During the winter of 215/16, he stayed in Nicomedia with the Roman army preparing to launch a campaign against the Armenians and Parthians. According to Dio, Caracalla sought a pretext for war in the refusal by the Parthian king Vologases VI to release a pair of hostages – Tiridates of Armenia and a Cynic philosopher named Antiochus. However, when Vologases was deposed by his brother Artabanus the hostages were sent to Caracalla, temporarily depriving the emperor of a casus belli.[1]