ignificant setback for Rome. Parthian influence had been established in Armenia after Mark Anthony's failure there, but by the reign of Tiberius a Roman client-king was placed on the Armenian throne, and Roman influence seemed on the ascendant. Yet by the end of Nero's reign, it was Parthian influence that was predominant in Armenia, and only a major war of conquest could have brought it back within the Roman orbit.
On a broader level, though, the Neronian arrangement was a recognition that Roman interests were best served by acknowledgement of Armenia's buffer-state function, and thus a ratification of Augustus' original policy of accepting limits in the east. It is notable that after Trajan, a few decades later, again pushed the Roman boundary eastward, his successor Hadrian immediately and relinquished these gains and allowed a return to the status quo ante. By implication he ratified the Julio-Claudian policy of accepting Armenia as a buffer-state to minimize direct confrontations with Parthia.
In the last decades of the Republic, the Armenian ki
...