Vologaeses IV.

Coin Vologaeses' IV.

Vologaeses IV. (Also Balāš or Valgāš ; * before 147; † approx. 193) was king of the Parthians from 147 or 148 until his death . In older (and some more recent) representations, this time is often called King Vologaeses III. indicated, but what is wrong and due to the sometimes problematic chronology of the Arsacids .

Life

Vologaeses was the son of Mithridates V . After the Roman emperor Trajan had conquered parts of the Parthian Empire (114–117), which, however , had to be largely abandoned by his successor Hadrian , it was above all Vologaeses IV who restored the empire. He united the Parthian Empire, which was between his father and Vologaeses III. had been divided, and also conquered smaller provinces, such as the Charakene , who had apparently previously had a certain independence.

From 155 on, conflicts with the Romans are documented, whereby, as so often, it was about Armenia . In 161 the Parthians took the opportunity and attacked Roman territory directly. After initial successes, in which Armenia was occupied and a Roman army destroyed near Elegeia on the Euphrates, the Romans went on the counter-offensive under co-emperor Lucius Verus . The Roman army conquered Armenia and finally advanced as far as Ctesiphon , which was also stormed in 165. Vologaeses IV was then forced to cede parts of the disputed border zone to the Romans (including Karrhai and Nisibis ). At that time the Antonine plague spread from Babylonia , which was soon spread throughout the Roman Empire by the returning Roman troops.

It is not clear from the sources whether a formal peace treaty was subsequently concluded, but things remained quiet on the Roman-Parthian border for the rest of Vologaeses' reign, during which there was apparently no civil unrest worth mentioning.

The time of death of the king is not exactly certain. His coinage continued until 191, some until 193. Vologaeses presumably made his son co-regent in 191 and died around 193.

swell

• Cassius Dio 71.
• Historia Augusta : Marcus Aurelius 8-9; Verus 8.

literature

• Anthony R. Birley : Mark Aurel , 2nd edition, Munich 1977, p. 218ff.
• Malcolm AR Colledge: The Parthians , Thames and Hudson, London 1967, pp. 53, 167f.
• Klaus Schippmann : Balāš IV . In: Encyclopedia Iranica 3 (1989).
• Josef Wiesehöfer : Das antike Persien , Albatros Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005, p. 170.

Web links

Commons : Vologaeses IV.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ The dating is fluctuating because the sources are not clear, cf. Klaus Schippmann: Balāš IV , in: Encyclopedia Iranica .
2. ↑ See the family tree in Wiesehöfer, Das antike Persien , p. 409 and Klaus Schippmann: The Arsacid Dynasty , in: Encyclopedia Iranica .
3. ↑ On the Parthian War, cf. Birley, Mark Aurel , pp. 218ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Vologaeses III.	King of the Parthian Empire 147 / 48–191 / 93	Vologaeses V.