streams and rivers, besides numerous springs. At
intervals of a few miles it was studded with cities and villages; nor
did the desert really begin until the Khabour was crossed. The army of
Crassus had traversed it throughout its whole extent during the summer
of the preceding year, and must have been well acquainted with both its
advantages and drawbacks. But it is time that we should consider what
preparations the Parthian monarch had made against the threatened
attack. He had, as already stated, come to terms with his outlying
vassals, the prince of Osrhoene, and the sheikh of the Scenite Arabs,
and had engaged especially the services of the former against his
assailant. He had further, on considering the various possibilities of
the campaign, come to the conclusion that it would be best to divide
his forces, and, while himself attacking Artavasdes in the mountain
fastnesses of his own country, to commit the task of meeting and coping
with the Romans to a general of approved talents. It was of the greatest
importance to prevent the Armenians from effecting a junction with the
Romans, and strengthening them in that arm in which they were especially
deficient, the cavalry. Perhaps nothing short of an invasion of his
country by the Parthian king in person would have prevented Artavasdes
from detaching a portion of his troops to act in Mesopotamia. And no
doubt it is also true that Orodes had great confidence in his general,
whom he may even have felt to be a better commander than himself.
Surenas, as we must call him, since his name has not been preserved to
us, was in all respects a person of the highest consideration. He was
the second man in the kingdom for birth, wealth, and reputation. In
courage and ability he excelled all his countrymen; and he had the
physical advantages of commanding height and great personal beauty. When
he went to battle, he was accompanied by a train of a thousand camels,
which carried his baggage; and the concubines in attendance on him
required for their conveyance two hundred chariots. A thousand horseman
clad in mail, and a still greater number of light-armed, formed
his bodyguard. At the coronation of a Parthian monarch, it was his
hereditary right to place the diadem on the brow of the new sovereign.
When Orodes was driven into banishment it was he who brought him back to
Parthia in triumph. When Seleucia revolted, it was he who at the assault
first mounted the breach and, striking terro