We learn from their conversation that Bessus is a devout coward who accidentally won the main battle by retreating into the enemy and disrupting them. Mardonius tells us that Arbaces is a man of extreme emotions who can be turned from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other in a moment. Arbaces enters and boasts of his victory. Tigranes is unimpressed by the bragging. His king's pretentious crowing sickens Mardonius. Arbaces swears he will marry Tigraces off to his sister, Panthaea, whom he hasn't seen since she was nine years old, but whom the Lord Protector of Iberia (good old Gobrius) reports as beautiful. Tigranes is not made happy by news of the marriage.

When Mardonius gently rebukes Arbaces for boasting, the King rants at him, claiming that he has earned the right to boast-that he says nothing that he did not first accomplish in feats of arms. Mardonius replies that Arbaces is the best of men, that where he not king Mardonius would choose him to be king, but that the boasting is too extreme. At last Arbaces checks himself a little.

Arbaces learns in a letter from Gobrius that the Queen Mother, Arane, has been caught in a plot to poison her son the king. We learn that this is not the first attempt she has made upon Arbace's life. But-contrary to his earlier anger-Arbaces grants Arane a full pardon. This act is in keeping with Arbaces' reputation of vacillating between the extremes of emotion. He has pardoned his mother on every occasion in the past. On every occasion, it was Gobrius who discovered plots and saved Arbaces.

I.ii: Tigranes has his fiancée, Spaconia, given to Panthaea as a waiting woman. Spaconia is to try to talk Panthaea out of marrying Tigranes. She is sent under the escort of Bessus.

II.i: In Iberia, Gobrius and Bacurius are not pleased at having to hold the Queen Mother prisoner. Panthaea is saddened by her mother's imprisonment, but also happy to have her brother return. There is a hint between Arane and Gobrius that they share some secret and each understands why Arane tries to kill the king.

Acarius is amazed to hear that Bessus has been a hero in the war. Bessus' reputation was that of a coward. Bessus had wronged many men under protection of being a mere fool. Bacurius was one of the men he wronged. Bacurius had considered it beneath his dignity to challenge Bessus. But now that Bessus is a war hero, he may be challenged and made to answer for his earlier wrongs to all of these gentlemen.

Bessus enters. He carries Arane's pardon, and he gives Spaconia to Panthaea. He is called upon to relate the story of the king's single combat, but when he insists upon relating his own important role in the battle he is dismissed as wearisome.

Panthaea longs to see her heroic brother about whom she has heard so much. Spaconia asks her not to accept Tigranes for her husband because Spaconia and he are in love. Panthaea promises to honor her request.

II.ii: In a mob scene the people of Iberia witness the return of Arbaces from the wars. It is a funny scene full of foolish city rustics.

III.i: Gobrius tells Arbaces what a fine sister he has, how lovely and virtuous. He almost encourages Arbaces into an incestuous relationship with her. He tells Arbaces how she has wept at the news of Arbaces's injuries and rejoiced at his victories.

When Panthaea meets Arbaces in court for the first time in years, she is immediately smitten with him. He feels the guilty pangs of incestuous love for her and at first refuses to believe that she is his sister. But when Tigranes is also smitten by her and begs to be introduced to his bride, Arbaces becomes jealous. Panthaea fears that she does not please her brother and that he wishes to renounce his relationship to her. Spaconia is upset that Tigranes has fallen so easily for the woman. Arbaces sends Tigranes to prison in his jealousy, though he masks it by saying that it is because Tigranes will not rule his tongue in court. When Arbaces kisses Panthaea, he feels the rush of incestuous lust and, to distance himself from sin, sends her to be kept close in her room.

III.ii: Bessus is in real trouble. Two hundred thirteen challenges have come to him, the last being Becarius' demand. He became captain when an Aunt died and left a fortune to a cousin who bought him an army of men. He decides to make all his challengers aware that he is a coward to avoid fighting. He confesses himself a coward to Becarius and gives him his sword to prove it.

III.iii: Arbaces asks Mardonius to be his bawd and acquire Panthaea for him. Mardonius flatly refuses and tries to talk Arbaces out of the sinful liaison. Arbaces is momentarily convinced to avoid incest. But when Bessus enters, Arbaces asks him to be his bawd and obtain Panthaea for him. Bessus is all too willing, offering to obtain his mother for him too. The willingness of the foolish Bessus brings Arbaces again to his senses. He beats Bessus out of the room and swears to avoid sinning with his sister.

IV.i: Gobrius has advised Panthaea to write a letter of contrition to Arbaces requesting to know why she should be imprisoned. He takes the letter himself to Arbaces. Spaconia asks Panthaea to help her to see Tigranes in prison. Panthaea gives her a ring as token to allow her to pass the guards and see her love.

IV.ii: Tigranes in prison laments his own inconsistency. He feels remorse at having behaved so badly in court in front of Spaconia. He feels his imprisonment is justified by his infidelity alone. Spaconia enters and upbraids him but, seeing him contrite, accepts his love again. Arbaces comes to the prison to ease Tigranes's imprisonment, but when he sees Panthaea's maid there with Panthaea's ring as token he grows jealous again. He sends Tigranes and Spaconia to be imprisoned together, which is fine with Spaconia.

Gobrius enters with the letter from Panthaea. He assures Arbaces that Panthaea does not love Tigranes. He entreats Arbaces to send to Panthaea and let her know why she is imprisoned. Arbaces agrees.

IV.iii: Bessus confers with two swordsmen about his plight. They assure him that being beaten is a sign of true valor. They go off with Bessus to hear him tell Bacurius that the beating he has received from Bacurius has made him valorous.

IV.iv: Arbaces tells Panthaea privately that he lusts after her. He begs her both to yield and to resist him in a speech that offers a well-balanced insight into his own inner conflict. To make matters worse, she says she also could love him as a wife. They determine to fight their sinful passions and live as brother and sister. Siblings hold hands, and so they do. Siblings kiss, and so they do. But the kiss changes from compassion to passion, and they avoid each other in shock and disgust.

V.i: Ligones, Spaconia's father, enters with an offer of ransom for Tigranes. He wishes it to be presented to Arbaces. He confesses to Mardonius that he is upset that Spaconia has run off with a cowardly Iberian named Bessus. When Bessus enters with the swordsmen, Ligones beats him for stealing Spaconia. Bessus is soundly thrashed before he can explain that he only brought her to Iberia at Tigranes' bidding. Ligones apologizes, which keeps Bessus' honor intact. Ligones fears that his daughter has turned whore to his king.

V.ii: Ligones visits Tigranes and Spaconia in their cell. He bemoans the loss of his daughter to whoredom, but Tigranes tells him that Spaconia will be his Queen. Ligones is overjoyed.

V.iii: Bessus and the swordsmen find Bacurius and tell him that Bessus will accept his apology for beating him. Instead, Baconius beats the swordsmen, who prove greater cowards than Bessus. They give up their swords to Bacurius. Bessus and the swordsmen retire to drink their valiant beating.

V.iv: Arbaces is at the brink of insanity. His sword drawn, he is determined to kill Gobrius, ravish Panthaea, and commit suicide. Mardonius temporarily talks him out of it. Gobrius enters determined to expose his secret to Arbaces.

Arbaces accuses Gobrius of being a subtle bawd who has praised Panthaea to him in letters and in person until Arbaces can love none but her. Gobrius agrees that it is true. Arbaces then offers to kill Gobrius, who informs him that he would be committing patricide. Arane enters. Arbaces accuses her of cuckolding the king with Gobrius and making Arbaces a bastard king. Threatened with death, Arane confirms Gobrius' story. She had married an old king, could not get a child by him, so offered to make Gobrius' child king if Gobrius would pretend it was her child. The plan worked until the old king succeeded in making Arane pregnant with Panthaea.

Arane is not Arbaces's mother nor is Panthaea his sister. Arbaces is overjoyed to learn that he is not king. He calls together the court. He gives Tigranes back to Ligones without collecting a ransom and promises to send both him and Spaconia home with riches and in high style. Panthaea enters and learns that she is Queen. She immediately determines to make Arbaces her consort. All ends happily.

Tigranes is a more stable king, although he does slip when he first sees Panthaea. His infidelity is momentary, however, and his slip at seeing Panthaea is made more to underscore her beauty and attractions than his vacillation or Spaconia's inability to hold her man.

Gobrius is a small part with a great deal of importance to the happy resolution. He is a staid minister of the people who appears to have a nasty secret, which makes him interesting, but who ultimately has only a pristine secret that reaffirms him as a staid minister of the people. Neatly constructed.

Bacurius is a soldier of conscience. He does not like his first role in the play as jailer to the Queen Mother. He has reservations about imprisoning Tigranes and without reservation allows visits from Spaconia. He also will not suffer fools and beats Bessus and the two swordsmen when they step upon his honor.

Mardonius is an older soldier and apparently Arbaces's best friend and counselor. He is the solid backbone of judgment, a commodity which Arbaces lacks. Arbaces in his passionate fits ultimately listens to Mardonius to his benefit.

Bessus is the fool in Arbaces's court. Although he-like Osric or Polonius in Claudius' court-might be used to demonstrate that Iberia is a state in decline and that Arbaces is luxurious, he is the only member of the court whom Arbaces rejects outright, going so far as to beat him out of doors. Arbaces, then, can be seen as a man of enough judgment to be a good king. His judgement rises only so far, and he desperately needs his three strong counselors-Mardonius, Gobrius, and Bacurius.

Arane is almost no character at all. Her main importance is in trying to poison the king (thus leaving the audience to wonder what is wrong with her son) and confirming Gobrius' story, which leads to the happy resolution.

Spaconia is the typical ingenue. She has little interest outside of following her man and loving him.

Panthaea is more interesting. She is also made in the pattern of the typical ingenue-ingenuous, virtuous, beautiful-but she succumbs to a sinful temptation. She cannot resist the sexual allure of Arbaces anymore than he can resist hers.

The mob depicted in act two is written along the lines of City Comedy characters. They strongly resemble the apprentice characters found in Dekker and Thomas Heywood as well as in Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

There seems to be little reason for setting the play in Iberia / Armenia. The characters barely refer to their settings at all, and the places have no direct relation to the play itself.

The mob scene in act two acts mainly as an opportunity for large spectacle. The number of actors on the stage may or may not have been large, but the anticipation they build for the parade and Royal speech indicates that the pomp must have been remarkable.

Arbaces's habit of extremes seems to dwindle in III.iii. At first he lusts after Panthaea and requests the stout Mardonius to be bawd. Mardonius's rebuke corrects him. Still, he requests Bessus to be his bawd. Bessus' eagerness disgusts Arbaces and galvanizes him to virtue, at least for the moment. We see in Arbaces, then, a man whose passions may lead but whose judgment controls. That he would lust incestuously and request bawdry from his friends indicates his passion's influence, but his ability twice to choose virtue indicates his self control. He is neither as staid as Mardonius nor as libertine as Bessus. Therefore, Arbaces's real problem is not the extremes of his emotions, but the vacillation and the struggle to choose between passion and judgment. The tension nearly drives him insane by V.iv.

Bessus, on another level, is an apt foil to Arbaces. Both men have distinguished themselves in the war: Arbaces intentionally through bravery, Bessus unintentionally through cowardice. Both men brag about their achievements early in the play: Arbaces truthfully though vaingloriously, Bessus untruthfully. Both men have reason to repent their braggadocio: Arbaces for making himself a fool to his court and Tigranes, Bessus for making himself a target for the men he has wronged. Arbaces's beating of Bessus in III.iii foreshadows his own resolve to commit suicide in V.iv; in both instances Arbaces is trying to overcome his inner turmoil regarding the incest.

Marlowe's Tamburlaine 1 & 2 (for the image of the Miles Gloriosus figure in Renaissance drama. Compare also the magnanimity Tamburlaine shows to the Sultan of Egypt and Arbaces shows to both Arane and Gobrius-all three parental figures who are spared their lives only because of their familial ties to the main character);

Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (for the problem of a woman's purity creating a lustful man);

Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Chapman's The Gentleman Usher, and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (for a comparison of the de praesenti-type marriage, hinted at between Spaconia and Tigranes in Spaconia's lines at II.i.293-95).