[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.

[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.)

[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.

[8] See the Life of Crassus, c. 12; and the Life of Sulla, c. 35.

[9] This may hardly be a correct translation of ἀργυρογνωμόνας: but it is something like the meaning.

[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.

[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).

[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.

[13] The Greek is στέγαστρου, 'something that covers;' but whether cloak or hat, or covered couch, or sedan, the learned have not yet determined.

[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.

[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 στρατηγός simply to signify one who has command, and that στρατηγός is incorrectly rendered 'Prætor' by those who write in Latin, when they make use of the Greek historians of Rome. But Plutarch's 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 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 στρατηγός, and a Proconsul had not merely a command: he had a government also.

[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.

[17] The MSS. have αὖραν, 'breeze,' which Coræs ingeniously corrected to λαύπαν, 'path,' which is undoubtedly right.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[22] See the Life of Sulla, c. 29.

[23] There is nothing peculiar in this. It is common enough for a man to blame in others the faults that he has himself.

[24] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 1. 2. and 11.

[25] M. Porcius Cato, whose Life Plutarch has written.

[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:—

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[31] The consuls were L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Lentulus Clodianus B.C. 72.

[32] This was C. Cassius Longinus Verus, proconsul of Gaul upon the Po (see c. 8). Plutarch calls him 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).

[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).

[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.

[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.

[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."

[37] This was Marcus Lucullus, the brother of Lucius.

[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).

[39] 'Quintus' in the text of Plutarch, which is a common error. 'L. Quintius' in Frontinus (ii. 5, 34).

[40] The same thing is told in the Life of Pompeius, c. 21.

[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.

[42] The first consulship of M. Licinius Crassus and Cn. Pompeius Magnus belongs to B.C. 70.

[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.

[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).

[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.

[46] The text is corrupt, though the general meaning is plain. See the note of Sintonis.

[47] The son of Crassus, who is introduced abruptly in Plutarch's fashion.

[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.

[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.

[50] The first 'house' (οἰκία) is evidently the house of Domitius. The second house (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 οἴκημα some critics have read βῆμα the Rostra.

[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.

[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.

[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).

[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).

[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.

[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.

[57] This was his son Publius, who is often mentioned in Cæsar's Gallic War.

[58] See Life of Lucullus, c. 22.

[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.

[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.

[61] The Greek word here and at the beginning of ch. xix., translated 'mailed' by Mr. Long, always refers to cuirassed cavalry soldiers.

[62] C. Cassius Longinus, the friend of M. Junius Brutus, and afterwards one of the assassins of the Dictator Cæsar.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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 (σημεῖα of the Greek writers) were what we call the colours.

(See the note of Reimarus on Dion Cassius, 40. c. 18.)

[67] Dion Cassius (40. c. 20), who tells the story, names the man Augarus. See the note of Reimarus.

[68] This is the translation of Plutarch's word πελάτης, which word 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.

[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.)

[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.

[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 (ῥόπτρα), made of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders" (ἠχείοις, whatever the word may mean here). The word 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.

[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.

[73] So Xenophon (Cyropædia, i. 3. 2) represents King Astyages. The king also wore a wig or false locks.

[74] The peculiarity of the Parthian warfare made a lasting impression on the Romans; and it is often alluded to by the Latin writers:—

[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.

[76] The reading of this passage in Appian (Parthica, c. 29) is τέλμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which Sintenis has adopted. The common reading is συντάγμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which various critics variously explain.

[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.

[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.

[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).

[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).

[81] The death of young Crassus, and the subsequent misfortunes of the Romans, are described by Dion Cassius, 40. c. 21, &c.

[82] Or Egnatius. He is called Gnatius by Appian.

[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.

[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.

[85] 'The river' is the Euphrates.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[91] Probably there is an error in the name: Roscius has been proposed as the probable reading.

[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:—

[93] This word means a thick stick; and a snake of like form.

[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.

[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 ἕλικα in the passage is uncertain. See Elmsley's note.

[96] The word is Exodium (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.

[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).

[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.

[99] This is the Greek word (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.