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204 few miles when strong centralized rule is gone. The water route to India with its harbor dues and pirates must have been the lesser of two evils.

At a later date we have records of customhouses established on the Tigris-Euphrates frontier where taxes were collected by Roman publicans. Widespread occupation during the Parthian period, including extensive reoccupation of abandoned sites, proves that Parthian rule brought prosperity to Mesopotamia. The huge Nahrwan canal (east of the Tigris) with many of its branches may be of Parthian construction.

During the reign of Vologases I ( 51/52–79/80) a new city, Vologasia or Vologesocerta, was founded in the vicinity of Babylon. The king's intention may have been to establish a new commercial center to displace the older Seleucia, where party strife frequently disturbed the flow of trade and where opposition to the royal will often arose. Vologesocerta is frequent-