Romans right in front.
Accordingly, the barbarian coming to Crassus (and he was a plausible
talker), spake in high terms of Pompeius as his benefactor, and
praised the force of Crassus; but he blamed him for his tardiness,
inasmuch as he was delaying and making preparation, as if he would
have occasion to employ arms instead of hands and the most active
feet, against an enemy who had long been trying to get together, as
quick as they could, their most valuable property and their best
slaves, and to move off to the Scythians or Hyrkanians. "And yet," he
said, "if you intend to fight, you ought to press on before the king
recovers his courage and all his forces are concentrated; for now
Surena and Sillakes have been thrown in your way to stand the attack,
and the king is no where to be seen." But all this was false. For
Hyrodes had at first divided his forces into two parts, and he was
himself ravaging Armenia to take vengeance on Artavasdes; but he sent
Surena against the Romans, not because he despised them, as some say,
for it was not consistent for him to disdain Crassus as an antagonist,
the first of the Romans, and to war against Artavasdes and take the
villages of Armenia; but it seems that he really feared the danger,
and that he was on the watch to await the result, and that he put
Surena in the front to try the fortune of a battle, and so to divert
the enemy. For Surena was no person of mean estate: in wealth, birth,
and consideration, he was next to the king; but, in courage and
ability, the first of the Parthians of his time; and, besides all
this, in stature and beauty of person he had no equal. He used always
to travel, when he was on his own business, with a thousand camels to
carry his baggage, and he had following him two hundred carriages for
concubines; and a thousand mailed horsemen, with a larger number of
light cavalry, escorted him; and he had in all, horsemen, clients,[68]
and slaves, no less than ten thousand. Now by hereditary right he had
the privilege of first placing the diadem on the head of him who
became king of the Parthians;[69] and this very Hyrodes, who had been
driven out, he restored to the Parthian empire, and took for him
Seleukeia the Great, being the first to mount the wall and to put to
flight with his own hand those who opposed him. Though he was not yet
thirty years of age at that time, he had the first reputation for
prudent counsel and judgment, by which qualities particularl