Marc Antony and 3 Oriental Kings

Marc Antony and 3 Oriental Kings

Antioch, summer of 36 B.C.E.

The gods have once more distinguished with glory and honour our city's guest and benefactor Marc Antony. Letters from General P. Canidius Crassus whom the duumvir sent into the Caucasus mountains earlier this year have arrived to announce that two barbarian kings from that region have sworn oaths of friendship and alliance to Marcus Antonius of Rome.

Pharnabazus, king of the Iberi, and Zober, king of the Albani, thus join the ever-growing roster of eastern potentates beholden to the imperator for their title. The announcement was confirmed by a party of Armenian ambassadors who accompanied General Canidius' messengers. Artavazdes II, king of Armenia, though previously fallen from grace, also recently renewed his alliance with Antony.

_______________

If newspapers had existed in Antioch in 36 B.C.E., an article such as the one above would probably have made front-page news. Marc Antony had established headquarters in Antioch the previous year. His plan: an incursion into, if not outright war, with Rome's arch-enemy the Parthian Empire. Alas for Antony, his Parthian campaign of 36 would end in fiasco.

Readers interested in more on this episode can read Plutarch's biography of Marc Antony. Or contact Theo Faurez to receive an article on the problematic issues in Plutarch's and Cassius Dio's accounts of that failed campaign by L. E. Patterson, Professor at Eastern Illinois University.

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