Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

1 To the beginning of the third century 13
Caesar’s plans for a Parthian War 15 and the intense preparations prior
to Antony’s Parthian campaign 16 confirm Rome’s respect for the military
force of the Parthian kingdom. However, the Romans were still not willing
to acknowledge their opponent in the East as an equal power. In the late
republican period Roman foreign policy strove to create a Rome that was,
as Cicero puts it, ‘lord over kings, victor and ruler over all nations’ (dominus
regum, victor atque imperator omnium gentium). 17 The claim for world
domination prevented the imperium Romanum and other states from coexisting
as equal partners bound by principles of international law. However,
Augustus’ policy in the East paved the way for a new attitude. In order to
come to an official agreement concerning the political relations between the
two powers, the Parthians had to return the Roman standards they had captured
at Carrhae; they agreed to do so in 20 bc when Rome demonstrated
its military strength in the East. 18 It is not surprising that in Roman eyes
the foedus concluded between Augustus and Phraates IV (38–3/2 bc) was a
great success. 19 Given that public opinion in Rome was all in favour of war,
it was even more important that the princeps decided to restore the Roman–
Parthian amicitia and to conclude a foedus in 20 bc according to which the
Romans respected the Euphrates as the frontier between the two powers. 20
The treaty acknowledged the fact that Rome was, in the long term, not
in a position to control vast territories beyond the Euphrates. Augustus
pursued a policy ‘within the existing borders of the empire’ (intra terminos
imperii) 21 although official propaganda continued to emphasise an ‘empire
without borders’ (imperium sine fine). 22 However, by refraining from further
expansion in the East Rome acknowledged the military strength of
the Parthian kingdom. Authors of the early imperial period talk about
the Parthian kingdom and the Roman empire as maxima imperia 23 and as
‘the two greatest rules under the sun’, 24 and the Augustan historian Pompeius
Trogus saw the world as divided between Romans and Parthians; 25
there is no doubt that such statements reflect emerging rules of an international
community of which the Parthian kingdom was a part. On an
15 Malitz 1984: 21–59.
16 Craven 1920; Bengtson 1974; Schieber 1979: 105–24; Hersh 1980: 41–5.
17 Cic. Dom. 90. 18 Timpe 1975: 155–69.
19 On the significance of returning the standards see Zanker 1987: 188–96; in this context see also
Schneider 1998: 95–147.
20 Strabo xvi.1.28; on Strabo’s representation of the Parthians see Bosi 1994: 109–222; Drijvers 1998:
279–93.
21 Tac. Ann. i.11. 22 Verg. Aen. i.279. 23 Tac. Ann. ii.56.
24 Ios. AJ xviii.46; on the representation of the Parthians in Josephus see Rajak 1998: 309–24.
25 Iust. xli.1.1; on this passage see also Van Wickevoort Crommelin 1998: 261; on the Parthians in
Pompeius Trogus see Alonso-Nunez 1988–9: 125–55.