hich ruled from the Euphrates to the
Atlantic Ocean.

While the general of King Orodes was thus successful against the Romans
in Mesopotamia, the king himself had in Armenia obtained advantages of
almost equal value, though of a different kind. Instead of contending
with Artavasdes, he had come to terms with him, and had concluded a
close alliance, which he had sought to confirm and secure by uniting
his son, Pacorus, in marriage with a sister of the Armenian monarch. A
series of festivities was being held to celebrate this auspicious
event, when news came of Surenas's triumph, and of the fate of Crassus.
According to the barbarous customs of the East, the head and hand of the
slain proconsul accompanied the intelligence. We are told that at
the moment of the messenger's arrival the two sovereigns, with their
attendants, were amusing themselves with a dramatic entertainment. Both
monarchs had a good knowledge of the Greek literature and language, in
which Artavasdes had himself composed historical works and tragedies.
The actors were representing the famous scene in the "Bacchae" of
Euripides, where Agave and the Bacchanals come upon the stage with the
mutilated remains of the murdered Pentheus, when the head of Crassus was
thrown in among them. Instantly the player who personated Agave seized
the bloody trophy, and placing it on his thyrsus instead of the one
he was carrying, paraded it before the delighted spectators, while he
chanted the well-known lines:

From the mountain to the hall
New-cut tendril, see, we bring--
Blessed prey!

The horrible spectacle was one well suited to please an Eastern
audience: it was followed by a proceeding of equal barbarity and still
more thoroughly Oriental. The Parthians, in derision of the motive which
was supposed to have led Crassus to make his attack, had a quantity of
gold melted and poured it into his mouth.

Meanwhile Surenas was amusing his victorious troops, and seeking to
annoy the disaffected Seleucians, by the performance of a farcical
ceremony. He spread the report that Crassus was not killed but captured;
and, selecting from among the prisoners the Roman most like him in
appearance, he dressed the man in woman's clothes, mounted him upon
a horse, and requiring him to answer to the names of "Crassus" and
"Imperator," conducted him in triumph to the Grecian city. Before him
went, mounted on camels, a band, arrayed as trumpeters and lictors, the
lictor