m eager to have, in the year after his
consulship, a great and important provincial command. To his delight,
while Pompeius took Spain and Caesar remained in Gaul, he was given
Syria. Although he was by now sixty the most fantastic visions of
triumph and conquest immediately floated before his eyes: he saw himself
performing feats in the East which should altogether outshine those of
Lucullus and Pompeius. There was no war going on in that part of the
world, but Crassus at once made up his mind that there should be war
since it was the straight path to honour and renown. He would attack
Parthia and conquer a new and rich country for Rome. This he planned
regardless of the fact that the Parthians were actually allies of Rome.
The ideas sown by Lucullus were bearing fruit.

Crassus was elderly. It was long since he had directed a campaign, and
campaigning in the East was new to him. Neither he nor his son Publius,
who after serving with Caesar in Gaul came with him as his aide-de-camp,
or any other member of his staff, knew anything of the geography of
Parthia. After gaining quick successes in Mesopotamia he returned to
Syria for the winter instead of going forward and making, as he could
have done, allies in the cities of Babylon and Seleucia, cities always
at enmity with the Parthians. As it was, while he was busy inquiring
into the revenues of the cities of Syria and weighing the treasures in
the temples, the Parthians, warned of his intentions, were making
preparations against him. Accounts of the scale of these preparations
were brought in which alarmed the Roman soldiers. They had imagined that
the Parthians, a most warlike people, were tame folk such as Lucullus
had found the Armenians and Cappadocians. A series of terrific
thunderstorms seemed to them to herald disaster.

[Illustration: ORODES THE PARTHIAN]

Crassus, however, paid no heed to the murmurs of his officers and men.
He had no lack of courage or energy, and did not at all realize his
danger. Moreover, he was deceived by spies into a false security. Thus
he marched too far into a country about which he knew nothing. Suddenly
his scouts brought in news that a great army was advancing. Very soon
the Romans were upon this army. They found that its advance guard was
composed of a kind of warrior never met by the Romans--bowmen on
horseback, and bowmen of most deadly skill, whose arrows could pierce a
steel cuirass, whose aim was sure and whose rapid move