 Part XI. But in this nick of time and crisis of their peril, Gondyllus came to them from Corinth with a single trireme. All hawking to meet him, as was natural, he told them that Gillipus would come speedily, and that other ships of war were sailing to their aid. Air yet they could put implicit faith in what Gondyllus told them. There came a messenger from Gillipus bidding them come out to meet him. Then they plucked apart and donned their arms. No sooner had Gillipus come up than he led his men in battle array against the Athenians. But when Nikeus arrayed his men too over against him, Gillipus halted under arms and sent a herald with the message that he offered the Athenians safe conduct if they would depart from Sicily. Nikeus stained no answer to this, but some of his soldiers mocked and asked the herald if the presence of a single Spartan cloak and staff had made the prospects of the Syracusans on a sudden so secure that they could offer to deride the Athenians who had restored to the Lachodimonians out of prison and fetters three hundred men far sturdier than Gillipus and longer haired. Timaeus says that the Sicilians also made no account of Gillipus, later on, indeed, because they learned to know his base greed and penuriousness, but as soon as they set eyes upon him they jeered at his cloak and his long hair. Then, however, Timaeus himself says that as soon as Gillipus showed himself, for all the world like an owl among birds, many flocked to him with ready offers of military service. This latter statement has more truth in it than his first, for in the staff and cloak of Gillipus men beheld the symbols of the majesty of Sparta and rallied round them. Moreover, that the whole achievement of deliverance was his is the testimony not of Thucydides, but also of Philistus, who was a Syracusan and an eyewitness of the events thereof. Well then, in the first battle the Athenians were victors and slew some few of the Syracusans and also Congillus the Corinthian, but on the day following Gillipus showed what a great thing experience is. Although he had the same infantry and the same cavalry and the same localities to deal with, he did not do it in the same way as before, but changed his tactics and thereby conquered the Athenians. And as they fled to their camp he halted Syracusans in their pursuit, and with the very stones and timbers which his enemies had brought up for their own use, he carried on the cross-wall until it intersected the besiegers wall of enclosure, so that their superior strength in the field really availed them not. After this the Syracusans plucked up heart and went to manning their ships, while their own horsemen and those of their allies would ride about and cut off many of their besiegers. Syracus also went out in person to the cities of Sicily and roused up and united them all into vigorous and obedient concert with him. Nicaeus therefore fell back again upon those views of the undertaking which he had held at the outset, and fully aware of the reversal which it had suffered, became dejected and wrote a dispatch to the Athenians urging them to send out another armament, or else recall the one already in Sicily, begging them also in any case to relieve him of his command because of his disease. Even before this the Athenians had made preparations to send another force to Sicily, but the leading men among them felt some jealousy of the preliminary good fortune of Nicaeus, and so had induced many delays. Now, however, they were all eagerness to send aid. It was therefore determined that Demosthenes should sail with a large armament in the spring, and while it was yet winter Urimeddon proceeded him with a smaller fleet, bringing money and announcing the selection of colleagues for Nicaeus from among the members of the expedition there, to wit, Euthydemus and Menander. But in the meantime Nicaeus was suddenly attacked by land and sea. With his fleet, though vanquished at first, he succeeded in repulsing the enemy, and sank many of their ships, but he was not prompt enough in sending aid to his garrison at Flamerium, and so Gilepus, who had fallen upon it suddenly, captured it. Large naval stores and moneys were in deposit there, all of which Gilepus secured, besides killing many men and taking many prisoners. What was most important of all, he robbed Nicaeus of his easy importation of supplies. These had been safely and speedily brought up in past Flamerium as long as the Athenians held that post. But now that they had been driven from it, the process was a difficult one, and involved fighting with the enemy who lay at anchor there. And besides all this, the Syracusans felt that their fleet had been defeated, not through any superior strength in their enemy, but by reason of their own disorderly pursuit of that enemy. Accordingly, they were making more vigorous preparations to try the issue again. But Nicaeus did not want a sea-fight. He said it would be great folly when so large an armament was sailing to their aid in hurrying up fresh troops under Demosthenes to fight the issue out with inferior forces, and those wretchedly supplied. Menander and Euthydemus, however, who had just been appointed to their offices, were moved by an ambitious rivalry with both the other generals. They longed to anticipate Demosthenes in some brilliant exploit, and to eclipse Nicaeus. They therefore made much of their city's reputation. This, they declared again and again, would be altogether ruined and dissipated if they should show fear when the Syracusans sailed out to attack them. And so they forced a decision to give battle by sea. But they were simply outmaneuvered by Eraston, the Corinthian captain, in the matter of the noonday meal, as Thucydides relates, and then worsted in action with the loss of many men. And so a great disaster encompassed Nicaeus. He had met with disaster while in sole command, and was now again brought to grief by his colleagues. But at this juncture Demosthenes hoven sight off the harbors, most resplendent in his array and most terrifying to the enemy. He brought five thousand hoplides on seventy-three ships of war, besides javeliners, and archers, and slingers, to no less a number than three thousand. What with the gleam of his arms and the insignia of his triremes, and the multitude of his coxons and pipers, he made a spectacular display, and one which smote the enemy with dismay. Again then, as was natural, fear reigned among the Syracusans. They saw before them no final release from their perils, but only useless toils and vain self-destruction. But the joy of Nicaeus at the presence of this fresh force was not long lived. Nay, at the very first council of war, when Demosthenes urged an immediate attack upon the enemy, a settlement of the whole struggle by the speediest hazard, and either the capture of Syracuse or else a return home, he was in fearful amaze at such aggressive daring, and begged that nothing be done rashly or foolishly. Delay, he said, was sure to work against the enemy. They no longer had money to spend, and their allies would no longer stand by them. Let them only be really distressed by the straits they were in, and they would soon come to him again for terms, as they had done before. For not a few of the men of Syracuse were in secret communication with Nicaeus. They urged him to bide his time, on the ground that even now they were worn out by the war and weary of guillapice, and that if their necessities should but increase a little, they would give over altogether. At some of these matters Nicaeus could only hint darkly, of others he was unwilling to speak in public, and so made the generals think him cowardly. It was the same story over again with him, they would say. Delay, postponements, and hair-splitting distinctions. He had already forfeited the golden moment by not attacking the enemy at once, but rather going stale in winning their contempt. So they sided with Demosthenes, and Nicaeus with great reluctance was forced to yield. Therefore Demosthenes, with the infantry, made a night attack upon Epipoli. He took some of the enemy by surprise and slew them, others who tried to make a stand, he routed. Victorious he did not halt, but pressed on farther, until he fell in with the Botians. These were the first of the enemy to form in battle array, and dashing upon the Athenians with spears at rest and with loud shouts, they repulsed them and slew many of them there. Through the whole army of attack there was at once panic and confusion. The part that was still pressing on victoriously was presently choked up with the part that fled, and the part that was yet coming up to the attack was beaten back by the panic-stricken and fell foul of itself, supposing that the fugitives were pursuers and treating friends as foes. Their huddling together in fear and ignorance and the deceitfulness of their vision plunged the Athenians into terrible perplexities and disasters. For the night was one which afforded neither absolute darkness nor a steady light. The moon was low on the horizon and was partially obscured by numerous armed figures moving to and fro in her light, and so she naturally made even friends mutually suspicious through fear of foes by not distinguishing their forms clearly. Besides, it somehow happened that the Athenians had the moon at their backs, so that they cast their shadows on their own men in front of them and thus obscured their number and the brilliancy of their weapons, while in the case of the enemy the reflection of the moon upon their shields made them seem far more numerous than they really were and more resplendent to the eye. Finally, when the Athenians gave ground, the enemy attacked them on all sides and put them to flight. Some of them died at the hands of their pursuers, others by one another's hands, and others still by plunging down the cliffs. The scattered and wandering fugitives when day came were overtaken and cut to pieces by the enemy's horsemen. The dead amounted in all to two thousand, and of the survivors few saved their armor with their lives. Nikeas, accordingly, was overcome by this disaster, though it did not take him wholly by surprise, and he accused Demosthenes of rashness. Demosthenes defended himself on this score and then urged that they sail away as soon as they could. No other force would come to their aid, he declared, and with the one they had they could not finally master the enemy, since even if they were victorious in battle they would be forced to change their base and abandon their present position. This was always, as they heard, a grievous and unwholesome spot for encampment, and now particularly, as they saw, it was actually deadly on account of the season of the year. For it was the beginning of autumn, many were sick already, and all were in low spirits. But Nikeas could not bear to hear of sailing off in flight, not because he had no fear of the Syracusans, but because he was more afraid of the Athenians with their prosecutions and denunciations. Nothing dreadful, he would say, was to be expected where they were, and even if the worse should come, he chose rather to die at the hands of his enemies than at the hands of his fellow-citizens. In this he was not like-minded with Leon of Byzantium, who at a later time said to his fellow-citizens, I would rather be put to death by you than with you. However, regarding the exact spot to which they should remove their camp, Nikeas said they would deliberate at their leisure. Thereupon Demosthenes, who had not been successful in his previous plan, ceased trying to carry his point, and so led the rest of the generals to believe that Nikeas must have confident expectations from his correspondence in the city in making such a sturdy fight against the proposed retreat. They therefore sided with him. However, a fresh army came to the aid of the Syracusans, and sickness kept spreading among the Athenians, so that at last Nikeas also decided in favor of a change of base, and ordered the soldiers to hold themselves in readiness to sail away. But just as everything was prepared for this and none of the enemy were on the watch, since they did not expect the move at all, there came an eclipse of the moon by night. This was a great terror to Nikeas and all those who were ignorant or superstitious enough to quake at such a sight. The obscuration of the sun towards the end of the month was already understood, even by the common folk, as caused somehow or other by the moon. But what it was that the moon encountered, and how, being at the full, she should on a sudden lose her light and emit all sorts of colors, this was no easy thing to comprehend. Men thought it uncanny, a sign sent from God in advance of diverse great calamities. The first man to put in writing the clearest and boldest of all doctrines about the changing phases of the moon was Anak Sagaris. But he was no ancient authority, nor was his doctrine in high repute. It was still under seal of secrecy, and made its way slowly among a few only, who received it with a certain caution rather than with implicit confidence. Men could not abide the natural philosophers and visionaries, as they were then called, for that they reduced the divine agency down to irrational causes, blind forces, and necessary incidents. Even Protagoras had to go into exile, and Anak Sagaris was with difficulty rescued from imprisonment by Pericles, and Socrates, though he had nothing whatever to do with such matters, nevertheless lost his life because of philosophy. It was not until later times that the radiant repute of Plato, because of the life the man led, and because he subjected the compulsions of the physical world to divine and more sovereign principles, took away the obliquy of such doctrines as these, and gave their science free course among all men. At any rate his friend Dian, although the moon suffered in eclipse at the time when he was about to set out from Zacanthus on his voyage against Dionysius, was in no wise disturbed, but put to sea, landed at Syracuse, and drove out the tyrant. However, it was the lot of Nikeus at this time to be without even a soothsayer who was expert. The one who had been his associate, and who used to set him free from most of his superstition, stillbitties, had died a short time before. For indeed this sign from heaven, as Philakoras observed, was not an obnoxious one to fugitives, but rather very propitious. Concealment is just what deeds of fear need, whereas light is an enemy to them. And besides, men were want to be on their guard against portents of sun and moon for three days only, as Autocletes has remarked in his exegetics. But Nikeus persuaded the Athenians to wait for another full period of the moon, as if forsooth he did not see that the planet was restored to purity and splendor, just as soon as she had passed beyond the region which was darkened and obscured by the earth. Abandoning almost everything else, Nikeus lay there, sacrificing and dividing until the enemy came up against him. With their land forces they laid siege to his walls and camp, and with their fleet they took possession of the harbor round about. Not only the men of Syracuse in their triremes, but even the striplings, on board of fishing smacks and skiffs, sailed up from every side with challenges and insults for the Athenians. To one of these, a boy of noble parentage, Heracletes by name, who had driven his boat well on before the rest, an addict ship gave chase and was like to capture him. But the boy's uncle, Polycus, concerned for his safety, rode out to his defense with the ten triremes which were under his orders, and then the other commanders, fearing in turn for the safety of Polycus, likewise put out for the scene of action. A fierce sea-fight was thus brought on in which the Syracusans were victorious, and slew Eurymedan along with many others. Accordingly the Athenians could no longer endure to remain there, but cried out loudly upon their generals and bade them withdraw by land, for the Syracusans, immediately after their victory, had blocked up and shut off the mouth of the harbor. But Nikeus could not consent to this. He said it would be a terrible thing to abandon so many transports and triremes almost two hundred in number. So he embarked the best of his infantry and the most efficient of his javeliners to man a hundred and ten triremes. The rest lacked ores. Then he stationed the remainder of his army along the shore of the harbor, abandoning his main camp and the walls which connected it with Heracleteum. And so it was that the Syracusans, who had so long been unable to offer their customary sacrifice to Heracletes, offered it then, priests and generals going up to the temple for this purpose while their triremes were emanning. Presently their diviners announced to the Syracusans that the sacrifices indeed indicated a splendid victory for them if only they did not begin the fighting but acted on the defensive. Heracletes also, they said, always won the day because he acted on the defensive and suffered himself to be attacked first. Thus encouraged they put out from shore. This proved the greatest and hottest sea-fight they had yet made, and roused as many tumultuous emotions in those who were mere spectators as in those who did the fighting, because the whole action was in plain sight, and took on shifts and turns which were varied, unexpected, and sudden. Their own equipment wrought the Athenians no less harmed than did that of their enemy, for they fought against light and nimble ships which bore down upon them from different directions at once, while their own were heavy and clumsy and all crowded together. Besides, they were bombarded with stones whose blow was just as effective however they liked, whereas they could reply only with javelins and arrows, whose proper cast was disturbed by the tossing water, so that they did not all fly head on to their mark. This method of fighting was taught the Syracusans by Aristan the Corinthian captain, who fought zealously while the battle lasted only to fall just as the Syracusans were victorious. The Athenians suffered such great rout and loss that they were cut off from flight by sea. Even by land they saw that their salvation was a difficult matter, so that they neither tried to hinder the enemy from towing away their ships under their very eyes, nor did they ask the privilege of taking up their dead. These, forsooth, could go unburied. The survivors were confronted with a more pitiful sight in the abandonment of their sick and wounded, and thought themselves more wretched still than their dead, since they were sure to come with more sorrows than they to the same end after all. They purposed to set out during the night, and Gillipus, who saw that the Syracusans were given over to sacrificial revels because of their victory and the festival of Heracles, disparate of persuading or compelling them to rise up from their pleasures at once and attack their enemy as he departed. But Hermacrates, all on his own account, concocted a trick to put upon Nikeus and sent certain companions to him with assurances that they were come from those men who before this often held secret conferences with him. They advised Nikeus not to set out during the night, in as much as the Syracusans had laid snares for him and preoccupied the ways of escape. Nikeus was completely out-generaled by this trick, and so ended by suffering in very truth at the hands of his enemies what their lies had made him fear. For the Syracusans set forth at break of day, occupied the difficult points in the roads, fortified the river-forwards, cut away the bridges, and posted their cavalry in the smooth open spaces, so that no spot was left where the Athenians could go forward without fighting. They waited there for all that day and the following night, and then set out, for all the world as though they were quitting their native city and not an enemy's country, with wailings and lamentations at their lack of the necessaries of life and their enforced abandonment of helpless friends and comrades. And yet they regarded these present sorrows as lighter than those which they must expect to come. Many were the fearful scenes in the camp, but the most pitiful side of all was Nikeus himself, undone by his sickness, and reduced, as he little deserved, to a scanty diet, and to the smallest supply of those personal comforts whereof he stood so much in need because of his disease. And yet for all his weakness he persisted in doing what many of the strong could barely endure, and all saw plainly that it was not for his own sake or for any mere love of life that he was faithful to his tasks, but that for their sakes he would not give up hope. The rest, for very fear and distress, had recourse to lamentations and tears, but whenever he was driven to this past it was plainly because he was contrasting the shameful dishonor to which his expedition had now come, with the great and glorious successes which he had hoped to achieve. Besides, it was not merely the side of him now, but also the memory of the arguments and exhortations with which he had once tried to prevent the sailing of the expedition, that led men to think him all the more unworthy to suffer such hardships now, and they had no courage to hope for aid from the gods when they reflected that a man so devout as he, and one who had performed so many great and splendid religious services, now met with no seemlier fortune than the basest and most obscure man in his army. However, it was this very Nikeus who tried, both by words and looks and kindly manner, to show himself superior to his dreadful lot. And during all the march which he conducted for eight successive days, though suffering from the missiles of the enemy, he yet succeeded in keeping his own forces from defeat, until Demosthenes and his detachment of the army were captured. These fell behind as they fought their way along, and were surrounded on the homestead of Palaeus Elis. Demosthenes himself drew his sword and gave himself a thrust. He did not, however, succeed in killing himself, since the enemy quickly closed in upon him and seized him. When the Syracusans rode up and told Nikeus of this disaster, he first sent horsemen to make certain that the force of Demosthenes was really taken, and then proposed to Gilepus a truce permitting the Athenians to depart from Sicily after giving hostages to the Syracusans for all the monies which they had expended in the war. But they would not entertain the proposal. Nay, with insolent rage they reviled and insulted him, and kept pelting him with missiles, destitute as he was of all the necessaries of life. However, through that night and the following day he managed to hold out, and finally came under constant fire to the river Acenaris. There some of his men were crowded along by the enemy and thrust into the stream, while others, in advance of pursuit, were impelled by their thirsts to cast themselves in, and an exceeding grate and savage carnage raged in the river itself, men being butchered as they drank. At last Nikeus fell down at the feet of Gilepus and cried, Have pity, Gilepus, now that you are victorious, not on me at all, though my great successes have brought me name and fame, but on the rest of these Athenians. Remember that the fortunes of war are common to all, and that the Athenians, when they were in good fortune, used it with moderation and gentleness toward you. So spake, Nikeus, and Gilepus felt some compunction, both at the side of him and at what he said. For he knew that the Lachodemonians had been well treated by him when the peace was made, and besides he thought it would increase his own fame if he should bring home alive the generals who had opposed him. Therefore he raised Nikeus up, gave him words of cheer, and issued command to take the rest of his men alive. But the command made its way slowly along, so that the spared were far fewer than the slain, and yet many were stolen and hidden away by the soldiery. The public prisoners were collected together, the fairest and tallest trees along the river bank were hung with the captured suits of armor, and then the victors crowned themselves with wreaths, adorned their horses splendidly, while they sheared and cropped the horses of their conquered foes, and so marched into the city. They had brought to successful end a struggle which was the most brilliant ever made by Hellenes against Hellenes, and had won the completest of victories by the most overwhelming and impetuous display of zeal and valor. At a general assembly of the Syracusans and their allies, the Syracleys, the popular leader, brought in a motion first, that the day on which they had taken Nikeus be made a holy day, with sacrifices and abstention from labour, and that the festival be called Acenaria, from the river Acenaris. The day was the 26th of the month, Carnius, which the Athenians call Metagaitnion, and second, that the serving men of the Athenians and their immediate allies be sold into slavery, while the freemen and the Sicilian Hellenes who had joined them be cast into the stone quarries for watch and ward, all except the generals who should be put to death. These propositions were adopted by the Syracusans. When Hermacrates protested that there was something better than victory, to wit, a noble use of victory, he was melt with a tumult of disapproval, and when Gilepas demanded the Athenian generals as his prize, that he might take them alive to the Lachodemonians, the Syracusans, now grown insolent with their good fortune, abused him roundly. They were the more ready to do this because, all through the war, they had found it hard to put up with his harshness and the Lachonian style with which he exercised his authority. Timaeus says, moreover, that they denounced his exceeding penuriousness and avarice, and inherited infirmity, it would seem, since his father, Cleandridas, was convicted of taking bribes and he had to flee his country. And Gilepas himself, for abstracting thirty talents from the thousand which Lysander had sent to Sparta, and hiding them in the roof of his house, as an informer was prompt to show, was banished in the deepest disgrace. But this has been told with more detail in my life of Lysander. Timaeus denies that Demosthenes and Icheas were put to death by the orders of the Syracusans as Philistus and Thucydides state, but rather, Homochrates sent word to them of the decision of the assembly while it was yet in session, and with the convivance of one of their guards they took their own lives. Their bodies, however, he says, were cast out at the prison door, and lay there in plain sight of all who craved the spectacle. And I learned that down to this day there is shown among the treasures of a temple in Syracuse a shield which is said to have been the shield of Nicaeus. It is a welded mosaic of gold and purple interwoven with rare skill. Most of the Athenians perished in the stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily rations being a pint of barley-meal and a half pint of water. But not a few were stolen away and sold into slavery or succeeded in passing themselves off for serving men. These when they were sold were branded on the forehead with the mark of a horse. Yes, there were some free men who actually suffered this indignity in addition to their servitude. But even these were helped by their restrained and decorous bearing. Some were speedily set free, and some remained with their masters in positions of honour. Some also were saved for the sake of Euryphides. For the Sicilians it would seem, more than any other Hellenes outside the homeland had a yearning fondness for his poetry. They were forever learning by heart the little specimens and morsels of it which visitors brought them from time to time, and imparting them to one another with fond delight. In the present case at any rate they say that many Athenians who reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affectionate hearts and recounted to him some that they had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what they were remembered of his works, and some that when they were roaming about after the final battle they had received food and drink for singing some of his choral hymns. Surely then one need not wonder at the story that the Canians, when a vessel of theirs would have put in at the harbour of Syracuse to escape pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept outside, until on being asked if they knew any songs of Euryphides they declared that they did indeed, and were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel safely in. The Athenians, they say, put no faith in the first tidings of the Calamity, most of all because of the messenger who brought them. A certain stranger, as it would seem, landed at the Piraeus, took a seat in a barber's shop, and began to discourse of what had happened as if the Athenians already knew all about it. The barber, on hearing this, before others learned of it, ran at the top of his speed to the upper city, accosted the Archons, and at once set the story going in the marketplace. Everyone in confusion reigned, naturally, and the Archons convened and assembled and brought the man before it. But on being asked from whom he learned the matter he was unable to give any clear answer, and so it was decided that he was a story-maker, and was trying to throw the city into an uproar. He was therefore fastened to the wheel and wracked a long time, until messengers came with the actual facts of the whole disaster. So hard was it for the Athenians to believe that Nicaeus had suffered the fate which he had often foretold to them. Part 12 of Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is the 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 Bernadotte Perrin. Markus Crassus was the son of a man who had been censor and had enjoyed a triumph. But he was reared in a small house with two brothers. His brothers were married while their parents were still alive, and all shared the same table, which seems to have been the chief reason why Crassus was temperate and moderate in his manner of life. When one of his brothers died, Crassus took the widow to wife and had his children by her, and in these relations also he lived as well-ordered a life as any Roman. And yet when he was further on in years he was accused of criminal intimacy with Likinia, one of the Vestal Virgins, and Likinia was formally prosecuted by a certain Plotius. Now Likinia was the owner of a pleasant villa in the suburbs which Crassus wished to get at a low price, and it was for this reason that he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her, until he fell under the abominable suspicion. And in a way it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the Vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. But he did not let Likinia go until he had acquired her property. The Romans, it is true, said that the many virtues of Crassus were obscured by his sole vice of avarice. And it is likely that the one vice, which became stronger than all the others in him, weakened the rest. The chief proofs of his avarice are found in the way he got his property and in the amount of it. For at the outset he was possessed of not more than three hundred talents. Plutarch gives Greek values. The talent was a sum of money nearly equivalent to two hundred and forty pounds or twelve hundred dollars, with many times the purchasing power of money today. Then during his consulship he sacrificed the tenth of his goods to Hercules, feasted the people, and gave every Roman out of his own means enough to live on for three months. And still, when he made a private inventory of his property before his Parthian expedition, he found that it had a value of seventy-one hundred talents. The greatest part of this, if one must tell the scandalous truth, he got together out of fire and war, making the public calamities his greatest source of revenue. For when Sulla took the city and sold the property of those whom he had put to death, considering it and calling it the spoil of war, and wishing to defile with his crime as many and as influential men as he could, Crassus was never tired of accepting or of buying it. And besides this, observing how natural and familiar at Rome were such fatalities as the conflagration and collapse of buildings, owing to their being too massive and close together, he proceeded to buy slaves who were architects and builders. And when he had over five hundred of these, he would buy houses that were a fire, and houses which adjoined those which were a fire. And these their owners would let go at a trifling price, owing to their fear and uncertainty. In this way the largest part of Rome came into his possession. But though he owned so many artisans, he built no house for himself other than the one in which he lived. Indeed, he used to say that men who were fond of building were their own undoers, and needed no other foes. And though he owned numberless silver mines and highly valuable tracks of land with the laborers upon them, nevertheless one might regard all of this as nothing compared with the value of his slaves. So many and so capable were the slaves he possessed. Readers, Emanunensis, Silversmiths, Stewards, Table-Servants, and he himself directed their education, and took part in it himself as a teacher, and, in a word, he thought that the chief duty of the master was to care for his slaves as the living implements of household management. And in this Crassus was right, if, as he used to say, he held that anything else was to be done for him by his slaves. But his slaves were to be governed by their master. For household management, as we see, is a branch of finance, insofar as it deals with lifeless things, but a branch of politics when it deals with men. He was not right, however, in thinking, and in saying, too, that no one was rich who could not support an army out of his substance. For war has no fixed rations, as king Akidamnus used said, and therefore the wealth requisite for war cannot be determined. Far different was the opinion of Marius, who said, after distributing to each of his veterans fourteen acres of land, and discovering that they desired more, we know Roman ever think that land, too small, which suffices to maintain him. However, Crassus was generous with strangers, for his house was open to all, and he used to lend money to his friends without interest, but he would demand it back from the borrower relentlessly when the time had expired, and so the gratuity of the loan was more burdensome than heavy interest. When he entertained at table, he invited guests, were for the most part plebeians and men of the people, and the simplicity of the repast was combined with the neatness and good cheer, which gave more pleasure than lavish expenditure. As for his literary pursuits, he cultivated chiefly the art of speaking, which was of general service, and after making himself one of the most powerful speakers at Rome, his care and application enabled him to surpass those who were gifted by nature. For there was no case, they say, however trifling and even contemptible it might be, which he undertook without preparation. But often, when Pompey, and Caesar, and Cicero were unwilling to plead, he would perform all the duties of an advocate. And on this account he became more popular than they, being esteemed a careful man, and one who was ready with his help. He pleased people also by the kindly and unaffected manner with which he clasped their hands and addressed them, for he never met a Roman so obscure and lowly that he did not return his greeting and call him by name. It is said also that he was well versed in history, and was something of a philosopher with all, attaching himself to the doctrines of Aristotle, in which he gave Alexander as a teacher. Footnote. Perhaps Alexander Cornelius, surname Palihistor, a contemporary of Sulla. End footnote. This man gave proof of contentedness and meekness by his intimacy with Crassus, nor is it not easy to say whether he was poorer before or after his relations with his pupil. At any rate he was the only one of his friends of Crassus, who always accompanied him when he went abroad, and then he would receive a cloak for the journey which would be reclaimed on his return. But this was later on. When Sina and Marius got the upper hand, it was at once apparent that they would re-enter the city not for the good of their country but for the downright destruction and ruin of the nobles. Those who were caught were slain, and among them were the father and brother of Crassus. Crassus himself, being very young, escaped the immediate peril, but receiving that he was surrounded on all sides by the huntsmen of the tyrants. He took with him three friends and ten servants, and fled with exceeding speed into Spain, where he had been before, while his father was Pritor there, and had made friends. But finding all men filled with fear and trembling at the cruelty of Marius, as though he were close upon them, he had not the courage to present himself to anyone. Instead, he plunged into some fields, along the seashore belonging to Vibius Paciacus. In these was a spacious cave, where he hid himself. However, since his provisions were now running low and wishing to sound the man, he sent a slave to Vibius. But Vibius, on hearing the message, was delighted that Crassus had escaped, and after learning the number of his party, and the place of their concealment, did not indeed come in person to see them, but brought the overseer of the property near the place, and ordered him to bring a complete meal there every day, put it near the cliff, and then go away without a word. He was not to meddle in the matter, nor investigate it, and was threatened with death if he did meddle, and promised his freedom if he cooperated faithfully. The cave is not far away from the sea, and the cliffs which enclose it leave a small and inextinct path leading inside. But when one has entered, it opens out into a wonderful height, and at the sides has recesses of great circumference opening into one another. There was no lack of water or of light, but a spring of purest flow issues from the base of the cliff, and natural fissures in the rock where its edges join admit the light from outside, so that in the daytime the place is bright. The air inside is dry and pure, owing to the thickness of the rock, which deflects all moisture and dripping water into the spring. Here Crassus lived, and day by day the man came with the provisions. He himself did not see the party of the cave, nor even know who they were, but he was seen by them since they knew and were on the watch for the time of his coming. Now the meals were abundant, and so prepared as to gratify the taste and not merely satisfy hunger. For Vivius had made up his mind to pay Crassus every sort of friendly attention, and had even occurred to him to consider the youth of his guest, and that he was quite a young man, and that some provision must be made for the enjoyments appropriate to his years. The mere supply of his wants he regarded as the work of one who rendered help under compulsion, rather than with ready zeal. So he took with him two comely, female slaves, and went down towards the sea. When he came to the place of the cave he showed them the path up to it, and made them go inside, in fear nothing. When Crassus saw them approaching he was afraid that the place had been discovered, and was now known. He asked them, accordingly, who they were and what they wanted. They answered, as instructed, that they were in search of a master who was hidden there. Then Crassus understood the kindly joke which Vivius was playing upon him, and received the girls, and they lived with him in the rest of the time carrying the necessary messages to Vivius. Fenestella, footnote, a Roman historian who flourished under Augustus, says that he saw one of these slaves himself when she was now an old woman, and often heard her mention this episode and rehearse its details with his est. Thus Crassus passed eight months in concealment, but as soon as he heard of Sinna's death he disclosed himself. Many flocked to his standard, out of whom he selected twenty-five hundred men, and went about visiting the cities. One of these, Malica, he plundered, as so many writers testify, but they say that he himself denied the charge and quarreled with those who affirmed it. After this he collected sailing vessels, crossed into Africa, and joined Metellus Pius, an illustrious man who had got together a considerable army. However, he remained there no long time, but after dissension with Metellus sat out and joined Isilla, with whom he stood in a position of special honor. But when Isilla crossed into Italy, he wished all the young men with him to take active part in the campaign, and to sign different ones the different undertakings. Crassus, being sent out to raise a force among the Marcy, asked for an escort, since his road would take him past the enemy. But Isilla was wroth, and said to him vehemently, I give thee, as an escort, thy father, thy brother, thy friends, and thy kinsmen, who were illegally and unjustly put to death, and whose murderers I am pursuing. Thus rebute and incited, Crassus set out at once, enforcing his way vigorously through the enemy, raised a considerable force, and showed himself an eager partisan of Isilla in his struggles. Out of these activities first arose, as they say, his ambitious rivalry with Pompey for distinction. For although Pompey was the younger man, and the son of a father who had been in overpute at Rome, and hated most bitterly by his fellow citizens. Still, in the events of this time, his talent shone forth conspicuously, and he was seen to be great, so that Isilla paid him honors, not very often accorded to men who were older, and of equal rank with himself, rising at his approach, uncovering his head and saluting him as Imperator. All of this inflamed and goaded Crassus, although it was not without good reason that Isilla thus made less of him. For he was lacking in experience, and his achievements were robbed of their favor by the innate curses of avarice and meanness which beset him. For instance, when he captured the Umbrian city of Tudair, it was believed that he appropriated to himself most of the oil, and charges to this effect were laid before Isilla. But in the struggle near Rome, which was the last and greatest of all, while Isilla was defeated and his army repulsed and shattered, Crassus was victorious with the right wing, pursued the enemy till nightfall, and then sent Isilla, informing him of his success and asking supper for his soldiers. However, during the prescriptions and the public confiscations which ensued, he got a bad name again by purchasing great estates at a low price and asking donations. It is said that in Brutium he actually proscribed a man without Isilla's orders merely to get his property, and that for this reason, Isilla, who disapproved of his conduct, never employed him again on public business. And yet Crassus was most expert in winning over all men by his flatteries. On the other hand, he himself was an easy prey to flattery from anybody. And this, too, is said to have been a peculiarity of his that, most avaricious as he was himself, he particularly hated and abused those who were like him. Now it vexed him that Pompey was successful in his campaigns, and celebrated a triumph before becoming a senator, and was called Magnus, that is great, by his fellow citizens. And once, when someone said, Pompey, the great is coming, Crassus felt a laughing and asked, how great is he? Renouncing therefore all efforts to equal Pompey and military achievements, he plunged into politics, and by his zealous labors, his favors as advocate and money lender, and his cooperation in all the solicitations and examinations which candidates for office had to make, and undergo, he acquired an influence and repute equal to that which Pompey possessed from his many in great expeditions. For the experience of each man was peculiar, for Pompey's name and power were greater in the city when he was away from it, owing to his campaigns, but when he was at home he was often less powerful than Crassus, because the pomp and circumstance of his life led him to shun crowds, retire from the forum, and render aid to a few only of those who asked it of him, and then with no great zest, that he might keep his influence the more unimpaired for use in his own behalf. But Crassus was continually ready with his services, was ever at hand and easy of access, and always took an active part in the enterprises of the hour, and so by the universal kindness of his behavior, won the day over his rival's haughty bearing, but in dignity of person, persuasiveness of speech, and winning grace of feature, both were said to be alike gifted. However, this eager rivalry did not carry Crassus away into anything like hatred or malice. He was merely vexed that Pompey and Caesar should be honored above himself, but he did not associate this ambition of his with enmity or malevolence. It is true that once when Caesar had been captured by pirates in Asia and was held a close brisoner by them, he exclaimed, O Crassus, how great a pleasure wilt thou taste when thou hearest of my capture. But afterwards, at least, they were on friendly terms with one another, and once when Caesar was on the point of setting out for Spain as a praetor, and had no money, and his creditors descended upon him and began to attach his outfit, Crassus did not leave him in the lurch, but freed him from embarrassment by making himself his surety for eight hundred and thirty talents. And when all Rome was divided into three powerful parties, that of Pompey, that of Caesar, and that of Crassus, for Cato's reputation was greater than his power, and men admired him more than they followed him. It was the thoughtful and conservative part of the city which attached itself to Pompey, the violent and volatile part which supported the hopes of Caesar, while Crassus took a middle ground and drew from both. He made very many changes in his political views, and was neither a steadfast friend nor an implacable enemy, but readily abandoned both his favors and his resentments at the dictates of his interests, so that, frequently, within a short space of time, the same men and the same measures found in him both an advocate and an opponent. And he had great influence both from the favors which he bestowed, and the fear which he inspired, but more from the fear, and at any rate Sikinius, who gave the greatest annoyance to the magistrates and popular leaders of his day, when asked why Crassus was the only man whom he let alone and did not worry, said that the man had hay on his horns. Now the Romans used to coil hay about the horn of an ox, that gourd, so that those who encountered it might be on their guard. The insurrection of the gladiators, and their devastation of Italy, which is generally called the War of Spartacus, in footnote 73-71 BC, had its origin as follows. A certain Lentulius Battiatus had a school of gladiators at Capua, most of whom were Gauls and Thracians. Through no misconduct of theirs, but owing to the injustice of their owner, they were kept in close confinement, and reserved for gladiatorial combats. Two hundred of these planned to make their escape, and when information was laid against them, those who got wind of it, and succeeded in getting away, 78 number, seized cleavers and spits from some kitchen and sailing out. On the road they fell in with wagons conveying gladiators' weapons to another city, these they plundered and armed themselves. Then they took up a strong position, and elected three leaders. The first of these was Spartacus, and Thracian, of nomadic stock, possessed not only of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his fortune, and more Hellenic than Thracian. It is said that when he was first brought to Rome to be sold, a serpent was seen coiled about his face as he slept, and his wife, who was of the same tribe as Spartacus, a prophetess, and subject to visitations of the Dionysic frenzy, declared it the sign of a great and formidable power which would attend to him to a fortunate issue. This woman shared in his escape, and was then living with him. To begin with, the gladiators repulsed the soldiers who came against them from Capua, and, getting hold of many arms of real warfare, they gladly took these in exchange for their own, casting away their gladiatorial weapons as dishonorable and barbarous. Then Clodius, the praetor, was sent out from Rome against them, with three thousand soldiers, and laid siege to them on a hill which had but one ascent, and that a narrow and difficult one, which Clodius closely watched. Everywhere else there were smooth and precipitous cliffs. But the top of the hill was covered with a wild vine of abundant growth, from which the besieged cut off the serviceable branches, and wove these into strong ladders of such strength and length, that when they were fastened at the top, they reached along the face of the cliff to the plain below. On these they descended safely, all but one man who remained there to attend to the arms. When the rest had got down, he began to drop the arms, and after he had thrown them all down, got away himself also last of all in safety. Of all this the Romans were ignorant, and therefore their enemies surrounded them, threw them into consternation by the suddenness of the attack, put them into flight, and took their camp. They were also joined by many of the herdsmen and shepherds of the region, sturdy men in swift of foot, some of whom were armed fully, and employed others as scouts and light infantry. In the second place Publius Varinus, the praetor, was sent out against them, whose lieutenant, a certain Furius, with two thousand soldiers, they first engaged and routed. Then Spartacus narrowly watched the movements of Cossinius, who had been sent out with a large force to advise and assist Varinus in the command, and came near seizing him as he was bathing near Selinae. Cossinus barely escaped with much difficulty, and Spartacus at once seized his baggage, pressed hard upon him in pursuit, and took his camp with great slaughter. Cossinius also fell. By defeating the praetor himself in many battles, and finally capturing his lictors in the very horse he rode, Spartacus was soon great and formidable. But he took a proper view of the situation, and since he could not expect to overcome the Roman power, began to lead his army toward the Alps, thinking it necessary for them to cross the mountains and go to the respective homes, some to Thrace and some to Gaul. But his men were now strong in numbers, and full of confidence, and would not listen to him, but went on ravaging over Italy. He was now no longer the indignity and the disgrace of the revolt, which harassed the Senate, but they were constrained by their fear and peril to send both consuls into the field, as they would to a war of the utmost difficulty and magnitude. Galeus, one of the consuls, fell suddenly upon the Germans, who were so insolent and bold as to separate themselves from the main body of Spartacus, and cut them all to pieces. But when Lentulus, the other consul, had surrounded the enemy with large forces, Spartacus rushed upon them, joined battle, defeated the legates of Lentulus, and seized all their baggage. Then, as he was forcing his way towards the Alps, he was met by Cassius, the governor of Cis-Alpine Gaul, with an army of 10,000 men, and in the battle that ensued, Cassius was defeated, lost many men, and escaped himself with difficulty. On learning of this, the Senate angrily ordered the consuls to keep quiet, and chose Crassus to conduct the war, and many of the nobles were induced by his reputation and their friendship for him to serve under him. Crassus himself, accordingly, took position on the borders of Piscinum, expecting to receive the attack of Spartacus, who was hastening thither. And he sent Mumeus, his legate, with two legions by a circuitous route, with orders to follow the enemy, but not to join battle or even skirmish with them. Mumeus, however, at the first promising opportunity gave battle and was defeated. Many of his men were slain, and many of them threw away their arms and fled for their lives. Crassus gave Mumeus himself a rough reception, and when he armed his soldiers anew, made them give pledges that they would keep their arms. Five hundred of them, moreover, who had shown the greatest cowardice and been the first to fly, he divided into fifty decades, and put to death one from each decade, on whom the lot fell, thus reviving after the lapse of many years an ancient mode of punishing the soldiers. For disgrace also attaches to this manner of death, and many horrible and repulsive features attend the punishment, which the whole army witnesses. When he had thus disciplined his men, he led them against the enemy, but Spartacus avoided him and retired through Licania to the sea. At the straits he chanced upon some Cilicia and pirate crafts and determined to see Sicily. By throwing two thousand men into the island, he thought to kindle anew the servile war there, footnote 102 to 99 B.C., and footnote, which had not long been extinguished, and needed only a little additional fuel. But the Cilicians, after coming to terms with him and receiving his gifts, deceived him and sailed away. So Spartacus marched back again from the sea, and established his army in the peninsula of Regium. Crassus now came up, and observing that the nature of the place suggested what must be done, he determined to build a wall across the Ithsmus, thereby at once keeping his soldiers from idleness and his enemies from provisions. Now the task was a huge one and difficult, but he accomplished and finished it, contrary to all expectation, in a short time, and running a ditch from sea to sea, through the neck of land, 300 furlongs in length, and 15 feet in width and depth alike. Along the ditch, he also built a wall of astonishing height and strength. All this work Spartacus neglected and despised at first, but soon his provisions began to fail, and when he wanted to sally forth from the peninsula, he saw that he was walled in, and that there was nothing more to be had there. He therefore waited for a snowy night in a wintery storm, when he filled up a small portion of the ditch with earth and timber, and the boughs of trees, and so, threw a third part of his force across. End of Marcus the Kinius Crassus, Part 1 Part 13 of Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives This is the 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 the Kinius Crassus, Part 2 Crassus was now in fear lest some impulse to march upon Rome should see Spartacus, but took heart when he saw that many of the gladiators men had seceded after a quarrel with him and were encamped by themselves on the Lucanian lake. This lake, they say, changes from time to time in the character of its water, becoming sweet and then again bitter and undrinkable. Upon this detachment, Crassus fell and drove them away from the lake, but he was robbed of the slaughter in pursuit of the fugitives by the sudden appearance of Spartacus, who checked their flight. Before this, Crassus had written to the Senate that they must summon Lucullus from Thrace and Pompey from Spain, but he was sorry now that he had done so and was eager to bring the war to an end before those generals came. He knew that the success would be ascribed to the one who came up with assistance and not to himself. Accordingly, in the first place, he determined to attack those of the enemy who had seceded from the rest and were encamping on their own account. They were commanded by Gaius Kinicus and Castus. And with this in view sent out 6,000 men to pre-occupy a certain eminence, bidding them keep their attempt a secret. And they did try to elude observation by covering up their helmets, but they were seen by two women who were sacrificing for the enemy, and would have been in peril of their lives had not Crassus quickly made his appearance in given battle, the most stubbornly contested of all. For although he slew 12,300 men in it, he found only two were wounded in the back. The rest all died standing in the ranks and fighting the Romans. After the defeat of this detachment, Spartacus retired to the mountains of Petalia, followed closely by Quintus, one of the officers of Crassus, and by Scrophus, the Quyster, who hung upon the enemy's rear. But when Spartacus faced about, there was a great rout of the Romans, and they barely managed to drag the Quyster who had been wounded away into safety. This success was the ruin of Spartacus, for it filled his slaves with overconfidence. They would no longer consent to avoid battle, and would not even obey their leaders, but surrounded them as soon as they began to march with arms in their hands, and forced them to lead back through Lucania against the Romans, the very thing which Crassus also most desired. For Pompey's approach was already announced, and there were not a few who publicly proclaimed that the victory in this war belonged to him. He had only to come and fight and put the end to the war. Crassus therefore pressed on to finish the struggle himself, and having encamped near the enemy, began to dig a trench. Into this the slaves leapt and began to fight with those who were working there, and since fresh men from both sides kept coming up to help their comrades, Spartacus saw the necessity that was upon him, and drew up his all army in order of battle. In the first place when his horse was brought to him he drew his sword, and saying that if he won the day he would have many fine horses of the enemies, but if he lost it he did not want any. He slew his horse. Then, pushing his way toward Crassus himself, through many flying weapons and wounded men, he did not indeed reach him, but slew two centurions who fell upon him together. Finally, after his companions had taken to flight, he stood alone, surrounded by multitude of foes, and was still defending himself when he was cut down. But although Crassus had been fortunate, had shown most excellent generalship, and had exposed his person to danger, nevertheless his success did not fail to enhance the reputation of Pompeii. For the fugitives from the battle encountered that general and were cut to pieces, so that he could write to the senate that in an open battle, indeed, Crassus had conquered the slaves, but that he himself had extirpated the war. Pompeii, accordingly for his victories over Satorius and in Spain, celebrated a splendid triumph. But Crassus, for all his self-approval, did not venture to ask for the major triumph, and it was thought ignoble and mean for him to celebrate even the minor triumph on foot, called the ovation, for a servile war. How the minor triumph differs from the major, and why it is named as it is, has been told in my life of my cellis. After this, Pompeii was at once asked to stand for the consulship, and Crassus, although he had hopes of becoming his colleague, did not hesitate to ask Pompeii's assistance. Pompeii received his request gladly, for he was desirous of having Crassus, in some way or other, always in debt to him for some favor, and eagerly promoted his candidature, and finally said in his speech to the assembly that he should be no less grateful to them for the colleague than for the office which he desired. However, when once they had assumed office, they did not remain on this friendly basis, but differed on almost every measure, quarreled with one another about everything, and by their contentiousness rendered their consulship barren politically and without achievement, except that Crassus made a great sacrifice in honor of Hercules, feasted the people at ten thousand tables, and made them an allowance of grain for three months. And when at last their term of office was closing, and they were addressing the assembly, a certain man, not a noble, but a Roman knight, rustic and rude in his way of life, Monatius Aurelius, mounted the rastra and recounted to the audience a vision which had come to him in asleep. Jupiter, he said, appeared to me, and bade me declare in public that you should not suffer your consuls to lay down their office until they become friends. When the man said this and the people urged reconciliation, Pompey for his part stood motionless, but Crassus took the initiative and clashed him by the hand and said, Fellow citizens, I think there is nothing humiliating or unworthy in my taking the first steps towards good will and friendship with Pompey, to whom you have gave the title of great before he has grown a beard and voted him a triumph before he was a senator. Such then were the memorable things in the consulship of Crassus, but his censorship passed without any results or achievements whatever. He neither made a revision of the senate nor a scrutiny of the knights, nor a census of the people, although he had Lutatius Cthulis, the gentlest of the Romans for his colleague. But they say that when Crassus embarked upon the dangerous and violent policy of making Egypt tributary to Rome, Cthulis opposed him vigorously, whereupon, being at variance, both voluntarily laid down their office. In the affair of Catiline, which was very serious and almost subversive of Rome, some suspicion attached itself to Crassus, and a man publicly named him as one of the conspirators, but nobody believed him. Nevertheless Cicero, in one of his orations, plainly inculpated Crassus and Caesar. This oration, it is true, was not published until after both were dead, but in the treatise upon his consulship, Cicero says that Crassus came to him by night with a letter which gave details of the affair of Catiline, and felt that he was at last establishing the fact of a conspiracy. And Crassus, accordingly, always hated Cicero for this, but was kept from doing him any open injury by his son. For Publius Crassus, given to literature and learning, was attached to Cicero, so much so that he put on mourning when Cicero did, at the time of his trial, and prevailed upon the other young men to do the same. And finally he persuaded his father to become Cicero's friend. And now, when Caesar came back from his province, and prepared to seek the consulship, he saw that Pompey and Crassus were once more at odds with each other. He therefore did not wish to make one of them an enemy by asking the aid of the other, nor did he have any hope of success if neither of them helped him. Accordingly he tried to reconcile them by persistently showing them that their mutual ruin would only increase the power of such men as Cicero, Catullus, and Cato. Men whose influence would be nothing if Crassus and Pompey would only unite their friends in adherence, and, with one might and purpose, direct the affairs of the city. He persuaded them, reconciled them, and won them both to his support, and constituted the triumvirate and irresistible power, with which he overthrew the senate and the people, not by making his partners greater, the one through the other, but by making himself greatest of all, through them. For owing to the support of both, he was at once triumphantly elected consul, and during his consulship they voted him armies to command, and put gall into his hands, and so, as it were, established him in an acropolis, thinking to share the rest with one another at their leisure, if they secured to him his allotted province. Now Pompey did all this from an unbounded love of power, but to that ancient infirmity of Crassus, his avarice, there was now added a fresh and ardent passion, in view of the glorious exploits of Caesar, for trophies and triumphs. In these alone he thought himself inferior to Caesar, but superior in everything else, and his passion gave him no rest nor peace, till it ended in an inglorious death and public calamities. For when Caesar came down to the city of Lucca, from Gaul, many Romans came thither to meet him, and among them Pompey and Crassus. They held private conferences with Caesar, and the three determined to carry matters with a higher hand, and make themselves sole master of the state. Caesar was to remain in his command, while Pompey and Crassus were to take over provinces and armies. But the only way to secure this end was by soliciting a second consulship. Since Pompey and Crassus were the candidates for this, Caesar was to cooperate with them by writing letters to his friends, and by sending many of his soldiers home to support them at the elections. With this understanding, Crassus and Pompey returned to Rome, and were at once objects of suspicion. What was rife, through the whole city, that their meeting with Caesar had been for no good purpose? In the Senate also, when Marcellinus and Domitius asked Pompey if he was going to be a candidate for the consulship, he replied that perhaps he was, and perhaps he was not. And when asked the question again, he said he should solicit the votes of the good citizens, and not those of the bad. Since his answers were thought to have been made in pride and arrogance, Crassus said, or modestly, when the question was put to him, that if it was for the interest of the city, he would be a candidate for the office, but otherwise he would desist. For this reason, diverse persons were emboldened to sue for the consulship, one of whom was Domitius. When however Pompey and Crassus openly announced their candidature, the rest took fright and withdrew from the contrast. But Cato encouraged Domitius, who was a kinsman and friend of his, to proceed, arguing and inciting him to cling to his hopes, assured that he would do battle for the common freedom. For it was not the candidature, he said, which Crassus and Pompey wanted, but a tyranny, nor did their course of action mean simply a candidate for office, but rather a seizure of provinces and armies. For such words and such sentiments, Cato all but forced Domitius to go to the forum as a candidate, and many joined their party. Many too voiced their amazement thus. Why, pray, should these men want a second consulship? And why, once more together, have they not other colleagues? Surely there are many men among us who are not unworthy to be colleagues of Pompey and Crassus. Alarmed at this, the partisans of Crassus and Pompey abstained from no disorder or violence, however extreme, and capped the climax by way laying Domitius as he was coming down into the forum before daybreak with his followers, killing his torchbearer and wounding many, among whom was Cato. After routing their opponents and shutting them up at home, they had themselves proclaimed consuls. In a short time afterwards, they once more surrounded the rostro with armed men and cast Cato out of the forum, slew several who made resistance, and then had another five years added to the proconsulship of Caesar and Gaul, and the provinces of Syria and both Spain's voted to themselves. When the lot was cast, Syria fell to Crassus and the Spain's to Pompey. Now the lot fell out to the satisfaction of everybody. For most of the people wished Pompey to be not far away from the city. Pompey, who was passionately fond of his wife, intended to spend most of his time there, and as for Crassus, as soon as the lot fell out, he showed by his joy that he regarded no peace of good fortune in his whole life as more radiant than the one which had now come to him. Among strangers and in public he could scarcely hold his peace. While to his intimates he made many empty and youthful boasts, which ill became his years in disposition, for he had been anything but boastful or bombastic before this. But now, being altogether exalted and out of his senses, he would not consider Syria, or even Parthia, as the boundaries of his success, but thought to make the campaigns of Locullus against Tigranes and those of Pompey against Mithridates, seem mere child's play, and flew on the wings of his hopes as far as Bactria and India in the Outer Sea. And yet, in the decree which was passed regarding his mission, there was no mention of a Parthian war. But everyone knew that Crassus was all eagerness for this, and Caesar wrote to him from Gaul, approving of his project, and inciting him on to the war. And when, at Tios, one of the tribunes of the people, threatened to oppose his leaving the city, and a large party arose which was displeased that anyone should go out to wage war on men who had done the state no wrong, but were in treaty relations with it, then Crassus, in fear, begged Pompey to come to his aid, and join in escorting him out of the city. For great was Pompey's reputation with the crowd. And now, when the multitude, drawn up to resist the passage of Crassus, and to abuse him, saw Pompey's beaming countenance in front of him, they were mollified, and gave way before them in silence. But at Tios, upon meeting Crassus, at first tried to stop him with words and protested against his advance, and then he bade his attendant seize the person of Crassus and detain him. And when the other tribune would not permit this, the attendant released Crassus, but at Tios ran on ahead to the city gate, placed there a blazing brasier, and when Crassus came up cast incense and libations upon him, and invoked curses which were dreadful and terrifying in themselves, and were reinforced by sundry, strange, and dreadful gods whom he summoned and called by name. The Romans say that these mysterious and ancient curses have such power that no one involved in them ever escapes, and misfortune falls also upon the one that utters them, therefore they are not employed at random, nor by many. And accordingly at this time they find fault with at Tios, because it was for the citysake that he was angered at Crassus, and yet he had involved the city in curses which awakened much superstitious terror. But Crassus came to Brundizium, and though the sea was still rough with wintery storms, he would not wait but put out, and so lost a great number of his vessels. With what was left of his forces, however, he hurried on by land through Galatia, in finding that King Deotarus, who was now a very old man, was founding a new city. He called on him, saying, O King, you are beginning to build at the twelfth hour. The Galatian laughed and said, But you yourself, Imperator, as I see, are not marching very early in the day against the Parthians. Now Crassus was sixty years old, and over he looked older than his years. On his arrival things went at first as he had hoped, for he easily bridged the Euphrates, and led his army across in safety, and took possession of many cities in Mesopotamia, which came over to him on their own accord. But at one of them, of which Apollonius was tyrant, a hundred of his soldiers were slain, whereupon he led up his forces against it, mastered it, plundered its property, and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The city was called Zinodotia, by the Greeks, for its capture he allowed his soldiers to salute him as Imperator, therefore incurring much disgrace in showing himself of a paltry spirit and without good hope for the greater struggles which lay before them, since he was so delighted with the trifling acquisition. After furnishing the cities which had come over to aside with garrisons, which amounted, in all, to seven thousand men-at-arms and a thousand horsemen, he himself withdrew to take up winter quarters in Syria, and await there his son who was coming from Caesar and Gaul, decorated with the insignias of his deeds of valor, and leading a thousand picked horsemen. This was thought to be the first blunder which Crassus committed, after the expedition itself, which was the greatest of all his blunders, because when he should have advanced and come into touch with Babylon and Seleucia, cities always hostile to the Parthians, he gave his enemies time for preparation. Then again fault was found with him, because his soldier into Syria was devoted to mercenary rather than military purposes, for he made no estimate of the number of his troops and instituted no athletic contests for them, but reckoned upon the revenues of the cities and spent many days weighing exactly the treasures of the goddess in Heriopolis, and prescribed quotas of soldiers for districts and dinas to furnish. Only to remit the prescription when money was offered him, thereby losing their respect and winning their contempt. After the first warning sign came to him from this very goddess, whom some call Venus, others Juno, while others still regard her as the national cause which supplies from moisture the beginnings and seeds of everything, and points out to mankind the source of all blessings. For as they were leaving her temple, first the youthful Crassus stumbled and fell at the gate, and then his father fell over him. No sooner had he begun to assemble his forces from their winter quarters than envoys came to him from Araskis with a wonderfully brief message. They said that if the army had been sent out by the Roman people, it meant war without truce and without treaty. But if this was against the wishes of his country, as they were informed, and for his own private gain that Crassus had come up in arms against the Parthians and occupied their territory, then Araskis would act with moderation and would take pity on the old age of Crassus and release to the Romans the men whom he had under watch and warred rather than watching over him. To this Crassus boastfully repolied that he would give his answer in Seleucia, whereupon the eldest of his envoys, Vagasys burst out laughing and said pointing to the palm of his upturned hand, O Crassus, hair will grow there before thou shall see Seleucia. The embassy accordingly rode away to King Hirodes to tell him that there must be war. But from the cities in Mesopotamia, in which the Romans had garrisons, certain men made their escape at great hazard and brought tidings of serious import. They had been eyewitnesses both of the numbers of the enemy and of their mode of warfare when they attacked the cities, and, as is usual, they exaggerated all the terrors of their report. When the men pursued, they declared, there was no escaping them, and when they fled there was no taking them. In strange missiles are the precursors of their appearance which pierced through every obstacle before one sees who sent them. And as for the armor of their male-clad horsemen, some of it is made to force its way through everything, and some of it to give way to nothing. The soldiers heard this, their courage ebbed away, for they had been fully persuaded that the Parthians were not different at all from the Armenians or even the Cappadocians, whom L'Cullis had robbed and plundered till he was weary of it, and they had thought that the most difficult part of the war would be the long journey and the pursuit of men who would not come to close quarters. But now, contrary to their hopes, they were led to expect a struggle and great peril. Therefore, some of the officers thought that Crassus ought to call a halt and reconsider the whole undertaking. Among these was Kessus, the Quistor. The Seers also quietly let it become known that the omens for Crassus which came from their sacrifices were always bad and inauspicious. But Crassus paid no heed to them, nor to those who advised anything else except to press forward. And most of all, Artibazis, the king of Armenia, gave him courage, for he came to his camp with 6,000 horsemen. They were said to be the king's guards and couriers, but he promised 10,000 male-clad horsemen besides and 30,000 footmen to be maintained at his own cost, and he tried to persuade Crassus to invade Parthia by way of Armenia, for thus he would not only lead his forces along in the mist of Plenty, which the king himself would provide, but would also proceed with safety, confronting the cavalry of the Parthians, in which lay their sole strength, with many mountains and continuous crests, and the regions where the horse would not well serve. Crassus was tallowably well pleased with the king's zeal and the splendid reinforcements which he offered, but said he should march through Mesopotamia, where he had left many brave Romans. Upon this, Armenian rode away. Now as Crassus was taking his army across the Euphrates at Zugama, many extraordinary peals of thunder crashed about them, and many flashes of lightning also darted in their faces, and a wind, half mist and half hurricane, fell upon their raft, breaking it up and shattering it in many places. The place where he was intending to encamp was also smitten by two thunderbolts, and one of the general's horses, richly comparison, violently dragged its groom along with it into the river and disappeared beneath the waves. It was said also that the first eagle, which was raised aloft, faced about of its own accord. Because all of this, it happened that when their rations were distributed to the soldiers after the crossing of the river, lentils and salt came first, which were held by the Romans to be the tokens of mourning, and are also set out as offerings to the dead. Moreover Crassus himself, while herringing his men, let fall a phrase which terribly confounded them. He said, namely, that he should destroy the bridge over the river, that not one of them might return. And although he ought, as soon as he perceived the strangeness of his expression, to ever called it and made his meaning clear to his timorous hearers, he was too obstinate to do so. And finally, when he was making the customary sacrifice of purification for the army, and the seer placed the viziers in his hands, he let them fall to the ground, then seeing that the bystanders were beyond measure distressed at the occurrence, he smiled and said, Such is old age, but no weapons, you may be sure, shall fall from its hands. After this he marched along the river with seven legions of men-at-arms, nearly four thousand horsemen, and about as many light-armed troops. Some of his scouts now came back from their explorations, and reported that the country was destitute of men, but that they had come upon the tracks of many horses, which had apparently wheeled about and fled from pursuit. Wherefore Crassus himself was all the more confident, and his soldiers went so far as to despise the Parthians utterly, believing that they should not come to close quarters. But nevertheless, Cassius, once more, held a conference with Crassus, and advised him, above all things, to recuperate his forces in one of the garrison cities, until he should get some sure information about the enemy. But if not this, then to advance against Seleucia along the river. For in this way, the transports would keep them abundantly supplied with provisions, by putting in at those successive encampments, and by having the river to prevent their being surrounded, they would always fight their enemies on even terms, and face to face. Volume 3 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadolte Perrin. Marcus the Kineis Crassus, Part 3. While Crassus was still investigating and considering these matters, there came an Arab chieftain, Ariaminis by name, a crafty and treacherous man, and one who proved to be, of all the mischiefs which fortune combined for the destruction of the Romans, the greatest and the most consummate. And some of the soldiers who had served under Pompeii in these parts, knew that the fellow had profited by the kindness of that commander, and was thought to be a friend of Rome. But now, with the knowledge of the royal generals, he tried to work his way into the confidence of Crassus, to see if he could turn him aside as far as possible from the river, and the foothills, and bring him down into the boundless plain where he could be surrounded. For nothing was further from the thoughts of the Parthians then to attack the Romans in front. Accordingly, coming to Crassus, the barbarian, and he was a plausible talker, too, lauded Pompeii as his benefactor, and complimented Crassus on his forces. But then he criticized him for wasting time in delays and preparations, as if it was arms that he needed, and not hands and the swiftest of feet to follow after men, who had for some time been trying to snatch up their most valuable goods and slaves, and fly with them into Scythia, or Kania. And yet, said he, if you intend to fight, you ought to hasten on before all the king's forces are concentrated, and has regained his courage, since for the time being, Sorena and Salakes have been thrown forward to sustain your pursuit, but the king is nowhere to be seen. Now, all this was false, for Hirodes had promptly divided his forces into two parts, and was himself devastating Armenia to punish Artavazdes, while he dispatched Sorena to meet the Romans. And this was not because he despised them, as some say, for he could not consistently disdain Crassus as an antagonist, a man who was foremost of all the Romans, and waged war on Artavazdes, and attacking him and taking the villages of Armenia. On the contrary, it seems that he was in great fear of the danger which threatened, and therefore held himself in reserve, and watched closely the coming events, while he sent Sorena forward to make trial of the enemy in battle, and to distract them. Nor was Sorena an ordinary man at all, but in wealth, birth, and consideration he stood near the king, while in valor and ability he was the foremost Parthian of his time, besides having no equal in stature and personal beauty. He used to travel on private business with a baggage train, of a thousand camels, and was followed by two hundred wagons for his concubines, while a thousand male-clad horsemen, and a still greater number of light-armed cavalry, served as his escort, and he had, altogether, as horsemen, vassals and slaves, no fewer than ten thousand men. Moreover, he enjoyed the ancient and hereditary privilege of being the first to set the crown upon the head of the Parthian king. And when this very Hirodes was driven out of Parthia, he restored him to this throne, and captured for him Seleucia the Great, having been the first to mount its walls, and having routed with his own hand his opponents. But though at that time he was not yet thirty years of age, he had the highest reputation for prudence and sagacity, and it was especially by means of these qualities that he had brought Crassus to ruin, who, at first, by reason of his boldness and conceit, and then in consciousness of his fears and calamities, was an easy victim of deceits. At this time, accordingly, after the Barbarian had persuaded Crassus, he drew him away from the river, and led him through the mists of the plains, by a way that was suitable and easy at first, but soon became troublesome when deep sand succeeded in plains which had no trees, no water, and no limits anywhere, which the eye could reach, so that not only did thirst and the difficulties of the march exhaust the men, but also whatever met their gaze filled them with an obstinate dejection. For they saw no plant, no stream, no projection of sloping hill, and no growing grass, but only sea-like billows of innumerable desert sand heaps enveloping the army. This of itself was enough to induce suspicion of treachery, and soon messengers came from Ardivas de's, the Armenian, declaring that he was involved in a great war with Hirodes, who had attacked him with an overwhelming force, and could not therefore send Crassus aid, but advised him, above all things, to turn his course thither, and join the Armenians, and fight the issue out with Hirodes. But if not this, then to march in a camp always, where mountains were near, and cavalry could not operate. Crassus sent no reply in writing, but answered at once in rage and perversity, that for the present he had no time to waste on the Armenians, but that at another time he would come and punish Ardivas de's for his treachery. But Cassius was once more greatly displeased, and though he had stopped advising Crassus, who was angry with him, he did privately abuse the barbarian. Basist of men, he said, what evil spirit brought you to us, with what drugs and juggory do you persuade Crassus to pour his army into a yawning and abysmal desert, and follow a route more fit for a robber-chief of nomads than for a Roman imperator. But the barbarian, who was a subtle fellow, tried to encourage them with all servility, and exhorted them to endure yet a little while, and as he ran along by the side of the soldiers and gave them his help, he would laughingly banter with them and say, Is it through Campania that you think you are marching, yearning for its fountains and streams and shades and baths, to be sure, and taverns, but remember that you are traveling the borderland between Assyria and Arabia. Thus the barbarian played the tutor with the Romans, and rode away before his deceit had become manifest. Not however, without the knowledge of Crassus, nay, he actually persuaded him that he was going to work in his interests and confound the counsels of his enemies. It is said that, on that day, Crassus did not make his appearance in a public robe, as is the custom with Roman generals, but in a black one, and that he changed it as soon as he noticed his mistake. Although that some of his standard-bearers had great difficulty in raising their standards, which seemed to be embedded, as it were, in the earth, Crassus made light of these things, and hurried on the march, compelling the men at arms to keep up with the cavalry, until a few of them, who had been sent out as scouts, came riding up, and announced that the rest of their number had been slain by the enemy, that they themselves had with difficulty escaped, and that their foes were coming up to fight them with a large force and great confidence. All were greatly disturbed, of course, but Crassus was altogether frightened out of his wits, and began to draw up his forces in haste, and with no great consistency. At first, as Cassius recommended, he extended the line of his mended arms as far as possible along the plain, with little depth to prevent the enemy from surrounding them, and divided all his cavalry between the two wings. Then he changed his mind, and concentrated his men, forming them in a hollow square of four fronts, with twelve cohorts on each side. With each cohort he placed a squadron of horse, that no part of the line might lack cavalry support, but that the whole body might advance to the attack with equal protection everywhere. He gave one of his wings to Cassius, and one to the young Crassus, and took his own position in the center. Advancing in this formation they came to a stream called Bellasus, which was not large, to be sure, nor plentiful, but at this time the soldiers were delighted to see it in the mist of the drought heat, and after their previous toil some march without water. Most of the officers, accordingly, thought they out to Bivouac and spent the night there, and after learning, as such, as they could of the number and disposition of the enemy, to advance against them at daybreak. But Crassus was carried away by the eeriness of his son in the cavalry with him, who urged him to advance and give battle, and he therefore ordered that the men who needed it should drink and eat as they stood in the ranks. And before they were all well done with this, he led them on, not slowly, nor halting from time to time, as it is usual, on the way to battle, but with a quick and sustained pace until the enemy came into sight, who, to the surprise of the Romans, appeared to be neither numerous nor formidable. Force Serena had veiled his main force behind his advance guard, and concealed the gleams of their armor by ordering them to cover themselves with robes and skins. But when they were near the Romans, and the signal was raised by their commander, first of all they filled the plain with the sound of a deep and terrifying roar. For the Parthians do not incite themselves to battle with horns or trumpets, but they have hollow drums of distended hide, covered with bronze bells, and on these they all beat at once, and many quarters, and the instruments gave forth low and dismal tone, a blend of a wild beast's roar and harsh thunder appeal. They had rightly judged that, for all the senses, hearing is the one most apt to confound the soul. Soonest rouses its emotions, and most effectively unseats the judgment. While the Romans were in consternation at this din, suddenly their enemies dropped the coverings of their armor, and were seen to be themselves blazing in helmets and breast plates, their Marguianian steel glittering keen and bright, and their horses clad in plates of bronze and steel. Serena, himself, however, was the tallest and fairest of them all, although his effeminate beauty did not well correspond to his reputation for valor, but he was dressed more in the Median fashion, with painted face and parted hair, while the rest of the Parthians still wore their hair long, and bunched over their foreheads in Skidian fashion to make themselves look formidable. And at first they proposed to charge upon the Romans with their long spears, and throw their front ranks into confusion. But when they saw the depth of their formations, where a shield was linked with a shield, and the firmness and composure of the men, they drew back, and while seeming to break their ranks and disperse, they surrounded the hollow sphere in which their enemies stood before he was aware of the maneuver. And when Crassus ordered his light armor troops to make a charge, they did not advance far, but encountering a multitude of arrows, abandoned their undertaking, and ran back for shelter amongst the men in arms, among whom they caused the beginning of disorder and fear. For those now saw the velocity and force of the arrows, which fractured armor and tore their way through every covering alike, whether hard or soft. But the Parthians now stood at long intervals from one another, and began to shoot their arrows from all sides at once, not with any accurate aim, for the dense formation of the Romans would not suffer an archer to miss his man even if he wished it, but making vigorous and powerful shots from bows which were large and mighty, and curved so as to discharge their missiles with great force. At once, then, the plight of the Romans was a grievous one, for, if they kept their ranks, they were wounded in great numbers, and if they tried to come to close quarters with the enemy, they were just as far from affecting anything and suffered just as much. For the Parthians shot as they fled, and, next to the Skidians, they do this most effectively, and it is very clever thing to seek safety while still fighting, and to take away the shame of flight. Now, as long as they had hopes that the enemy would exhaust their missiles and desist from battle or fight at close quarters, the Romans held out, but when they perceived that many camels laden with arrows were at hand, from which the Parthians, who first encircled them, took a fresh supply, then Crassus, seeing no end to this, began to lose heart, and sent messengers to his son with orders to force an engagement with the enemy before he was surrounded, for it was his wing especially which the enemy were attacking, and surrounding with their cavalry in the hope of getting in his rear. Accordingly the young man took thirteen hundred horsemen, of whom a thousand had come from Caesar, five hundred archers and eight cohorts of the men at arms who were nearest him, and led them all to the charge. But the Parthians, who were trying to envelop him, either because, as some say, they encountered marshes, or because they were maneuvering to attack Publius as far as possible from his father, wheeled about and made off. Then Publius, shouting that the men did not stand their ground, rode after them, and with him, Sensorinus and Megabacus, the latter distinguished for his courage and strength, Sensorinus, a man of senatorial dignity, and a powerful speaker, and both of them comrades of Publius and nearly of the same age. The cavalry followed after Publius, and even the infantry kept pace with them in the zeal and joy which their hopes inspired, for they thought they were victorious in pursuit of the enemy, until, after they had gone forward a long distance, they perceived the ruse, for the seeming fugitives wheeled about and were joined at the same time by others more numerous still. Then the Romans halted, supposing that the enemy would come to close quarters with them, since they were so few a number. But the Parthians stationed their male clad horsemen in front of the Romans, and then with the rest of their cavalry, in loose array rode around them, tearing up the surface of the ground, and raising from the depths great heaps of sand which fell in limitless showers of dust, so that the Romans could neither seek clearly nor speak plainly, but being crowded into a narrow compass, and falling upon one another, were shot, and died no easy or even speedy death. For in the agonies of convulsive pain, and writhing about the arrows, they would break them off in their wounds, and then in trying to pull out by force the barbed heads which had pierced their veins and sinews, they tore and disfigured themselves the more. Thus many died, and the survivors were incapacitated for thrusting, and when Publius urged them to charge the enemy's male clad horsemen, they showed them that their hands were riveted to their shields, and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defense. Publius himself, accordingly, cheered on his cavalry, made a vigorous charge with them, and closed with the enemy. But his struggle was an unequal one, both offensively and defensively, for his thrusting was done with small and feeble spears against the breast-plates of raw hide and steel, whereas the thrusts of the enemies were made with pikes against the lightly equipped and unprotected bodies of the Gauls, since it was upon these that Publius chiefly relied, and with these he did indeed work wonders, for they laid hold of the long spears of the Parthians, and, grappling with the men, pushed them from their horses, hard as it was to move them owing to the weight of their armor, and many of the Gauls forsook their own horses, and crawling under those of the enemies stabbed them in the belly. These would rear up in their anguish and die trampling on the riders and foemen indiscriminately mingled, but the Gauls were distressed above all things by the heat and the thirst, to both of which they were unused, and most of their horses had perished by being driven against the long spears. They were therefore compelled to retire among the men at arms, speaking with them Publius, who was severely wounded, and seeing a sandy hillock nearby, they all retired to it, and fastened their horses in the center, then locking their shields together on the outside, they thought they could more easily defend themselves against the Barbarians. But it turned out the other way. For on level ground the front ranks do, to some extent, afford relief to those who are behind them. But here, where the inequality of the ground raised one man above the other, and lifted every man who was behind another into greater prominence, there was no such thing as escape, but they were all alike hit with arrows, and bewailing their inglorious and ineffectual death. Now there were with Publius two Greeks, of those who dwelt nearby in Kerai, Heronimus and Nicomachus. These joined in trying to persuade him to slip away with them and make their escape to Iknai, a city which had espoused the Roman cause and was not far off, but Publius, declaring that no death could have such terrors for him as to make him desert those who were perishing on his account, ordered them to save their own lives, bade them farewell, and dismissed them. Then he himself, being unable to use his hand, which had been pierced through with an arrow, presented his side to his shield-bearer and offered him to strike home with his sword. In like manner also Sensorinus is said to have died, but Megabacus took his own life, and so did the other most notable men. The survivors fought on till the Parthians mounted the hill and transfixed them with their long spears, and they say that not more than five hundred men were taken alive. Then the Parthians cut off the head of Publius and rode off at once to attack Crassus. His situation was as follows. After ordering his son to charge the Parthians and receiving tidings that the enemy rerouted to a great distance and hotly pursued, and after noticing also that his own immediate opponents were no longer pressing him so hard, since most of them had streamed away to where Publius was, he recovered a little courage in drawing his troops together, posted them for safety on sloping ground, in immediate expectation that his son would return from the pursuit. Of the messengers sent by Publius to his father, when he began to be in danger, the first fell in with the Barbarians and was slain. The next made their way through with difficulty, and reported that Publius was lost, unless he received speedy and abundant aid from his father. And now Crassus was apprayed to many conflicting emotions, and no longer looked at anything with calm judgment. His fear for the whole army drove him to refuse, and at the same time, his yearning love for his son impelled him to grant assistance, and at last he began to move his forces forward. At this point, however, the enemy came up with clamor and battle cries which made them more fearful than ever, and again many of their drums began bellowing about the Romans, who awaited the beginning of a second battle. Besides, these of the enemy who carried the head of Publius, fixed high upon a spear, rode close up and displayed it, carefully asking after his parents and family, for surely they said, it was not meat that Crassus, most base and cowardly of men, should be a father of a son so noble and of such splendid valor. This spectacle shattered and unstrung the spirits of the Romans, more than all the rest of their terrible experiences, and they were all filled, not with a passion for revenge, as was to be had been expected, but with shuddering and trembling. And yet Crassus, as they say, showed more brilliant qualities in that awful hour than ever before, for he went up and down the ranks, saying, Mine, O Romans, is this sorrow, and mine alone, but the great fortune and glory of Rome abide unbroken and unconquered in you who are alive and safe. And now, if ye have any pity for me, thus bereft of the noblest of sons, show it by your wrath against the enemy, rob them of their joy, avenge their cruelty, be not cast out at what has happened, for it must needs be that those who aim at great deeds should also suffer greatly. It was not without bloody losses that even the Cullus overthrew Tagueranes, or Scipio Antiochus, and our fathers of old lost a thousand ships off Sicily, and in Italy many imperators and generals, not one of them by his defeat, prevented them from afterwards mastering his conquerors. Before it was not by good fortune merely that the Roman state reached its present plentitude of power, but by the patient endurance and valor of those who faced dangers in its behalf. End of Marcus Likinius Crassus, Part 3