or riding over with
horses. Therefore even in war the people lead about whole droves so that
they can use some horses at one place and others at another, can ride up
suddenly from a distance and also retire to a distance speedily. The sky
above them, too, which is very dry and contains not the least moisture,
affords them perfect opportunity for archery, except in the winter. For
that reason they make no campaigns in any direction during the winter
season. But the rest of the year they are almost invincible in their own
country and in any that has similar characteristics. By long custom they
can endure the sun, which is very scorching, and they have discovered
many remedies for the scantiness and difficulty of a supply of drink,--a
fact which is a help to them in repelling without difficulty the
invaders of their land. Outside of this district and beyond the
Euphrates they have once or twice exercised some sway by battles and
sudden incursions, but to fight with any nation continuously, without
stopping, is not in their power, when they encounter an entirely
different condition of land and sky and have no supplies of either food
or pay.

[-16-] Such is the Parthian state. Crassus, as has been stated, invaded
Mesopotamia and Orodes sent envoys to him in Syria to censure him for
the invasion and ask the causes of the war; he sent also Surena with an
army to the captured and revolted sections. He himself had in mind to
lead an expedition against Armenia, which had once belonged to Tigranes,
in order that Artabazes, son of Tigranes, the king of the land at that
time, should, through fear for his own domains, send no assistance to
the Romans. Now Crassus said that he would tell him in Seleucia the
causes of the war. (This is a city in Mesopotamia having even at the
present day chiefly a Greek population.) And one of the Parthians,
bringing down upon the palm of his left hand the fingers of the other,
exclaimed: "More quickly will hair grow herein, than you will reach
Seleucia."

[B.C. 53 (_a.u._ 701)]

[-17-] And when the winter set in,[62] in which Gnaeus Calvinus and
Valerius Messala became consuls, many portents occurred even in Rome
itself. Owls and wolves were seen, prowling dogs did damage, some sacred
statues exuded sweat and others were destroyed by lightning. The
offices, partly through rivalry but chiefly by reason of birds and
omens, were with difficulty filled at last in the seventh month. Those
signs, howeve