holly in mail. Their head, neck, chest, even their
sides and flanks, were protected by scale-armor of brass or iron, sewn,
probably, upon leather. Their riders had cuirasses and cuisses of the
same materials, and helmets of burnished iron. For an offensive weapon
they carried a long and strong spear or pike. They formed a serried
line in battle, bearing down with great weight on the enemy whom they
charged, and standing firm as an iron wall against the charges that were
made upon them. A cavalry answering to this in some respects had been
employed by the later Persian monarchs, and was in use also among the
Armenians at this period; but the Parthian pike was apparently more
formidable than the corresponding weapons of those nations, and the
light spear carried at this time by the cavalry of a Roman army was no
match for it.

The force entrusted to Surenas comprised troops of both these
classes. No estimate is given us of their number, but it was probably
considerable. At any rate it was sufficient to induce him to make a
movement in advance--to cross the Sinjar range and the river Khabour,
and take up his position in the country between that stream and the
Belik--instead of merely seeking to cover the capital. The presence
of the traitor Abgarus in the camp of Crassus was now of the utmost
importance to the Parthian commander. Abgarus, fully trusted, and at the
head of a body of light horse, admirably adapted for outpost service,
was allowed, upon his own request, to scour the country in front of the
advancing Romans, and had thus the means of communicating freely with
the Parthian chief. He kept Surenas informed of all the movements and
intentions of Crassus, while at the same time he suggested to Crassus
such a line of route as suited the views and designs of his adversary.
Our chief authority for the details of the expedition tells us that he
led the Roman troops through an arid and trackless desert, across plains
without tree, or shrub, or even grass, where the soil was composed of a
light shifting sand, which the wind raised into a succession of hillocks
that resembled the waves of an interminable sea. The soldiers, he says,
fainted with the heat and with the drought, while the audacious Osrhoene
scoffed at their complaints and reproaches, asking them whether they
expected to find the border-tract between Arabia and Assyria a country
of cool streams and shady groves, of baths, and hostelries, like their
own delicio