Note 117 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS. (continued 3)

It throws no light on the position of the Armenians, that in descriptions otherwise thoroughly apocryphal (vita Valer. 6; vita Aurel. 37, 28) the Armenians after the catastrophe of Valerian keep to the Persians, and appear in the last crisis of the Palmyrenes as allies of Zenobia by the side of the Persians; both are obvious consequences from the general position of things. That Aurelian did not subdue Armenia any more than Mesopotamia, is supported in this case partly by the silence of the authorities, partly by the account of Synesius (de regno, p. 17) that the emperor Carinus (rather Carus) had in Armenia, close to the frontier of the Persian territory, summarily dismissed a Persian embassy, and that the young Persian king, alarmed by its report, had declared himself ready for any concession. I do not see how this narrative can be referred to Probus, as von Gutschmid thinks (Zeitschr. d. deutsch. morgenl. Gesell. xxxi. 50); on the other hand it suits very well the Persian expedition of Carus.