It is the aim of this first section to bring together the events of the mid-to-late 90s and early 80s BC into an explanation of the geopolitical context of the meeting between Sulla and the Parthians and its immediate consequences. This chapter narrows down the time and place of that meeting and, following from this, the reasons why it came about. Textual, cuneiform and numismatic evidence, not previously considered in relation to this event, are employed to support the conclusion that the meeting took place in the campaigning season of 95 BC at the Melitene/Tomisa crossing on the Euphrates River and that it came about as a consequence of Sulla asserting Ariobarzanes claim to the Cappadocian throne over the false claimant of Ariarathes and his Pontic/Armenian faction. This brought Sulla into direct conflict with the newly crowned king of Armenia―Tigranes II, later the Great―a Parthian proxy, directly supported by Parthian forces sent by their King, Mithridates II. The consequences of this meeting are worth considering, as it sets the mood for the relations between Parthia and Rome. Understanding the exact state and nature of the geopolitical milieu in which this meeting occurred progresses greatly the understanding of their future interactions. This chapter argues that the years 95 to 85 BC were a period of profound upheaval and change throughout the Near East. Within a short space of time in or around 95 BC, no less than five kingdoms underwent dynastic change―Bithynia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Commagene, and Syria―and within two years the Parthian Empire was itself in upheaval with the appearance of a pretender to that throne, Sinatruces. Sinatruces, a son of Mithridates I, perhaps in his sixties, reappeared on the Parthian Empire‘s Central Asian frontier supported by a Scythian army after more than 30 years exiled amongst them and began a methodical conquest of the Parthian homelands of Northern Iran, as well as Media, Hyrcania and Media Atropatene. The
death of Mithridates II in September 91 BC brought his son, Gotarzes, to the throne. This war of competing blood-lines, referred to in this work as the Parthian Wars of Succession, paused with the temporary defeat of Sinatruces in 87 BC, but the death of Gotarzes soon followed and he was succeeded by his brother, Mithridates III Philopatoros, in that same year.56
Out of this instability two powerful contenders emerged in the Near East— Mithridates of Pontus and Tigranes of Armenia. Mithridates took on Rome‘s interests in the East and suffered the consequences of prolonged war and eventual defeat despite Rome herself undergoing profound upheaval from internal political forces and external threats. But Tigranes, played his position well—offering distant support to Pontus without attracting unwelcome Roman attention, meanwhile the simultaneous demise in fortunes of the Seleucids in Syria and the Parthians in Northern Mesopotamia, provided opportunity for Tigranes‘ imperial aspiration. Throughout much of the 80s he set upon an expansionist policy and for eighteen years, from 83 BC, he ruled, virtually unchallenged,57 a kingdom that stretched across the greater part of the Near East until his fateful decision in 71/70 BC to face directly Roman advances beyond the Euphrates frontier. This study explains why Tigranes was able to effect this remarkable achievement and why he was able to bring stability to a region that for so long had known only internecine strife.58
Having explored the milieu of this ten year period, which ends with the Peace of Dardanus in 85 BC, the next ten years sees Roman interaction with the Parthians enter into a hiatus while the Parthian Wars of Succession continue and the Roman Republic is beset by a myriad of internal unrest and external threats. Part Two pieces the Parthian struggle together while paying only cursory attention to Rome‘s problems and sets the scene for Lucullus‘ entrance into the East.
This first part of this thesis argues that Sulla‘s meeting with the Parthian envoy, Orobazus, occurred in the campaigning season of 95 BC, perhaps August at the latest, at the Melitene/Tomisa crossing on the Euphrates River frontier with Sophene/Armenia. It occurred within the context of Sulla‘s expulsion of Pontic and Armenian forces from Cappadocia in support of Ariobarzanes‘ claim to the throne over his rival Ariarathes IX. It asserts that the Parthian presence there was a direct consequence of their support of the newly crowned king of Armenia, Tigranes, who had been held captive in the Parthian court at Babylon for some years. Furthermore this thesis proposes that the conciliatory stance and obsequious attitude
56
Evidence for this reconstruction is set out in detail below.
57 Jus. 40.1.
taken by Orobazus at this meeting, for which he was later executed by King Mithridates II, was a consequence of the precarious internal state of affairs in the wider, particularly eastern, Parthian Empire that was just beginning to manifest as the beginnings of the Parthian Wars of Succession which is dealt with in more detail in Part Two of this study. It also asserts that Sulla‘s involvement in the support of Ariobarzanes and the security of Cappadocia against the ongoing threats of Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes II of Armenia was more extensive than previously recognised by the majority of modern scholarship and that this explains the apparent retardation in his cursus honorum in the 90s BC.