome permanently
Pergamus had always been staunch allies of the Republic,