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While he was staying near the Euphrates, the Parthian general Orobazus, a commander of King Arsaces, had an interview with him, which was the first occasion on which the two nations met; and this also may be considered as one of the very fortunate events in Sulla's successful career, that he was the first Roman to whom the Parthians addressed themselves in their request for an alliance and friendship with Rome.

And a practice grew up of the Parthian monarchs themselves depositing their own sons or brothers with the Roman Emperor, at first perhaps merely for their own security, but afterwards as pledges for their good behavior. Such hostages lived at the expense of the Roman court, and were usually treated with distinction. In the event of a rupture between their country and Rome, they had little to fear.

But those Parthian arrows shot from feminine eyes had little power to wound their object just now. The girl looked up from her perforated card very seldom; and when she raised her eyes, it was always to look in one direction towards the great glass doors opening from the outer saloon.

Justin, who is our principal informant on the subject of the early Parthian history, has unfortunately confounded him with the third monarch of the name, who ascended the throne more than sixty years later, and has left us only the slightest and most meagre outline of his actions.

In the civil war that followed on the murder of Julius the Parthians are declared to have actually taken a part. It appears that about B.C. 46 a small body of Parthian horse-archers had been sent to the assistance of a certain Bassus, a Roman who amid the troubles of the times was seeking to obtain for himself something like an independent principality in Syria.

We find Pacorus not only allowed to live, but again entrusted a few years later with high office by the Parthian monarch; and on this occasion we find him showing no signs of disaffection or discontent. Nine years, however, elapsed between the recall of the young prince and his reappointment to the supreme command against the Romans.

Piso hereafter came rarely to the tribunal of Germanicus; or, if he did, sate sternly there, and in manifest opposition: he likewise published his spite at a feast of the Nabathean King's, where golden crowns of great weight were presented to Germanicus and Agrippina; but to Piso and the rest, such as were light: "This banquet," he said, "was made for the son of a Roman prince, not of a Parthian monarch:" with these words, he cast away his crown, and uttered many invectives against luxury: sharp insults and provocations these to Germanicus; yet he bore them.

The Carthaginian sailor thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus; nor, beyond that, does he fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian; the Parthian, chains and an Italian prison; but the unexpected assault of death has carried off, and will carry off, the world in general.

Artabanus, having ascended the Parthian throne about B.C. 214, and being anxious to distinguish himself, took advantage of the war raging between Antiochus III., the second son of Seleucus Callinicus, and Achseus, one of his rebel satraps, to advance into Media, and to add to his dominions the entire tract between Hyrcania and the Zagros mountains.

The Parthian ambassador had expressly dwelt on this when he delivered Arjuna to Caesar as a gift from his king. But Arjuna had never favored any of these strangers with his confidence.