ecure secrecy, being betrayed by the moon, which was at its full. The
Romans accordingly waited for moonless nights, and then starting out in
darkness and a foreign land that was likewise hostile, they scattered in
tremendous fear. Some were caught when it became day and lost their
lives: others got safely away to Syria in the company of Cassius
Longinus, the quaestor. Others, with Crassus himself, sought the
mountains and prepared to escape through them into Armenia. [-26-]
Surena, learning this, was afraid that if they could reach any
headquarters they might make war on him again, but still was unwilling
to assail them on the higher ground, which was inaccessible to horses.
As they were heavy-armed men, fighting from higher ground, and in a kind
of frenzy, through despair, contending with them was not easy. So he
sent to them, inviting them to submit to a truce, on condition of
abandoning all territory east of the Euphrates. Crassus, nothing
wavering, trusted him. He was in the height of terror and distraught by
his private misfortune and the public calamity as well; and because,
further, he saw that the soldiers shrank from the journey (which they
thought long and rough) and that they feared Orodes, he was unable to
foresee anything that he ought. When he displayed acquiescence in the
matter of the truce, Surena refused to conduct the ceremony through the
agency of others, but in order to cut him off with only a few and seize
him, he said that he wished to hold a conference with the commander
personally. Thereupon they decided to meet each other in the space
between the two armies with an equal number of men from both sides.
Crassus descended to the level ground and Surena sent him a present of a
horse, to make sure of his coming to him more quickly. [-27-] While
Crassus was thus delaying and planning what he should do, the barbarians
took him forcibly and threw him on his horse. Meanwhile the Romans also
laid hold of him, they came to blows, and for a time carried on an equal
struggle; then aid came to the kidnapers, and they prevailed. The
barbarians, who were in the plain and were prepared beforehand, were too
quick for the Romans above to help their men. Crassus fell among the
rest, whether he was slain by one of his own men to prevent his capture
alive, or whether by the enemy because he was wounded anyway. This was
his end. And the Parthians, as some say, poured gold into his mouth in
mockery; for though a man of