ABSTRACT
While confrontation intensified in the Julio-Claudius period, Augustus’s successors maintained his policy, which resuscitated the old strategy of prioritizing peace with Parthia but dressing it in war. Throughout the period, the instability of Roman and Parthian domestic politics and their persistent struggle for control of Armenia were central to foreign relations. Tiberius was willing to take action against Artabanus II but avoided direct confrontation. And Nero oversaw a multiyear war with Parthia (in the late 50s and early 60s CE) but preferred (and achieved) a diplomatic compromise with Vologases I, in which Rome and Parthia effectively shared control of Armenia.
