ich nine
thousand of them were killed and above ten thousand taken prisoners,
and he entered Colchis; and on the Phasis[269] he was met by Servilius
with the vessels with which he was guarding the Pontus.

XXXV. The pursuit of Mithridates was attended with great difficulties,
as he had plunged among the nations around the Bosporus and the
Maeotis; and intelligence reached Pompeius that the Albani had again
revolted. Moved by passion and desire of revenge, Pompeius turned
against the Albani. He again crossed the Cyrnus with difficulty and
danger, for the river had been fenced off with stakes to a great
extent by the barbarians; and as the passage of the river was
succeeded by a long waterless and difficult march, he had ten thousand
skins filled with water and then advanced against the enemy, whom he
found posted on the river Abas[270] to the number of sixty thousand
foot and twelve thousand cavalry, but poorly armed, and for the most
part only with the skins of beasts. They were commanded by a brother
of the king, named Kosis, who, when the two armies had come to close
quarters, rushed against Pompeius and struck him with a javelin on the
fold[271] of his breastplate, but Pompeius with his javelin in his
hand pierced him through and killed him. In this battle it is said
that Amazons[272] also fought on the side of the barbarians, and that
they had come down hither from the mountains about the river
Thermodon. For after the battle, when the Romans were stripping the
barbarians, they found Amazonian shields and boots, but no body of a
woman was seen. The Amazons inhabit those parts of the Caucasus which
extend towards the Hyrcanian sea, but they do not border on the
Albani, for Gelae and Leges dwell between; and they cohabit with these
people every year for two months, meeting them on the river Thermodon,
after which they depart and live by themselves.

XXXVI. After the battle Pompeius set out to advance to the
Hyrkanian[273] and Caspian sea, but he was turned from his route by
the number of deadly reptiles, when he was three days' march from it.
He retired to the Less Armenia; and he returned a friendly answer to
the Kings of the Elymaei[274] and Medes who sent ambassadors, but
against the Parthian king who had invaded Gordyene and was plundering
the people of Tigranes, he sent Afranius with a force who drove him
out and pursued him as far as the territory of Arbela. Of all the
concubines of Mithridates who were brough