d that the glory of this achievement would
have brought the troubles of Artabanus to a close; and if they did not
cause the pretender who still disputed his possession of the throne to
submit, would at any rate have put an end to any disaffection on the
part of the subject nations that the previous ill-success of Parthia in
her Roman wars might have provoked. But in the histories of nations and
empires we constantly find that noble and gallant efforts to retrieve
disaster and prevent the ruin consequent upon it come too late. When
matters have gathered to a head, when steps that commit important
persons have been taken, when classes or races have been encouraged to
cherish hopes, when plans have been formed and advanced to a certain
point, the course of action that has been contemplated and arranged for
cannot suddenly be given up. The cause of discontent is removed, but the
effects remain. Affections have been alienated, and the alienation still
continues. A certain additional resentment is even felt at the tardy
repentance, or revival, which seems to cheat the discontented of that
general sympathy whereof without it they would have been secure. In
default of their original grievance, it is easy for them to discover
minor ones, to exaggerate these into importance, and to find in them
a sufficient reason for persistence in the intended course. Hence
revolutions often take place just when the necessity for them seems
to be past, and kingdoms perish at a time when they have begun to show
themselves deserving of a longer term of life.

It is impossible at the present day to form any trustworthy estimate
of the real value of those grounds of complaint which the Persians, in
common doubtless with other subject races, thought that they had against
the Parthian rule. We can well understand that the supremacy of any
dominant race is irksome to the aliens who have to submit to it;
but such information as we possess fails to show us either anything
seriously oppressive in the general system of the Parthian government,
or any special grievance whereof the Persians had to complain. The
Parthians were tolerant; they did not interfere with the religious
prejudices of their subjects, or attempt to enforce uniformity of creed
or worship. Their military system did not press over-heavily on the
subject peoples, nor is there any reason to believe that the scale of
their taxation was excessive. Such tyranny as is charged upon certain
Parth