Note 8 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS.

These are doubtless meant by Justinus (xli. 2, 2), proximus maiestati regum praepositorum ordo est; ex hoc duces in bello, ex hoc in pace rectores habent. The native name is preserved by the gloss in Hesychius, βίσταξ ὁ βασιλεὺς παρὰ Πέρσαις. If in Ammianus, xxiii. 6, 14, the presidents of the Persian regiones are called vitaxae (read vistaxae), id est magistri equitum et reges et satrapae, he has awkwardly referred what is Persian to all Inner Asia (comp. Hermes, xvi. 613); we may add that the designation “leaders of horsemen” for these viceroys may relate to the fact that they, like the Roman governors, united in themselves the highest civil and the supreme military power, and the army of the Parthians consisted preponderantly of cavalry.