Izates Restores Artabanus

Now Artabanus, king of the Parthians, learned that his satraps had formed a plot against him. Seeing that it was not safe to stay among them, he decided to go to Izates, hoping to find through him some way of saving himself and, if possible, of returning to his throne. So he came, bringing about a thousand of his kinsmen and servants with him, and met Izates on the road. He knew Izates well, but Izates did not know him. Artabanus came up close and first bowed down before him, as was their ancestral custom, and then said: “O king, do not overlook me, your suppliant, and do not scorn my plea. I have been brought low by a change of fortune; from a king I have become a private man, and I need your help. Look, then, at how unstable fortune is, and consider that in caring for me you are caring for yourself as well. For if I am overlooked and left unavenged, many will grow bolder against other kings too.” He said this in tears, with his head bowed. As soon as Izates heard his name and saw Artabanus standing before him as a suppliant, he leaped down from his horse and said: “Take courage, O king, and do not let your present trouble overwhelm you as if it could not be cured. The change from your sorrow will be swift. You will find me a better friend and ally than you hoped; for I will either restore you to the kingdom of Parthia or lose my own.” [a]

With these words he set Artabanus on his horse and followed him on foot, paying him this honor as a greater king than himself. When Artabanus saw this, he took it hard, and he swore by his present fortune and honor that he would get down unless Izates mounted again and rode ahead of him. Izates gave way, leaped onto his horse, and brought him to his royal palace. There he showed him every honor, both when they sat together and in the places of honor at feasts, looking not to his present fortune but to his former rank, and reflecting too that changes of fortune are common to all people. He also wrote to the Parthians to persuade them to take Artabanus back, offering his right hand, his oaths and his own mediation as pledges that what had been done would be forgotten. The Parthians did not refuse to take him back, but they said they could not, because they had entrusted the rule to another man, who had taken it over (his name was Cinnamus), and they were afraid that civil strife would break out over it. When Cinnamus learned what they intended, he himself wrote to Artabanus; for he had been brought up by him, and he was by nature a good and noble man. He urged Artabanus to trust him and to come and take back his own rule. Artabanus trusted him and came. Cinnamus met him, bowed down before him, hailed him as king, and took the diadem from his own head and placed it on the head of Artabanus.

So Artabanus was restored to his kingdom through Izates, after losing it through his nobles. Nor did he forget the kindness Izates had done him, but repaid him with the greatest honors among them. He allowed him to wear his tiara upright and to sleep on a golden bed, which are privileges and marks of honor belonging to the kings of Parthia alone. He also cut off a large and fertile territory from the king of Armenia and gave it to him. The name of the land is Nisibis, and in it the Macedonians had founded a city long before, Antioch, which they called Antioch in Mygdonia. These were the honors the king of the Parthians paid to Izates. [b]

Not long afterward Artabanus died and left his kingdom to his son Vardanes. Vardanes came to Izates and tried to persuade him to join him with his army and to help him in a war he was about to make against the Romans. But he could not persuade him. Izates knew the power and the good fortune of the Romans, and he thought Vardanes was attempting the impossible. Besides, he had sent his sons, five of them and still young, to learn our ancestral language and our learning thoroughly, and had sent his mother to worship at the temple, as I said before; so he was all the more reluctant. He kept holding Vardanes back, telling him again and again about the armies and the deeds of the Romans, thinking this would frighten him and stop him from wanting to march against them. The Parthian king was provoked at this and at once declared war on Izates. But he gained nothing by that campaign either, for God cut off all his hopes. When the Parthians learned what Vardanes intended, and that he had decided to make war on the Romans, they killed him and handed the rule to his brother Gotarzes. Not long afterward Gotarzes too died, through a plot, and his brother Vologases succeeded him. Vologases entrusted provinces to two of his brothers by the same father: Media to the elder, Pacorus, and Armenia to the younger, Tiridates. [c]