[Footnote 5: Crassus belonged to the Licinia Gens. His name was M.
Licinius Crassus Dives. He was the son of P. Licinius Crassus Dives,
who was consul B.C. 97, and afterwards governor of the nearer Spain.
In B.C. 93 P. Crassus had a triumph. He was afterwards employed in the
Marsic war; and in B.C. 89 he was censor with L. Julius Cæsar, who had
been consul in B.C. 90.
M. Licinius Crassus, whose life Plutarch has written, was the youngest
son of the Censor. The year of his birth is uncertain; but as he was
above sixty when he left Rome for his Parthian campaign B.C. 55, he
must have been born before B.C. 115. Meyer (_Orator. Roman.
Fragment_.) places the birth of Crassus in B.C. 114.]
[Footnote 6: Kaltwasser makes this passage mean that Crassus merely
took his brother's wife and her children to live with him; which is
contrary to the usual sense of the Greek words and readers the
following sentence unmeaning.
Kaltwasser observes that we do not know that such marriages were in
use among the Romans. I know no rule by which they were forbidden.
(Gaius, i. 58, &c.)]
[Footnote 7: The punishment of a Vestal Virgin for incontinence was
death. She was placed alive in a subterranean vault with a light and
some food. (Dionysius, ix. 40: Liv. 8. c. 15; Juvenal, Sat. iv. 8.)
The man who debauched a Vestal was also put to death. The Vestal
Virgins had full power of disposing of their property; they were
emancipated from the paternal power by the fact of being selected to
be Vestal Virgins (Gaius, i. 130); and they were not under the same
legal disabilities as other women (Gaius, i. 145; according to Dion
Cassius, 49. c. 38, Octavia and Livia received privileges like those
of the Vestals).
Another Licinia, a Vestal, had broken her vow, and was punished B.C.
113.]
[Footnote 8: See the Life of Crassus, c. 12; and the Life of Sulla, c.
35.]
[Footnote 9: This may hardly be a correct translation of [Greek:
argurognômonas] ἀργυρογνωμόνας: but it is something like the meaning.]
[Footnote 10: King Archidamus of Sparta, the second of the name, who
commanded the Peloponnesian war, B.C. 431. Plutarch (Life of
Demosthenes, c. 17) puts this saying in the mouth of one Krobylus, a
demagogue.]
[Footnote 11: Cicero (_Brutus,_ c. 66) speaks of the oratory of
Crassus, and commends his care and diligence; but he speaks of his
natural parts as not striking. Crassus spoke on the same side as
Cicero in the defence of Murena, of Caelius, and of Balbus (Meyer,
_Orator. Roman. Fragmenta,_ p. 382).]
[Footnote 12: A Roman who aspired to the highest offices of the State,
prepared his way by the magnificence of his public entertainments
during his curule ædileship, and by his affable manners. An humble
individual is always gratified when a great man addresses him by name,
and a shake of the hand secures his devotion. Ovidius (_Ars Amat_. ii.
253) alludes to this way of winning popular favour, and judiciously
observes that it costs nothing, which would certainly recommend it to
Crassus. If a man's memory was not so good as that of Crassus, he had
only to buy a slave, as Horatius (1 _Epist_. i. 50) recommends, who
could tell him the name of every man whom he met. Such a slave was
called Nomenclator. If the nomenclator's memory ever failed him, he
would not let his master know it: he gave a person any name that came
into his head.]
[Footnote 13: The Greek is [Greek: stegastrou] στέγαστρου, 'something
that covers;' but whether cloak or hat, or covered couch, or sedan,
the learned have not yet determined.]
[Footnote 14: These words may not be Plutarch's, and several critics
have marked them as spurious. The Peripatetics, of whom Alexander was
one, did not consider wealth as one of the things that are indifferent
to a philosopher; the Stoics did.]
[Footnote 15: This is Plutarch's word; but the father of Crassus was
Proconsul in Spain. When Cinna and Marius returned to Rome, B.C. 87,
Crassus and his sons were proscribed. Crassus and one of his sons lost
their lives: the circumstances are stated somewhat differently by
different writers. (Florius, iii. 21; Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 72.)
Drumann correctly remarks that Plutarch and other Greek writers often
use the word [Greek: stratêgos] στρατηγός simply to signify one who
has command, and that [Greek: stratêgos] is incorrectly rendered
'Prætor' by those who write in Latin, when they make use of the Greek
historians of Rome. But Plutarch's [Greek: stratêgos] στρατηγός
sometimes means prætor, and it is the word by which he denotes that
office; he probably does sometimes mean to say 'prætor,' when the man
of whom he speaks was not prætor. Whether [Greek: stratêgos] στρατηγός
in Plutarch is always translated prætor or always Commander, there
will be error. To translate it correctly in all cases, a man must know
whether the person spoken of was prætor or not; and that cannot always
be ascertained. But besides this, the word 'Commander' will not do,
for Plutarch sometimes calls a Proconsul [Greek: stratêgos] στρατηγός,
and a Proconsul had not merely a command: he had a government also.]
[Footnote 16: So the name is written by Sintenis, who writes it
Paccianus in the Life of Sertorius, c. 9. Some editions read Paciacus;
but the termination in Paciacus is hardly Roman, and the termination
in Pacianus is common. But the form Paciacus is adopted by Drumann,
where he is speaking of L. Junius Paciacus (_Geshichte Roms_, iv. p.
52).
Drumann observes that the flight of Crassus to Spain must have taken
place B.C. 85, for he remained eight months in Spain and returned to
Rome on the news of Cinna's death, B.C. 84.]
[Footnote 17: The MSS. have [Greek: auran] αὖραν, 'breeze,' which
Coræs ingeniously corrected to [Greek: laupan] λαύπαν, 'path,' which
is undoubtedly right.]
[Footnote 18: If Fenestella died in A.D. 19 at the age of seventy, as
it is said, he would be born in B.C. 51, and he might have had this
story from the old woman. (Clinton, _Fasti_, A.D. 14.) See Life of
Sulla, c. 28.]
[Footnote 19: Malaca, which still retains its name Malaga, was an old
Phœnician settlement on the south coast of Spain. Much fish was salted
and cured there; but I know not on what ground Kaltwasser concludes
that the word 'Malach' means Salt. It is sometimes asserted that the
name is from the Aramaic word Malek, 'King;' but W. Humboldt (_Prüfung
der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens)_ says that it is a
Basque word.]
[Footnote 20: The son of Metellus Numidicus. See the Lives of Marius
and Sertorius. Sulla lauded in Italy B.C. 83. See the Life of Sulla,
c. 27.]
[Footnote 21: This is the town which the Romans called Tuder. It was
situated in Umbria on a hill near the Tiber, and is represented by the
modern Todi.]
[Footnote 22: See the Life of Sulla, c. 29.]
[Footnote 23: There is nothing peculiar in this. It is common enough
for a man to blame in others the faults that he has himself.]
[Footnote 24: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 1. 2. and 11.]
[Footnote 25: M. Porcius Cato, whose Life Plutarch has written.]
[Footnote 26: Cn. Sicinius was Tribunus Plebis B.C. 76. He is
mentioned by Cicero (_Brutus,_ c. 60) as a man who had no other
oratorical qualification except that of making people laugh. The Roman
proverb to which Plutarch alludes occurs in Horatius, 1 Sat. 4. 34:--
"Foenum habet in cornu, longe fuge."
]
[Footnote 27: The insurrection of the gladiators commenced B.C. 73, in
the consulship of M. Terentius Varo Lucullus, the brother of Lucius
Lucullus, and of C. Cassius Longinus Verus. The names of two other
leaders, Crixus and Oenomaus, are recorded by Floras (iii. 20) and by
Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 116). The devastation caused by these
marauders was long remembered. The allusion of Horatius (_Carm._ ii.
14) to their drinking all the wine that they could find,is
characteristic.]
[Footnote 28: This Clodius is called Appius CloDius Glaber by Florus
(iii. 20). Compare the account of Appian (i. 116). Spartacus commenced
the campaign by flying to Mount Vesuvius, which was the scene of the
stratagem that is told in this chapter (Frontinus, _Stratagem_, i. 5)
Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, iv. 74. M. Licinius Crassus, N. 37) has
given a sketch of the campaign with Spartacus.]
[Footnote 29: P. Varinius Glaber who was prætor; and Clodius was his
legatus. He seems to be the same person whom Frontinus (_Stratagem_,
i. 5) mentions under the name of L. Varinus Proconsul.]
[Footnote 30: The place is unknown. Probably the true reading is
Salinæ, and the place may be the Salinæ Herculeæ, in the neighbourhood
of Herculaneum. But this is only a guess.]
[Footnote 31: The consuls were L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Lentulus
Clodianus B.C. 72.]
[Footnote 32: This was C. Cassius Longinus Verus, proconsul of Gaul
upon the Po (see c. 8). Plutarch calls him [Greek: stratêgos]
στρατηγός. Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 117) says that one of the consuls
defeated Crixus, who was at the head of 30,000 men, near Garganus,
that Spartacus afterwards defeated both the consuls, and meditated
advancing upon Rome with 120,000 foot soldiers. Spartacus sacrificed
three hundred Roman captives to the manes of Crixus, who had fallen in
the battle in which he was defeated; 20,000 of his men had perished
with Crixus.
Cassius was defeated in the neighbourhood of Mutina (Modena) as we
learn from Florus (iii. 20).]
[Footnote 33: Appian (i. 118) gives two accounts of the decimation,
neither of which agrees with the account of Plutarch. This punishment
which the Romans called Decimatio, is occasionally mentioned by the
Roman writers (Liv. ii. 59).]
[Footnote 34: Kaltwasser with the help of a false reading has
mistranslated this passage. He says that Spartacus sent over ten
thousand men into Sicily. Drumann has understood the passage as I have
translated it.]
[Footnote 35: If the length is rightly given, the ditch was about 38
Roman miles in length. There are no data for determining its position.
The circumstance is briefly mentioned by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i.
118). Frontinus (_Stratagem._, i. 5) states that Spartacus filled up
the ditch, where he crossed it, with the dead bodies of his prisoners
and of the beasts which were killed for that purpose.]
[Footnote 36: This lake, which Plutarch spells Leukanis, is placed by
Kaltwasser in the vicinity of Paestum or Poseidonia, but on what
grounds I do not know. Strabo indeed (p. 251) states that the river
makes marshes there, but that will not enable us to identify them.
Cramer (_Ancient Italy_, ii. 366) places here the Stagnum Lucanum,
where Plutarch "mentions that Crassus defeated a considerable body of
rebels under the command of Spartacus (Plut. Vit. Crass.)": but
nothing is given to prove the assertion. He adds, "In this district we
must also place the Mons Calamatius and Mons Cathena of which
Frontinus speaks in reference to the same event (_Stratagem_, ii. 4);
they are the mountains of Capaccio." This is founded on Cluverius, but
Cluverius concludes that the Calamatius of Frontinus (ii. 4, 7), or
Calamarcus as the MSS. seem to have it, is the same as the Cathena of
Frontinus (ii. 5, 34); for in fact Frontinus tells the same story
twice, as he sometimes does. It is a mistake to say that Frontinus is
speaking "of the same event," that is, the defeat of the gladiators on
the lake. He is speaking of another event, which is described farther
on in this chapter, when Crassus attacks Cannicius and Crixus, and
"sent," as Frontinus says (ii. 4, 7), " twelve cohorts round behind a
mountain."]
[Footnote 37: This was Marcus Lucullus, the brother of Lucius.]
[Footnote 38: 'To the Peteline mountains' in the original. Strabo
speaks of a Petelia in Lucania (p. 254), which some critics suppose
that he has confounded with the Petilia in the country of the Bruttii.
The reasons for this opinion are stated by Cramer (_Ancient Italy_,
ii. 367, 390).]
[Footnote 39: 'Quintus' in the text of Plutarch, which is a common
error. 'L. Quintius' in Frontinus (ii. 5, 34).]
[Footnote 40: The same thing is told in the Life of Pompeius, c. 21.]
[Footnote 41: In the Life of Marcellus, c. 22, Plutarch describes the
minor triumph, called the Ovatio, which name is from the word 'ovis' a
sheep; for a sheep only was sacrificed by the general who had the
minor triumph; he who had the greater triumph, sacrificed an ox. In an
ovatio the general walked in the procession, instead of riding in a
chariot drawn by four horses, as in the Triumphus Curulis; and he wore
a crown of myrtle, instead of a crown of bay which was worn on the
occasion of the greater triumph. But Plinius (_Hist. Nat._ xv. 29)
says that Crassus wore a crown of bay on the occasion of this
ovation.]
[Footnote 42: The first consulship of M. Licinius Crassus and Cn.
Pompeius Magnus belongs to B.C. 70.]
[Footnote 43: The story is told again in the Life of Pompeius, c. 23,
where Aurelius is called Caius Aurelius, which is probably the true
name.]
[Footnote 44: Crassus was censor with Lutatius Catulus in B.C. 65. The
duties of the censors are here briefly alluded to by Plutarch. One of
the most important was the numbering of the people and the
registration of property for the purposes of taxation. This quarrel of
the censors is mentioned by Dion Cassius (37. c. 9).]
[Footnote 45: The conspiracy of Catiline was in B.C. 63, the year when
Cicero was consul. See the Life of Cicero.
There seems to be no evidence that Crassus was implicated in the
affair of Catiline. Dion Cassius (37. c. 31) speaks of anonymous
letters about the conspiracy being brought to Crassus and other
nobles; and Plutarch states on the authority of Cicero that Crassus
communicated the letters to Cicero. Dion Cassius in another passage
(37. c. 35) mentions the suspicion against Crassus, and that one of
the prisoners informed against him, "but there were not many to
believe it." If Dion did not believe it, we need not; for he generally
believes anything that is to a man's discredit. Sallustius (_Bellum
Catilin._ c. 48) has given us a statement of the affair, but his own
opinion can scarcely be collected from it. He says, however, that he
had heard Crassus declare that Cicero was the instigator of this
charge. The orations of Cicero which Plutarch refers to are not
extant.]
[Footnote 46: The text is corrupt, though the general meaning is
plain. See the note of Sintonis.]
[Footnote 47: The son of Crassus, who is introduced abruptly in
Plutarch's fashion.]
[Footnote 48: After Cæsar had been prætor in Spain he was elected
consul B.C. 59, with M. Calpurnius Bibulus (see the Life of Cæsar, c.
14). After his consulship Cæsar had the Gauls as his province. The
meeting at Luca (Lucca), which was on the southern limits of Cæsar's
province, took place B.C. 56; and here was formed the coalition which
is sometimes, though improperly, called the first Triumvirate.]
[Footnote 49: The second consulship of Pompeius and Crassus was B.C.
55. Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was one of the consuls of the
year B.C. 56, during which the elections for the year 55 took place.
This Domitius, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, was consul B.C. 54. In the
quarrel between Pompeius and Cæsar, he joined Pompeius, and after
various adventures finally he lost his life in the battle of Pharsalus
B.C. 48.]
[Footnote 50: The first 'house' ([Greek: oikia] οἰκία) is evidently
the house of Domitius. The second house ([Greek: oikêma] οἴκημα),
which may be more properly rendered 'chamber,' may, as Sintenis says,
mean the Senate-house, if the reading is right. Kaltwasser takes the
second house to be the same as the first house; and he refers to the
Life of Pompeius, c. 51, 52, where the same story is told.
In place of [Greek: oikêma] οἴκημα some critics have read [Greek:
bêma] βῆμα the Rostra.]
[Footnote 51: Appian (_Civil Wars_, ii. 18) says that Pompeius
received Iberia and Libya. The Romans had now two provinces in the
Spanish peninsula, Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis, and Ulterior or
Bætica. This arrangement, by which the whole power of the state was
distributed among Pompeius, Crassus and Cæsar, was in effect a
revolution, and the immediate cause of the wars which followed.
Appian (_Civil Wars_, ii. 18) after speaking of Crassus going on his
Parthian expedition in which he lost his life, adds, "but the Parthian
History will show forth the calamity of Crassus." Appian wrote a
Parthian History; but that which is now extant under the name is
merely an extract from Plutarch's Life of Crassus, beginning with the
sixteenth chapter: which extract is followed by another from
Plutarch's Life of Antonius. The compiler of this Parthian History has
put at the head of it a few words of introduction. The extract from
Crassus is sometimes useful for the various readings which it offers.]
[Footnote 52: This wife was Cæsar's daughter Julia, whom Pompeius
married in Cæsar's consulship (Vell. Paterc. ii. 44). She was nearly
twenty-three years younger than Pompeius. Julia died B.C. 54, after
giving birth to a son, who died soon after her. She possessed beauty
and a good disposition. The people, with whom she was a favourite, had
her buried in the Field of Mars. See the Lives of Pompeius and Cæsar.]
[Footnote 53: That is the Lex which prolonged Cæsar's government for
five years and gave Iberia (Spain) and Syria to Pompeius and Crassus
for the same period. The Lex was proposed by the Tribune Titus
Trebonius (Livius, _Epitome_, 105; Dion Cassius, 39. c. 33).]
[Footnote 54: C. Ateius Capito Gallus and his brother tribune P.
Aquillius Gallius were strong opponents of Pompeius and Crassus at
this critical time. Crassus left Rome for his Parthian campaign at the
close of B.C. 55, before the expiration of his consulship (Clinton,
_Fasti_, B.C. 54).]
[Footnote 55: We learn that Crassus sailed from Brundisium (Brindisi),
the usual place of embarkation for Asia, but we are told nothing more
of his course till we find him in Galatia, talking to old Deiotarus.]
[Footnote 56: Zenodotia or Zenodotium, a city of the district
Osrhoene, and near the town of Nikephorium. These were Greek cities
founded by the Macedonians. I have mistranslated the first part of
this passage of Plutarch from not referring at the time to Dion
Cassius (40. c. 13) who tells the story thus:--"The inhabitants of
Zenodotium sent for some of the Romans, pretending that they intended
to join them like the rest; but when the men were within the city,
they cut off their retreat and killed them; and this was the reason
why their city was destroyed." The literal version of Plutarch's text
will be the true one. "But in one of them, of which Apollonius was
tyrant, a hundred of his soldiers were put to death, upon," &c.]
[Footnote 57: This was his son Publius, who is often mentioned in
Cæsar's Gallic War.]
[Footnote 58: See Life of Lucullus, c. 22.]
[Footnote 59: Hierapolis or the 'Holy City' was also called Bambyke
and Edessa. Strabo places it four schoeni from the west bank of the
Euphrates. The goddess who was worshipped here was called Atargatis or
Astarte. Lucian speaks of the goddess and her temple and ceremonial in
his treatise 'On the Syrian Goddess' (iii. p. 451, ed. Hemsterhuis).
Lucian had visited the place. Josephus adds (_Jewish Antiq._ xiv. 7)
that Crassus stripped the temple of Jerusalem of all its valuables to
the amount of ten thousand talents. The winter occupation of the Roman
general was more profitable than his campaign the following year
turned out.]
[Footnote 60: This was a general name of the Parthian kings, and
probably was used as a kind of title. The dynasty was called the
Arsakidæ. The name Arsakes occurs among the Persian names in the Persæ
of Aeschylus. Pott (_Etymologische Forschungen_, ii. 272) conjectures
that the word means 'King of the Arii,' or 'the noble King.' The
prefix _Ar_ or _Ari_ is very common in Persian names, as Ariamnes,
Ariomardus, and others.
Plutarch in other passages of the Life of Crassus calls this Arsakes,
Hyrodes, and other authorities call him Orodes. He is classed as
Arsakes XIV. Orodes I. of Parthia, by those who have attempted to form
a regular series of the Parthian kings.
Crassus replied that he would give his answer in Seleukeia, the large
city on the Tigris, which was nearly pure Greek. The later Parthian
capital was Ktesiphon, in the neighbourhood of Seleukeia, on the east
bank of the Tigris and about twenty miles from Bagdad. The foundation
of Ktesiphon is attributed by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6, ed.
Gronov.) to Bardanes, who was a contemporary of the Roman emperor
Nero, if he is the Arsakes Bardanes who appears in the list of
Parthian kings. But Ktesiphon is mentioned by Polybius in his fifth
book, in the wars of Antiochus and Molon, and consequently it existed
in the time of Crassus, though it is not mentioned in his Life.
Ktesiphon is mentioned by Dion Cassius (40. c. 14) in his history of
the campaign of Crassus, but this alone would not prove that Ktesiphon
existed at that time.]
[Footnote 61: The Greek word here and at the beginning of ch. xix.,
translated 'mailed' by Mr. Long, always refers to cuirassed cavalry
soldiers.]
[Footnote 62: C. Cassius Longinus, the friend of M. Junius Brutus, and
afterwards one of the assassins of the Dictator Cæsar.]
[Footnote 63: He is afterwards called Artavasdes. He was a son of the
Tigranes whom Lucullus defeated, and is called Artavasdes I. by
Saint-Martin. He is mentioned again in Plutarch's Life of M. Antonius.
c. 39, 50.]
[Footnote 64: Zeugma means the Bridge. Seleukus Nikator is said to
have established a bridge of boats here, in order to connect the
opposite bank with Apameia, a city which he built on the east side of
the Euphrates (Plinius, _Hist. Nat._ v. 24). Zeugma afterwards was a
usual place for crossing the river; but a bridge of boats could hardly
be permanently kept there, and it appears that Crassus had to
construct a raft. Zeugma is either upon or near the site of Bir, which
is in about 37° N. Lat.]
[Footnote 65: Probably these great hurricanes are not uncommon on the
Euphrates. In the year 1831 a gale sent Colonel Chesney's "little
vessel to the bottom of the river;" but a still greater calamity befel
the Tigris steamer in the Euphrates expedition which was under the
command of Colonel Chesney, in May 1836. A little after one P.M. a
storm appeared bringing with it clouds of sand from the
west-north-west. The two steam-boats the Tigris and the Euphrates were
then passing over the rocks of Es-Geria, which were deeply covered
with water. The Euphrates was safely secured; but the Tigris, being
directed against the bank, struck with great violence; the wind
suddenly veered round and drove her bow off; "this rendered it quite
impossible to secure the vessel to the bank, along which she was blown
rapidly by the heavy gusts; her head falling off into the stream as
she passed close to the Euphrates, which vessel had been backed
opportunely to avoid the concussion." The Tigris perished in this
violent hurricane and twenty men were lost in her. The storm lasted
about eight minutes. Colonel Chesney escaped by swimming to the shore
just before the vessel went down: he was fortunate "to take a
direction which brought him to the land, without having seen anything
whatever to guide him through the darkness worse than that of
night."--"For an instant," says Colonel Chesney after getting to land,
"I saw the keel of the Tigris uppermost (near the stern); she went
down bow foremost, and having struck the bottom in that position, she
probably turned round on the bow as a pivot, and thus showed part of
her keel for an instant at the other extremity; but her paddle beams,
floats, and parts of the sides were already broken up, and actually
floated ashore, so speedy and terrific had been the work of
destruction." (Letter from Colonel Chesney to Sir J. Hobhouse, 28th
May, 1836; Euphrates Expedition Papers printed by order of the House
of Commons, 17th July, 1837.)
Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiv. 1) speaks of a violent storm at Anatha
(Annah) on the Euphrates, during the expedition of the Emperor Julian.
It blew down the tents and stretched the soldiers on the ground.]
[Footnote 66: A place struck with lightning was considered religious
(religiosus), that is, it could no longer be used for common purposes.
"The deity," says Festus (v. _Fulguritum_), "was supposed to have
appropriated it to himself."
Dion Cassius (40. c. 17, &c.) gives the story of the passage of the
river. The eagle, according to him, was very obstinate. It stuck fast
in the ground, as if it was planted there; and when it was forced up
by the soldiers, it went along very unwillingly.
The Roman eagle was fixed at one end of a long shaft of wood, which
had a sharp point at the other end for the purpose of fixing it in the
ground. The eagle was gold, or gilded metal; and, according to Dion
Cassius, it was kept in a small moveable case or consecrated chapel.
The eagle was not moved from the winter encampment, unless the whole
army was put in motion. The Vexilla ([Greek: sêmeia] σημεῖα of the
Greek writers) were what we call the colours.
(See the note of Reimarus on Dion Cassius, 40. c. 18.)]
[Footnote 67: Dion Cassius (40. c. 20), who tells the story, names the
man Augarus. See the note of Reimarus.]
[Footnote 68: This is the translation of Plutarch's word [Greek:
pelatês] πελάτης, which word [Greek: pelatês] πελάτης is used by the
Greek writers on Roman history to express the Latin Cliens. It is not
here supposed that Parthian clients were the same as Roman clients;
but as Plutarch uses the word to express a certain condition among the
Parthians, which was not that of slavery, it is proper to retain his
word in the translation.]
[Footnote 69: This "very Hyrodes" and his brother Mithridates are said
to have murdered their father Arsakes XII. Phraates III., who is
spoken of in the Life of Lucullus. The two brothers quarrelled.
Mithridates is mentioned by some authorities as the immediate
successor of his father under the title of Arsakes XIII. Mithridates
III. Mithridates was besieged in Babylon by Hyrodes; and Mithridates,
after surrendering to his brother, was put to death. (Dion Cassius,
39. c. 56; Appian, _On the Affairs of Syria_, c. 51; Justinus, xlii.
4.)]
[Footnote 70: This river is probably the same as the Bilecha, now the
Belejik, a small stream which joins the Euphrates on the left bank at
Racca, the old Nikephorium. This river is mentioned by Isidorus of
Charax and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. c. 3), who calls it
Belias.]
[Footnote 71: Plutarch seems to mean something like drums furnished
with bells or rattles; but his description is not very clear, and the
passage may be rendered somewhat differently from what I have rendered
it: "but they have instruments to beat upon ([Greek: rhoptra] ῥόπτρα),
made of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders"
([Greek: êcheiois] ἠχείοις, whatever the word may mean here). The word
[Greek: rhoptron] ῥόπτρον properly means a thing to strike with; but
it seems to have another meaning here. (See Passow's _Greek Lexicon_.)
The context seems to show that a drum is meant.]
[Footnote 72: Margiana was a country east of the Caspian, the position
of which seems to be determined by the Murg-aub river, the ancient
Margus. Hyrcania joined it on the west. Strabo (p. 516) describes
Margiana as a fertile plain surrounded by deserts. He says nothing of
its iron. Plinius (_Hist. Nat._ vi. 16) says that Orodes carried off
the Romans who were captured at the time of the defeat of Crassus, to
Antiochia, in Margiana.]
[Footnote 73: So Xenophon (_Cyropædia_, i. 3. 2) represents King
Astyages. The king also wore a wig or false locks.]
[Footnote 74: The peculiarity of the Parthian warfare made a lasting
impression on the Romans; and it is often alluded to by the Latin
writers:--
Fidentemque fuga Parthum versisque sagittis.
Virgil, _Georgic_ iii. 31.
]
[Footnote 75: In reading the chapter, it must be remembered that
Publius is young Crassus. If there is any apparent confusion between
the father and son, it will be removed by reading carefully. I have
chosen to translate Plutarch, not to mend him.]
[Footnote 76: The reading of this passage in Appian (_Parthica_, c.
29) is [Greek: telmasin entuchontes] τέλμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which
Sintenis has adopted. The common reading is [Greek: suntagmasin
entuchontes] συντάγμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which various critics variously
explain.]
[Footnote 77: In the old Latin translation of Guarini, the name Cn.
Plancus occurs in place of Megabacchus. Kaltwasser conjectures that
Megabacchus was a Greek, but the context implies that he was a Roman.
Orelli (_Onomastic._ C. Megaboccus) takes him to be the person
mentioned by Cicero (_Ad Attic._ ii. 7), which Gronovius had already
observed, and again by Cicero, _Pro Scauro_, c. 2.]
[Footnote 78: Censorinus was a cognomen of the Marcia Gens, and
several of the name are mentioned in the history of Rome; but this
Censorinus does not appear to be otherwise known.]
[Footnote 79: Carrhæ was a Mesopotamian town, south of Orfa or Edessa,
and about 37° N. lat. It is supposed to be the Haran of Genesis (xi.
31).]
[Footnote 80: Ichnæ was a town on the Bilecha, south of Carrhæ. Dion
Cassias (40. c. 12) calls it Ichniæ, and adds that Crassus before
taking Nikephorium had been defeated by Talymenus Eilakes. Eilakes is
probably a blunder in the copies of Dion; and it is conjectured that
he is the Sillakes mentioned by Plutarch (c. 21), Appian, and Orosius
(vi. 3).]
[Footnote 81: The death of young Crassus, and the subsequent
misfortunes of the Romans, are described by Dion Cassius, 40. c. 21,
&c.]
[Footnote 82: Or Egnatius. He is called Gnatius by Appian.]
[Footnote 83: Cassius escaped to Syria, which he successfully defended
against the invading Parthians, who lost their commander, Osakes.
(Dion Cassius. 40. c. 28, 29; Cicero, _Ad Attic._ v. 20; Orosius, vi.
13.)
Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia during the Parthian invasion of Syria
B.C. 51.]
[Footnote 84: Sinnaca is mentioned by Strabo p. 747, but he says
nothing which enables us to fix its position. If Plutarch's narrative
is correct; it was not far from Carrhæ; and Carrhæ was considered by
the Romans to be the scene of the death of Crassus, probably because
it was the nearest known place to the spot where he fell.]
[Footnote 85: 'The river' is the Euphrates.]
[Footnote 86: The stories about the death of Crassus varied, as we
might suppose. Dion Cassius (40. c. 27) remarks that, according to one
version of the story, Crassus was badly wounded, and was killed by one
of his own people to prevent him from being taken alive. He adds that
the chief part of the army of Crassus made their escape.]
[Footnote 87: The story of molten gold being poured into the mouth of
the head of Crassus is given by Dion Cassius as a report. Floras (iii.
11) has the same story; and he says that it was the right hand of
Crassus which was sent to the king, as we might conjecture it would
be, if only one was sent.]
[Footnote 88: Kaltwasser asks, "Was this perchance intended as an
allusion to the avarice of Crassus, as the female dress was intended
to refer to his cowardice?" The probable answer is Yes.]
[Footnote 89: As this was a Greek town, it had a Greek constitution,
and was governed by a body which the Romans called a Senate. The
Senate of Seleukeia is mentioned by Tacitus (_Annal._ vi. 42):
"Trecenti opibus, aut sapientia delecti, ut Senatus: sua populo vis;
et quoties concordes agunt, spernitur Parthus."]
[Footnote 90: This Aristeides wrote lewd stories called Milesiaca, of
which there were several books. They were translated into Latin by the
historian L. Cornelius Sisenna, a contemporary of Sulla. It is not
said whether the original or the translation formed a part of the camp
furniture of this unworthy Roman soldier. The work of Aristeides was
known to Ovidius (_Tristia,_ ii. 413, 443), who attempts to defend his
own amatory poetry by the example of Sisenna, who translated an
obscene book.]
[Footnote 91: Probably there is an error in the name: Roscius has been
proposed as the probable reading.]
[Footnote 92: Plutarch is alluding to the fable of the two wallets,
which every man carries, one in front with his neighbours' faults in
it, and the other behind containing his own. Phædrus (iv. 10, ed.
Orelli) has pithily told the apologue:--
Peras imposuit Iuppiter nobis duas:
Propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit,
Alienis ante pectus suspendit gravem.
Hac re videre nostra mala non possumus:
Alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus.
Two wallets Juppiter has placed upon us:
Our own faults fill the bag we bear behind,
Our neighbour's heavy wallet hangs in front.
And so we cannot see our own ill deeds;
But if another trips, forthwith we censure.
]
[Footnote 93: This word means a thick stick; and a snake of like
form.]
[Footnote 94: Greek adventurers were always making their way to the
courts of these barbarous Asiatic kings to serve in the capacity of
physicians, mountebanks, or impostors of some kind. Several instances
are mentioned by Herodotus. Tralles was a considerable town near the
west coast of Asia Minor, from which this actor came.]
[Footnote 95: Pentheus, king of Thebes, son of Agave; would not
recognise the divinity of Bacchus, whereupon Bacchus infuriated the
women, and among them Agave, who killed her own son. She is introduced
in the Bacchæ with his head in her hand, exulting over the slaughter
of the supposed wild beast.
The passage which is cited is from the Bacchæ of Euripides, v. 1168,
ed. Elmsley. The exact meaning of the word [Greek: helika] ἕλικα in
the passage is uncertain. See Elmsley's note.]
[Footnote 96: The word is Exodium ([Greek: exodion] ἐξόδιον), a kind
of entertainment common among the Romans, though it is a Greek word.
Plutarch means that this exhibition before the kings was like the
farce which is acted after a tragedy. It seems as if Jason was first
playing the part of Agave, and was then going to play that of
Pentheus; but on seeing the head he put aside the mask and dress of
Pentheus, and recited the words of the frantic mother. Plutarch
sometimes leaves things in a kind of mist: he gives his reader
opportunity for conjecture.]
[Footnote 97: Pacorus was completely defeated B.C. 38 near the
Euphrates by P. Ventidius Bassus, who was the legatus of M. Antonius.
Pacorus lost his life in the battle (Dion Cassius, 49. c. 20;
Plutarch, _Life of Antonius_, c. 34). It is said that Pacorus fell on
the same day on which Crassus lost his life fifteen years before, the
9th of June (Dion Cassius, 49. c. 21, and the note of Reimarus).]
[Footnote 98: He began his reign under the name of Arsakes XV.
Phraates IV., according to some authorities, B.C. 37. He was not
satisfied with murdering his father: he murdered his brothers, and
many distinguished Parthians. His name occurs again in Plutarch's Life
of Antonius. Phraates delivered up to Augustus, B.C. 20, the Roman
soldiers, eagles, and standards which had been taken by Crassus; an
event which is commemorated by extant medals, and was recorded by
Augustus among his other exploits in the Monumentum Ancyranum.]
[Footnote 99: This is the Greek word ([Greek: akoniton] ὰκόνιτον): the
same name is now given to Monkshood or Wolfsbane, a genus of
Ranunculaceae. Aconite is now used as a medicine; "The best forms are
either an alcoholic extract of the leaves, or an alcoholic tincture of
the root made by displacement." It is a poisonous plant, and death has
followed from the careless use of it ("Aconite," _Penny Cyclopædia_
and _Supplement_ to the _P. Cyc._).
With this farce, as Plutarch remarks, the history of Crassus
terminates. If Plutarch designed to make Crassus contemptible, he has
certainly succeeded. And there is nothing in other authorities to
induce us to think that he has done Crassus injustice. With some good
qualities and his moderate abilities, he might have been a respectable
man in a private station. But insatiable avarice, and that curse of
many men, ambition without the ability that can ensure success and
command respect, made Crassus a fool in his old age, and brought him
to an ignominious end.]