. But if,
as they had good reason to believe, Crassus, against the wish of his
country, had attacked Parthia and seized her territory for his own
private gain, Arsaces would be moderate. He would have pity on the
advanced years of the proconsul, and would give the Romans back those
men of theirs, who were not so much keeping watch in Mesopotamia as
having watch kept on them." Crassus, stung with the taunt, exclaimed,
"He would return the ambassadors an answer at Seleucia." Wagises, the
chief ambassador, prepared for some such exhibition of feeling, and,
glad to heap taunt on taunt, replied, striking the palm of one hand with
the fingers' of the other: "Hairs will grow here, Crassus, before you
see Seleucia."

Still further to quicken the action of the Romans, before the winter
was well over, the offensive was taken against their adherents in
Mesopotamia. The towns which held Roman garrisons were attacked by the
Parthians in force; and, though we do not hear of any being captured,
all of them were menaced, and all suffered considerably.

If Crassus needed to be stimulated, these stimulants were effective; and
he entered on his second campaign with a full determination to compel
the Parthian monarch to an engagement, and, if possible, to dictate
peace to him at his capital. He had not, however, in his second
campaign, the same freedom with regard to his movements that he had
enjoyed the year previous. The occupation of Western Mesopotamia cramped
his choice. It had, in fact, compelled him before quitting Syria to
decline, definitely and decidedly, the overtures of Artavasdes, who
strongly urged on him to advance by way of Armenia, and promised him
in that case an important addition to his forces. Crassus felt himself
compelled to support his garrisons, and therefore to make Mesopotamia,
and not Armenia, the basis of his operations, He crossed the Euphrates a
second time at the same point as before, with an army composed of 35,000
heavy infantry, 4,000 light infantry, and 4,000 horse. There was still
open to him a certain choice of routes. The one preferred by his chief
officers was the line of the Euphrates, known as that which the Ten
Thousand had pursued in an expedition that would have been successful
but for the death of its commander. Along this line water would be
plentiful; forage and other supplies might be counted on to a certain
extent; and the advancing army, resting on the river, could not be
surrounded. Ano