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Zenobie, epouse de radamiste, et la justice du fleuve (Tacite, annales, XII, 51)

par Meulder, Marcel
Référence Revue des études anciennes, 121, 2, page (431-453)
Publication Publié, 2019

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Tacitus (Annates, XII, 51), by describing a part of the Araxes as placidus, seems to endow this Armenian river with a role of a judicial god: it saves Zenobia, daughter of the King of Armenia and abandoned wife of the perfidious Radamist, enemy of Rome, from death. Moreover she is welcomed and honored by the Parthian Tiridates, a future Roman ally under Nero. The historian echoes elsewhere (VI, 37, and XV, 7-8) the Indo-European concept of the «justice» of the river (in this case the Euphrates) to denounce the transgression committed by certain Roman generals or kings protected by Rome, by seeking to link Armenia more closely to Rome. But the river no longer punishes (immediately) the transgressor.