Many spoke highly of
these results, as due to the king's alarm and the threats of Corbulo, and as
splendid successes. Others explained them as a secret understanding that
with the cessation of war on both sides and the departure of Vologeses,
Tigranes also was to quit
Armenia. "Why," it was
asked, "had the Roman army been withdrawn from
Tigranocerta? Why had they abandoned in peace what they
had defended in war? Was it better for them to have wintered on the confines
of
Cappadocia in hastily constructed huts, than in
the capital of a kingdom lately recovered?" There had been, in short, a
suspension of arms, in order that Vologeses might fight some other foe than
Corbulo, and that Corbulo might not further risk the glory he had earned in
so many years. For, as I have related, he had asked for a general
exclusively for the defence of
Armenia, and it was
heard that Cæsennius Pætus was on his way. And indeed he had now
arrived, and the army was thus divided; the fourth and twelfth legions, with
the fifth which had lately been raised in
Mœsia and the auxiliaries from
Pontus,
Galatia and
Cappadocia, were under the command of Pætus, while
the third, sixth, and tenth legions and the old soldiery of
Syria remained with Corbulo. All else they were to share
or divide between them according to circumstances. But as Corbulo could not
endure a rival, so Pætus, who would have been sufficiently honoured by
ranking second to him, disparaged the results of the war, and said
repeatedly that there had been no bloodshed or spoil, that the sieges of
cities were sieges only in name, and that he would soon impose on the
conquered tribute and laws and Roman administration, instead of the empty
shadow of a king.