Note 51 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS. (continued 2)

It may be that at the same time Armenia also revolted. But when Gutschmid (quoted by Dierauer in Büdinger’s Untersuchungen, i. 179), makes Meherdotes and Sanatrukios, whom Malalas adduces as kings of Persia in the Trajanic war, into kings of Armenia again in revolt, this result is attained by a series of daring conjectures, which shift the names of persons and peoples as much as they transform the causal nexus of events. There are certainly found in the confused coil of legends of Malalas some historical facts, e.g. the installation of Parthamaspates (who is here son of king Chosroes of Armenia) as king of Parthia by Trajan; and so, too, the dates of Trajan’s departure from Rome in October (114), of his landing in Seleucia in December, and of his entrance into Antioch on the 7th Jan. (115) may be correct. But, as this report stands, the historian can only decline to accept it; he cannot rectify it.