Arsacids (Parthians)
Vologases IV
بلاش چهارم
- Reign
- 147/148–190/193 CE
- Dynasty
- Arsacids (Parthians)
- Persian page
- فارسی
Featured dossier
Vologases IV: war with Rome, and the epidemic that saved Ctesiphon
Vologases IV was king for more than forty years. The early years were peaceful. After Antoninus Pius died in 161 CE, the Parthians took Armenia and raided Syria. Rome answered with a large army; the Romans remembered this as the war of Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius’ co-emperor. At the end of 165 or early in 166 CE Avidius Cassius’ army took Seleucia and Ctesiphon. But an epidemic, probably smallpox, broke out among the Romans and they withdrew with heavy losses.
- years of reign
- ~44
- war with Rome (CE)
- 161–166
- years of peace after
- 30
Map: Armenia, Syria and Ctesiphon
Administration & economy147/148 CE1 of 7
Accession
Vologases succeeded Vologases III. Iranica: the early years of his reign were peaceful.
Certainty: Probable
Sources: K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1986, updated 2016 · D. Sellwood, 1980
BattleCampaignBuildingAdministration & economyReligionArrow keys, Home/End and Space work.
Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
The war of 161–166
Iranica (Schippmann): after the death of Antoninus Pius the Parthians took Armenia, made Pacorus its king, and marched into Syria. In 163 CE Rome won Armenia back and crowned Sohaemus; in 164 it drove the Parthians out of Syria and Avidius Cassius moved into Mesopotamia. At the end of 165 or early 166 CE Seleucia and Ctesiphon were taken.
Herodian, writing two generations later, lists Verus with Augustus, Trajan and Septimius Severus among the Romans who defeated the Persians (6.2.4).
The war began in Armenia, like most wars between Rome and Parthia. Iranica credits Rome’s withdrawal more to the epidemic than to the Parthian army. The two great cities of Babylonia, Seleucia and Ctesiphon, lay open to any army coming down the Euphrates.
The city dwellers paid the highest price: Seleucia was a merchant city whose wealth was lost in a war between two empires. The city that gained nothing from the war suffered most from it.
Sources: K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica · Herodian, tr. E. C. Echols
Dossier · 2
The epidemic that ended the war
Iranica: “once again the Parthians were fortunate”: an epidemic, probably smallpox, broke out and forced the Romans to retreat in spring 166 CE, and they suffered heavy losses on the way. Three decades of peace followed.
Modern scholars see this epidemic as the start of the “Antonine Plague”, which spread through the Roman empire in the following years. Iranica does not draw this link; it is a modern reading. Iranica’s “once again” recalls Trajan’s war, which also ended without a lasting result.
Disease knows no borders. An army that came to take other people’s cities carried death home with it.
Sources: K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica
Synthesis
Vologases IV started the war himself and took Armenia and Syria, but Rome won both back and captured Seleucia and Ctesiphon. An epidemic in the Roman army, not a Parthian victory, ended the war, and thirty years of peace followed.
Bibliography
- K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Arsacids ii. The Arsacid dynasty (1986, updated 2016). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arsacids-ii/
- J. Wiesehöfer, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Ardašīr I i. History (1986, updated 2011). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ardasir-i/
- Herodian, tr. E. C. Echols, History of the Roman Empire 3.9, 4.10–11, 4.14–15, 6.2 (1961). https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodian-s-roman-history/A contemporary, but more rhetorical than exact; he sometimes confuses names and the order of events.
- D. Sellwood, An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia, 2nd ed. (1980). The standard numbering of Parthian coins (“S”); some of its attributions have since been revised.
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