A brief analysis of the Strabo study, the cultural belonging and identity of a provincial elite. Regarding the war against Ethiopia, Strabo wrote that Ethiopia was the first to provoke the war, and they took advantage of the Roman garrison to go to Arabia, crossed the first waterfall of the Nile, attacked the border town of Sinai Fuile, the Roman fortress of Elefontin, and also tore down the statue of Augustus.
Petronius re-established the authority of the Fuhrer with his troops, and the reality may have been that the Ethiopians, alerting that they might become the next target of the Roman army, seized the opportunity of Garnus' invasion of Arabia in hopes of gaining the initiative.
However, Petronius quickly drove the Ethiopians out of the territory they occupied, and after capturing the cities one by one, threatened Nabata, the location of the royal palace, as recorded in the Records of Merit.
Finally, his attack forced the Ethiopian queen to pray to Augustus for peace talks.
After repelling Ethiopian incursions, Petronius continued deep into Ethiopian soil, and his actions went beyond the demands of punishing the rebels, and "paying tribute" meant that Ethiopia was considered a vassal state.
This seems to reveal the original motivation of the expedition, which was to include Ethiopia in the Roman Empire.
In both Strabo and Augustus' descriptions, this goal was achieved enough to be part of Augustus' achievements.
Thus, Strabo's narrative echoes Augustus' record of his exploits, and became an aid to the spread of Augustan propaganda, and another important Roman opponent in the East was Parthia.
During the Republic, Crassus and Antony suffered crushing defeats in the war with Parthia, were stripped of their military flags, and more than 10,000 Romans were captured, which became a memory of the humiliation of Rome's foreign wars.
Caesar had planned to go to Parthia, but he was assassinated before he could achieve it.
During the reign of Augustus, calls for a campaign against Parthia, the recapture of the banner, and the disgrace of the war were already rising.
If he succeeds in reversing the pattern of relations with the Parthians, it will certainly help to establish his place in the hearts of the Roman people.
Thus, Augustus was faced with the choice of whether to launch an expedition against Parthia.
Fortunately, the struggle for succession within Parthia provided him with the conditions for a diplomatic solution.
Before the Battle of Axing, both Flatis and Tiridatis tried to seek Roman support, and Octavian took advantage of this delay to avoid getting involved in the dispute.
It was not until after Yuaxing's victory over Antony that Augustus really paid attention to the situation in Parthia.
Flats IV eventually succeeded to the Parthian throne, and the losing side Tiridatis took refuge in the Roman province of Syria, and Augustus used this as a counterbalance to conclude a treaty with Flats and accept his son to Rome as a hostage.
However, Tiridatis, who fled Syria and took Flats' son hostage, asked for Rome's support and promised allegiance to Rome as a vassal state.
Augustus showed far-sighted diplomacy in the face of this change, rejecting Tiridatis' request to start a rebellion in Parthia, but still welcoming Tiridatis back to Rome and trying to meet his needs as a bargaining chip to restrain the Parthian king.
He returned the son of Flats on the condition that the Parthian king return the Roman banner and captives.
However, the olive branch he threw did not achieve the desired results, and the Parthian king did not return the banner as promised.
After that, the development of events took a sharp turn according to the remaining historical sources.
According to Augustus, he "forced" the Parthian king to return the banner, and Dior wrote that the Parthian king feared a possible attack by Augustus, possibly referring to Augustus and Tiberius' plan to invade Parthia from Mesopotamia and Armenia at the same time.
Bibliography:
Encyclopedia Britannica, International Chinese Edition, China Encyclopedia Press, 1999.
"Damei Encyclopedia" Editorial Department of "Damei Encyclopedia" of Guangfu Books Bureau 79th Year of the Republic of China.
