Note 63 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS. (continued 2)

A fragment probably of Dio (in Suidas s. v. Μάρτιος), tells that Priscus in Armenia laid out the Καινὴ πόλις and furnished it with a Roman garrison, his successor Martius Verus silenced the national movement that had arisen there, and declared this city the first of Armenia. This was Valarshapat (Οὐαλαρσαπάτ or Οὐαλεροκτίστη in Agathangelos), thenceforth the capital of Armenia. Καινὴ πόλις was, as Kiepert informs me, already recognised by Stilting as translation of the Armenian Nôr-Khalakh, which second name Valarshapat constantly bears in Armenian authors of the fifth century alongside of the usual one. Moses of Chorene, following Bardesanes, makes the town originate from a Jewish colony brought thither under king Tigranes VI., who according to him reigned 150–188; he refers the enclosing of it with walls and the naming of it to his son Valarsch II. 188–208. That the town had a strong Roman garrison in 185 is shown by the inscription C. I. L. iii. 6052.