r into the defenders, took
the city. Though less than thirty years of age at the time when he was
appointed commander, he was believed to possess, besides these various
qualifications, consummate prudence and sagacity.

The force which Orodes committed to his brave and skillful lieutenant
consisted entirely of horse. This was not the ordinary character of a
Parthian army, which often comprised four or five times as many infantry
as cavalry. It was, perhaps, rather fortunate accident than profound
calculation that caused the sole employment against the Romans of this
arm. The foot soldiers were needed for the rough warfare of the Armenian
mountains; the horse would, it was known, act with fair effect in the
comparatively open and level Mesopotamia. As the king wanted the footmen
he took them, and left to his general the troops which were not required
for his own operations.

The Parthian horse, like the Persian, was of two kinds, standing in
strong contrast the one to the other. The bulk of their cavalry was of
the lightest and most agile description. Fleet and active coursers, with
scarcely any caparison but a headstall and a single rein, were mounted
by riders clad only in a tunic and trousers, and armed with nothing
but a strong bow and a quiver full of arrows. A training begun in early
boyhood made the rider almost one with his steed; and he could use his
weapons with equal ease and effect whether his horse was stationary
or at full gallop, and whether he was advancing towards or hurriedly
retreating from his enemy. His supply of missiles was almost
inexhaustible, for when he found his quiver empty, he had only to retire
a short distance and replenish his stock from magazines, borne on
the backs of camels, in the rear. It was his ordinary plan to keep
constantly in motion when in the presence of an enemy, to gallop
backwards and forwards, or round and round his square or column, never
charging it, but at a moderate interval plying it with his keen and
barbed shafts which were driven by a practised hand from a bow of
unusual strength. Clouds of this light cavalry enveloped the advancing
or the retreating foe, and inflicted grievous damage without, for the
most part, suffering anything in return.

But this was not the whole. In addition to these light troops, a
Parthian army comprised always a body of heavy cavalry, armed on an
entirely different system. The strong horses selected for this service
were clad almost w