Note 29 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS.

The statement of Petrus Patricius (fr. 3 Müll.) that king Mithradates of Iberia had planned revolt from Rome, but in order to preserve the semblance of fidelity, had sent his brother Cotys to Claudius, and then, when the latter had given information to the emperor of those intrigues, had been deposed and replaced by his brother, is not compatible with the assured fact that in Iberia, at least from the year 35 (Tacitus, Ann. vi. 32) till the year 60 (Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 26), Pharasmanes, and in the year 75 his son Mithradates (C. I. L. iii. 6052) bore rule. Beyond doubt Petrus has confused Mithradates of Iberia and the king of the Bosporus of the same name (I. 316, note 1), and here at the bottom lies the narrative, which Tacitus, Ann. xii. 18, presupposes.