five
days Mithridates succeeded in stealing away with the strongest part of
his army, after having first massacred those who were unfit for
service and were sick. Next, Pompeius overtook him on the Euphrates
and pitched his camp near him; and fearing lest Mithridates should
frustrate his design by crossing the river, he led his army against
him in battle order at midnight, at which very hour it is said that
Mithridates had a vision in his sleep which forewarned him of what was
going to happen. He dreamed that he was sailing on the Pontic sea with
a fair wind, and was already in sight of the Bosporus, and
congratulating his fellow voyagers, as a man naturally would do in his
joy at a manifest and sure deliverance; but all at once he saw himself
abandoned by everybody and drifting about upon a small piece of wreck.
While he was suffering under this anguish and these visions, his
friends came to his bed-side and roused him with the news that
Pompeius was attacking them. The enemy accordingly must of necessity
fight in defence of their camp, and the generals leading their forces
out put them in order of battle. Pompeius, seeing the preparations to
oppose him, hesitated about running any risk in the dark, and thought
that he ought only to surround the enemy, to prevent their escape, and
attack them when it was daylight, inasmuch as their numbers were
greater. But the oldest centurions by their entreaties and
exhortations urged him on; for it was not quite dark, but the moon
which was descending in the horizon still allowed them to see objects
clear enough. And it was this which most damaged the king's troops.
For the Romans advanced with the moon on their backs, and as the light
was much depressed towards the horizon, the shadows were projected a
long way in front of the soldiers and fell upon the enemy, by reason
of which they could not accurately estimate the distance between them
and the Romans, but supposing that they were already at close quarters
they threw their javelins without effect and struck nobody. The Romans
perceiving this rushed upon the enemy with shouts, and as they did not
venture to stand their ground, but were terror-struck and took to
flight, the Romans slaughtered them to the number of much more than
ten thousand, and took their camp. Mithridates at the commencement
with eight hundred horsemen cut his way through the Romans, but the
rest were soon dispersed and he was left alone with three persons, one