ed the army of Meherdates to fly; and he
himself, being induced to intrust his safety to a certain Parrhaces, a
dependent of his father's, was betrayed by this miscreant, loaded with
chains, and given up to his rival. Gotarzes now proved less unmerciful
than might have been expected from his general character. Instead of
punishing Meherdates with death, he thought it sufficient to insult him
with the names of "foreigner" and "Roman," and to render it impossible
that he should be again put forward as monarch by subjecting him to
mutilation. The Roman historian supposes that this was done to cast
a slur upon Rome but it was a natural measure of precaution under the
circumstances, and had probably no more recondite motive than compassion
for the youth and inexperience of the pretender.

Gotarzes, having triumphed over his rival, appears to have resolved on
commemorating his victory in a novel manner. Instead of striking a new
coin, like Vonones, he determined to place his achievement on record by
making it the subject of a rock-tablet, which he caused to be engraved
on the sacred mountain of Baghistan, adorned already with sculptures and
inscriptions by the greatest of the Achaemenian monarchs. The bas-relief
and its inscription have been much damaged, both by the waste of ages
and the rude hand of man; but enough remains to show that the conqueror
was represented as pursuing his enemies in the field, on horseback,
while a winged Victory, flying in the air, was on the point of placing a
diadem on his head. In the Greek legend which accompanied the sculpture
he was termed "Satrap of Satraps"--an equivalent of the ordinary title
"King of Kings"; and his conquered rival was mentioned under the name
of Mithrates, a corrupt form of the more common or Mithridates or
Meherdates.

Very shortly after his victory Gotarzes died. His last year seems to
have been A.D. 51. According to Tacitus, he died a natural death, from
the effects of disease; but, according to Josephus, he was the victim of
a conspiracy. The authority of Tacitus, here as elsewhere generally,
is to be preferred; and we may regard Gotarzes as ending peacefully his
unquiet reign, which had begun in A.D. 42, immediately after the death
of his father, had been interrupted for four years--from A.D. 42 to
A.D. 46--and had then been renewed and lasted from A.D. 46 to A.D. 51.
Gotarzes was not a prince of any remarkable talents, or of a character
differing in any important