 Part 15 of Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadolte Perrin. Marcus Likinius Crassus. Part 4. Even as he spoke such words of encouragement, Crassus saw that not many of his men listened with any eagerness, but when he also bade them to raise the battle cry, he discovered how despondent his army was. So weak, feeble, and uneven was the shout that they made, while that which came from the barbarians was clear and bold. Then as the enemy got to work, their light cavalry rode round on the flanks of the Romans and shot them with arrows, while the male clad horsemen in front, plying their long spears, kept driving them together into a narrow space, except those who, to escape death from the arrows, made bold to rush despondently upon their foes. These did little damage but met with the speedy death from great and fatal wounds, since the spear which the Parthians thrust into their horses was heavy with steel, and often had impetus enough to pierce through two men at once. After fighting in this manner till night came on, the Parthians withdrew, saying that they would grant Crassus one night, in which to bewail his son, unless, with a better regard for his own interests, he should consent to go to Araskis, instead of being carried there. The Parthians then bevelwacked nearby, and were in high hopes, but it was a grievous night for the Romans. They took no steps to bury their dead, nor to care for their wounded and dying, but every man was lamenting his own fate. Rape seemed impossible, whether they waited there for day to come, or plunged by night into a limitless plain. And their wounded caused them much perplexity. They were sure to impede flight if they were carried away, and if they were left behind, their cries would herald to the enemy the retreat of their companions. Although the soldiers held Crassus to blame for all their ills, still they yearned to see his face and hear his voice. But he was lying on the ground by himself, enveloped in darkness. To the multitude an illustration of the ways of fortune, but to the wise an example of foolish ambition which would not let him rest satisfied to be the first and greatest among many myriads of men, but made him think, because he was judged inferior to two men only, that he lacked everything. At this time then Octavius the Legate and Cassius tried to rouse him up and encourage him, but since he was in utter despair they called together on their own authority the Centurions and Captains, and when they had decided, upon deliberation not to remain where they were, they put the army in motion without trumpet signal, and in silence at first. Then the sick and wounded perceived that their comrades were abandoning them, and dreadful disorder and confusion, accompanied by groans and shouts, filled the camp. And after this, as they tried to advance, disorder and panic seized upon them, for they felt sure that the enemy was coming against them. Frequently they would change their course, frequently they would form in order of battle. Some of the wounded who followed them had to be taken up, and others to be laid down, and so all were delayed, except three hundred horsemen under Ignatius, who reached Carhi about midnight. Ignatius hailed the sentinels on the walls in the Roman tongue, and when they answered, ordered them to tell Coponius, their commander, that there had been a great battle between Crassus and the Carthians. Then without another word, and without even telling who he was, he rode off to Zygma. He saved himself and his men, but got a bad name for deserting his general. However, the message shouted to Coponius at that time was of some advantage to Crassus. For Coponius, concluding that the haste and brevity of the message, argued a bearer of no good news, ordered his men to arm forthwith, and as soon as he learned that Crassus was on the march, he went out to meet him, relieved him, and escorted his army into the city. During the night the Parthians, although they were aware of the flight of the Romans, did not pursue, but as soon as day came they attacked and slaughtered those who had been left behind in the Roman camp to the number of four thousand, and then wrote about and seized many who were wandering in the plain. Four cohorts together, also, which Vargon Tinas, the legate, had suffered to get detached from the main body while it was still dark, in which had lost their way, were surrounded on a sort of hill and cut to pieces as they fought, all except twenty men. The Parthians, admiring these men, who tried to push their way through them with drawn swords, made way for them and suffered them to pass through and march deliberately to Carhi. A false report now reached Serena that Crassus, along with the men of highest rank, had made his escape, and that the fugitives who had streamed into Carhi were a mixed rabble unworthy of his notice. Supposing therefore that he had lost the fruits of his victory, but being still in doubt and wishing to learn the truth, in order that he might either wait there and lay siege to Crassus in the city, or else let Carhi alone and pursue him, he sent one of his attendants who could speak both languages up to the walls, with orders to call out in the Roman tongue for Crassus himself, or Cassius, saying that Serena wished to have a conference with them. The interpreter gave this message, and when it was reported to Cassius he accepted the invitation. A little while afterwards though came from the barbarians some Arabs who knew Crassus and Cassius well by sight, having been in their camp before the battle. When these men saw Cassius on the wall, they said that Serena proposed a truce and offered them safe conduct if they would be friends of the king and leave Mesopotamia. For this seesaw was more advantageous to both parties than any resort to extreme measures. Cassius accepted the proposal and asked that time and place be fixed for a conference between Serena and Crassus. The men said that this should be done and rode away. Now Serena was delighted that the men were where he could besiege them, and when they came he led his Parthians up against the city. With many insults they ordered the Romans if they wished to obtain a truce to deliver Crassus and Cassius into their hands and fetters. The Romans were distressed to find themselves deceived, and telling Crassus to abandon his distant and vain hopes of aid from the Armenians, prepared for flight of which none of the men of Carhi were to know of beforehand. But Andromachus, the most faithless of men, learned of it, for Crassus not only confided the secret to him, but made him the guide for the journey. Finally everything was known to the Parthians, for Andromachus reported to them all the details. But since it was not the custom, and not so easy for the Parthians to fly by night, and since Crassus set out by night, Andromachus, by leading the fugitives, now by one route and now by the other, contrived that the pursuers should not be left far behind. And finally he diverted the march into deep marshes, and regions full of ditches, thus making a difficult and circuitous for those who still followed him. For there were some who conjectured that the twisting and turning of Andromachus boated no good, and therefore did not follow him. Crassus indeed went back again to Carhi, and when his guides who were Arabs urged him to wait there until the moon had passed the scorpion, he said that he feared the archer even more than the scorpion, and rode off into Syria with five hundred horsemen. And others too, employing trusty guides, reached a hill country named Sinaca, and established themselves in safety before day came. These were about five thousand men, and they were led by Octavius, a brave man. But Day found Crassus a prey to the wiles of Andromachus in the difficult places and the marsh. There were with him four cohorts of men and arms, a few horsemen all told, and five lectors. With these he got back into the road with great difficulty, and when the enemy at once pressed upon him, and since he was about twenty furlongs short of the junction with Octavius, he took refuge on another hill, not so difficult for cavalry, nor yet so strong a position, but one that lay below Sinaca and was connected with it by long ridge running through the mist of the plain. His danger was therefore to be seen by Octavius. And Octavius ran first with a few men to bring him aid from the higher ground, then the rest of his men, reproaching themselves with cowardice, plunged forward and falling upon the enemy and sweeping them from the hill, enveloped Crassus round about, and covered him with their shields, boldly declaring that no Parthian missile should smite their imperator till they had all died fighting in his defense. And now Serena, observing that his Parthians were already less impetuous in their attacks, and that if night should come on and the Romans should reach the hills, it would be altogether impossible to capture them, brought a stratagem to bear on Crassus. Some of his Roman captives were first released, who, while in his camp, had heard the Barbarians saying to one another, as they had been ordered to do, that the king did not wish the war between him and the Romans to be waged relentlessly, but preferred to regain their friendship by doing them the favor of treating Crassus kindly. Then the Barbarians ceased fighting, and Serena, with his chief officers, rode quietly up to the hill, unstrung his bow, held out his right hand, and invited Crassus to come to terms, saying, I have put your valor and power to the test against the wishes of the king, who now, of his own accord, shows you the mildness and friendliness of his feelings by offering you to make a truce, if you will withdraw, and by affording you the means of safety. When Serena said this, the rest of the Romans eagerly accepted his proposal and were full of joy, but Crassus, whose every discomforture at the hands of the Barbarians had been due to fraud, and who thought the suddenness of their change, a strange thing, would not reply, but took the matter into consideration. His soldiers, however, cried out and urged him to accept, then fell to abusing and reviling him for putting them forward to fight men with whom he himself had not the courage to confer, even when they came unarmed. At first he tried in treaties and arguments. If they would hold out for what was left of the day, during the night they could reach the mountains in rough country, and he showed them the road thither, and exhorted them not to abandon hope when safety was so near. But when they grew angry with him and clashed their arms together and threatening him, then he was terrified and began to go towards Serena. As he went, however, he turned and said, Octavius and Petronius, and ye other Roman commanders here present, ye see that I go not because I must, and ye are the eyewitnesses of the shameful violence I suffer. But tell the world, if ye get safely home, that Crassus perished because he was deceived by his enemies, and not because he was delivered up to them by his countrymen. Octavius, however, and those about him, did not remain, but went down from the hill with Crassus. The Lictors who were following him, Crassus, drove back. The first of the Barbarians to meet him were two half-breed Greeks, who left from their horses and made obiescence to him. Then addressing him in the Greek tongue, they urged him to send a party forward to assure themselves that Serena and those about him were advancing to the conference without armor and without weapons. Crassus replied that if he had the least concern for his life, he would not have come into their hands. But nevertheless he sent two Roskii, brothers, to inquire on what terms and in what numbers they should hold their meeting. These men were promptly seized and detained by Serena, while he himself, with his chief officers, advanced on horseback, saying, What is this, the Roman Imperator on foot, while we are mounted? Then he ordered a horse to be brought for Crassus. And when Crassus answered that neither of them were as at fault, since each was following the custom of his country in this meeting, Serena said that for that moment there was a truce and peace between King Hirodes and the Romans, but it was necessary to go forward to the river Euphrates, and there have the contracts put in writing. For you Romans, at least, said he, are not very mindful of agreements. And he held out his right hand to Crassus. Then when Crassus proposed to send for a horse, Serena said that there was no need of it, for the king offers you this one. At the same time a horse with gold studded bridle stood at Crassus' side, and the grooms lifted Crassus up and mounted him, and then ran along by him, quickening his horse's pace with blows. Octavius was first to seize the bridle, and after him Petronius, one of the legionary tribunes. Then the rest of the Romans in the party surrounded the horse, trying to stop him, and dragging away those who crowded in upon Crassus on either side. Scuffling followed, and a tumult then blows. Crassus drew his sword and slew the groom of one of the barbarians, but another smote Octavius down from behind. Petronius had no offensive weapons, but when he was struck on the breastplate, leapt down from his horse unwounded. Crassus was killed by a Parthian name, Poma Zathris. Some, however, say that it was not this man, but another who killed Crassus, and that this man cut off the head and right hand of Crassus as he lay upon the ground. His details, however, are matters of conjecture rather than of knowledge. Four of the Romans who were present there in fighting about Crassus, some were slain, and others fled back to the hill. Thithard the Parthians came and said that as for Crassus he had met with his deserts, but that Serena ordered the rest of the Romans to come down without fear. Thereupon some of them went down and delivered themselves, but the rest scattered during the night, and of those a very few made their escape, and the rest of them were hunted down by the Arabs, captured and cut to pieces. In the whole campaign twenty thousand are said to have been killed, and ten thousand have been taken alive. Serena now took the head and hand of Crassus and sent them to Hyrodes and Armenia, but he himself sent word by messengers to Seleucia that he was bringing Crassus there alive and prepared a laughable sort of procession which he insultingly called a triumph. That one of his captives, who bore the greatest likeness to Crassus, Gaius Pachianus, put on a woman's royal robe and under instructions to answer to the name of Crassus into the title of Imperator, when so addressed, was conducted along on horseback. Before him rode trumpeters and a few lictors born on camels. From the façies of the lictors, purses were suspended, and to their axes were fastened, Roman heads newly cut off. Behind these followed courtesans of Seleucia, musicians who sang many scurrilous and ridiculous songs about the effeminacy and cowardness of Crassus, and these things were for all to see. But before the assembled senate of Seleucia, Serena brought the censious books of the Milisacchia of Aristides, and in this manner at least there was no falsehood on his part, for the books were found in the baggage of Roschius and he gave Serena occasion to heap much insulting ridicule upon the Romans, since they could not, even when going to war, let such subjects and writings alone. The people of Seleucia, however, appreciated the wisdom of Aesop when they saw Serena with a wallet of obscenities from the Milisacchia in front of him, but trailing behind him a Parthian Cyprus on so many wagonloads of concubines. After a fashion, his train was a counterpart to the fabled Echidnai and Skytelai, among serpents, by showing its conspicuous and forward portions fearful and savage, which spears archery and horse, but trailing off in the rear of the line into dances, symbols, loots, and nocturnal revels with women. Roschius was certainly culpable, but it was shameless that the Parthians, to find fault with the Milisacchia when many of the royal line of their Eroscadae were sprung from the Milisian and Ionian courtesans. While this was going on, it happened that Herodes was at last reconciled with Ardivasides, the Armenian, and agreed to receive the latter's sister as wife for his son, Pecorus. And there were reciprocal banquets and drinking bouts, at which many Greek compositions were introduced. For Herodes was well acquainted both with the Greek language and literature, and Ardivasides actually composed tragedies and wrote orations and histories, some of which are preserved. Now, when the head of Crassus was brought to the king's door, the tables had been removed, and a tragic actor, Jason by name of Trales, was singing that part of the Bacchai of Euripides, where Agave is about to appear. While he was receiving his applause, Silakes stood at the door of the banqueting hall, and after a low obiessence cast the head of Crassus into the center of the company. The Parthians lifted it up with the clapping of hands and shouts of joy, and at the king's bidding his servants gave Silakes a seat at the banquet. Then Jason handed his costume of Penteas to one of the Chorus, seized the head of Crassus, and assuming the role of the frenzy to Agave, saying these verses, though as if inspired. We bring from the mountain a tendril fresh cut to the palace, a wonderful prey. This delighted everybody, but when the following dialogue with the Chorus was chanted, Chorus, who slew him? Agave, mine is the honor. Pomezarthes, who happened to be one of the banqueters, sprang up and laid hold of the head, feeling that it was more appropriate for him to say this than for Jason. The king was delighted and bestowed upon Pomezarthes the customary gifts, while to Jason he gave a talent. With such farce as this the expedition of Crassus is said to have closed, just like a tragedy. However, worthy punishment overtook both Hyrodes for his cruelty and Serena for his treachery. For not long after this, Hyrodes became jealous of the reputation of Serena and put him to death. And after, Hyrodes had lost his son, Pachoris, who was defeated in battle by the Romans, and had fallen into a disease which resulted in dropsy, his son, Friates, plodded against his life and gave him Aquanite. And when the disease absorbed the poison, so that it was thrown off with it, and the patient thereby relieved, Friates took the shortest path and strangled his father. End of Marcus Likinius Crassus Part 16 of Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives This is Librivox Recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadolp T'Paren. Comparison of Nikias and Crassus. In comparing the men, first, the wealth of Nikias was acquired in a more blameless manner than that of Crassus. For although it is true that the working of minds cannot be highly regarded, since most of it is carried out by employing malifactors or barbarians, some of whom are kept in chains and done to death in damp and unwholesome places, still when compared to the public confiscations of Sulla and the making of contracts when fire is raging, it will appear in the more favorable light. For Crassus openly utilized these opportunities as men do agriculture and moneylending, and as for the practices which he denied when on trial, namely, taking bribes for his voice in the Senate, wronging the allies, circumventing weak women with his flatteries, and aiding base men to cloak their iniquities, no such charges, even though false were ever made against Nikias. Nay, he was rather laughed at for spending his money lavishly on informers out of cowardice, a practice unbecoming perhaps, in a pericles and in Aristides, but necessary for him, since he was not well stocked with courage, and for this practice, like Kurgis, the orator in later times, boldly took to himself credit before the people, when accused of buying up one of these informers. I am glad indeed, he said, that after such a long political career among you, I have been detected in giving rather than receiving money. As for their outlays of money, Nikias was more public spirited in his noble ambition to make offerings to the gods, and provide the people with gymnastic exhibitions and trained choruses. And yet his whole estate, together with his expenditures, was not a tie than what Crassus expended, when he feasted so many myriads of men at once, and then furnished them with food afterwards. I am therefore amazed that anyone should fail to perceive that vice is a sort of inequality and incrogoody of character, when he sees men amassing money shamefully, and squandering it uselessly. So much regarding their wealth. And now, in their political careers, no chicanery, nor injustice, no violence, nor harshness, attaches to Nikias. But he was deceived, the rather, by alqubiades, and made his appeals to the people with too much caution. Whereas Crassus is accused of much ungenerous faithlessness in his vacillations between friends and enemies. And as for violence, he himself could not deny that when he stood for the consulship he hired men to lay hands on Cato and Domitius. And in the assembly which voted on the allotment of the provinces, many were wounded and four killed, and Crassus himself, a fact which escapes us in the narrative of his life, when Lucius Analius, a senator who was speaking in opposition, smote him in the face with his fist, and drove him bleeding from the forum. But if Crassus was violent and tyrannical in these manners, Nikias went to the other extreme. His timidity and cowardice in the public service and his subservience to the basest men deserves the severest censure. Crassus indeed showed a certain loftiness and largeness of spirit in this regard, for he contended not with men like Cleon and Hyperbolus, far from it, but against the brilliant Caesar and against Pompey with his three triumphs. And he did not shrink from their path, but made himself a match for each in power, and in the dignity of his sensorial office actually surpassed Pompey. For in the supreme struggles of a political career, one must not adopt a course which awakens no envy, but one which dazzles men, throwing envy into the shadow by the greatness of one's power. But if, like Nikias, you set your heart above all else on security and quiet, and fear Alcabayades on the Bema, and the Lycomedonians of Pylos, and Pridicus and Thrace, then there is ample room in the city where you sit at leisure, removed from all activity, and weaving for yourself, as Sundry's office say, a crown of tranquility. His love of peace indeed had something godlike about it, and his putting a stop to the war was a political achievement, most truly Hellenic in its scope. And because Nikias did this, Crassus is not worthy of comparison with him, nor would he have been made, even though in his ardor he had made the Caspian Sea, or the Indian Ocean, a boundary of the Roman Empire. When however, a man wields superior power in a city which is open to the appeals of virtue, he should not give a footing to the base, nor command to those who are no commanders at all, nor confidence to those who deserve no confidence. But this is just what Nikias did when, of his own motion, he sent Cleon in command of the army, a man who was nothing more to the city than a shameless brawler from the Bema. I do not indeed commend Crassus in the war with Spartacus for pressing forward into action with greater speed than safety, although it was natural for a man of his ambition to fear that Pompey would come and rob him of his glory, just as Mumeus had robbed Metellus of Corinth. But the conduct of Nikias was altogether strange and terrible, for it was not while it afforded him good hopes of success, or even of ease that he renounced his ambition to hold the command in favor of his enemy, but when he saw that his generalship involved him in great peril, then he was content to betray the common good at the price of his own safety. And yet, the mysticlies, during the Persian wars, to prevent a worthless and senseless man from ruining the city as one of its generals, bought him off from the office, and Cato stood for the tribune ship when he saw that it would involve him in the greatest toil and danger in behalf of the city. Nikias, on the other hand, kept himself in command against Minoa, and Scythera, and the wretched Mellions, but when it was necessary to fight the Lachamendonians, stripped off his generals' cloak, handed over to the inexperience and rashness of Cleon, ships, men, arms, and a command requiring the utmost experience, and so betrayed not only his own reputation, but also the security and safety of his own country. Wherefore he was afterwards forced, against his will and inclination, to wage war on Syracuse, for it was thought to be of no calculation of what was expedient, but merely his love of ease and lack of spirit which made him use all his efforts to rob the city of Sicily. There is, however, this proof of his great reasonableness, namely, that although he was always adverse to war and avoided military command, the Athenians ceased not to elect him to it, believing him to be their most experienced and best general. Whereas Crassus, though he was all the while eager for military command, did not succeed in getting it except in the servile war, and then of necessity because Pompey and Metellus and both of the Leculae were away. And yet by that time he had acquired the greatest honor and influence in the city. But it would seem that even his best friends thought him, in the words of the comic poet, the bravest warrior everywhere, but in the field. And yet this did not prevent the Romans from being overwhelmed by his ambitious love of command, for the Athenians sent Nicaeus out to war against his will, but the Romans were let out by Crassus against theirs. It was owing to Crassus that his city, but to his city that Nicaeus suffered misfortune. However, in this there was more ground for praising Nicaeus than for blaming Crassus. The former brought into play the experience and calculation of a wise leader, and did not share the deceitful hopes of his fellow-citizens, but insisted that it was beyond his power to take Sicily, whereas Crassus made the mistake of entering upon the Parthian War as a very easy undertaking. And yet his aims were high. While Caesar was subduing the West, Gaul, Germany and Britain, he insisted on marching against the East in India and on completing the reduction of Asia which had begun by Pompey and Leculas. These were men of good intentions and honorably disposed towards all, and yet they elected the same course as Crassus and adopted the same principles. For Pompey met with opposition from the Senate when his province was allotted to him, and when Caesar routed 300,000 Germans, Cato moved in the Senate that he should be delivered up to those whom he had vanquished, and so bring upon his own head the punishment for his breach of faith. But the people turned contemptuously from Cato, sacrificed to the gods for 15 days in honor of Caesar's victory and were full of joy. What then would have been their feelings, and for how many days would they have sacrificed to the gods if Crassus had written to them from Babylon that he was victorious, and had overrun Medea, Persia, Hercannia, Susa, and Bactria, and delivered them Roman provinces? For if wrong must be done, as Euripides says, when men cannot keep quiet, and know not how to enjoy contentedly the blessings which they already have, they'll let it not be made in raiding Scandia, or Mende, or in beating up the fugitive Iganetans who have forsaken their own and hidden themselves away like birds in another territory, but let a high praise be demanded for the wrongdoing, and not let justice be thrown to the winds lightly, nor on the first best terms, as if it were some trifling or insignificant thing. Those who have praise for Alexander's expedition, but blame for that of Crassus, unfairly judge of a beginning by its end. As to the actual conduct of their expeditions, Nicius has not a little to his credit, for he conquered his enemies in many battles, and barely missed taking Syracuse, and not all his failures were due to himself, but they might be ascribed to his disease and the jealousy of his fellow citizens at home. But Crassus made so many blunders that he gave fortune no chance to favor him. We may not therefore wonder that his imbecility succumbed to the power of the Parthians, but rather that it prevailed over the usual good fortune of the Romans. Since one of them was wholly given to divination, and the other wholly neglected it, and both alike perished, it is hard to draw a safe conclusion from the premises. But failure from caution, going hand in hand with ancient and prevalent opinion, is more reasonable than lawlessness and obstinacy. In his end, however, Crassus was the less worthy of reproach. He did not surrender himself, nor was he bound, nor yet beguiled, but yielded to the entreaties of his friends and fell a prey to the perfidy of his enemies. Whereas Nicius was led by the hope of his shameful and inglorious safety to put himself into the hands of his enemies, thereby making his death a greater disgrace for him. End of Comparison of Nicius with Crassus And end of Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated Ibernadalt Perin.