threw
themselves and their horses, with all their weight, upon their own
infantry, before the infantry had begun the battle, so that so many
tens of thousands were defeated before a wound was felt or blood was
drawn. Now the great slaughter began when the army turned to flight,
or rather attempted to fly, for they could not really fly, owing to
the closeness and depth of their ranks, which made them in the way of
one another. Tigranes, riding off at the front, fled with a few
attendants, and, seeing that his son was a partner in his misfortune,
he took off the diadem from his head, and, with tears, presented it to
him, at the same time telling him to save himself, as he best could,
by taking some other direction. The youth would not venture to put the
diadem on his head, but gave it to the most faithful of his slaves to
keep. This slave, happening to be taken, was carried to Lucullus, and
thus the diadem of Tigranes, with other booty, fell into the hands of
the Romans. It is said that above one hundred thousand of the infantry
perished, and very few of the cavalry escaped. On the side of the
Romans, a hundred were wounded, and five killed. Antiochus[403] the
philosopher, who mentions this battle in his 'Treatise on the Gods,'
says that the sun never saw a battle like it. Strabo, another
philosopher,[404] in his 'Historical Memoirs,' says that the Romans
were ashamed, and laughed at one another, for requiring arms against
such a set of slaves. And Livius[405] observed that the Romans never
engaged with an enemy with such inferiority of numbers on their side,
for the victors were hardly the twentieth part of the defeated enemy,
but somewhat less. The most skilful of the Roman generals, and those
who had most military experience, commended Lucullus chiefly for this,
that he had out-generalled the two most distinguished and powerful
kings by two most opposite manoeuvres, speed and slowness; for he wore
out Mithridates, at the height of his power, by time and protracting
the war; but he crushed Tigranes by his activity: and he was one of
the very few commanders who ever employed delay when he was engaged in
active operations, and bold measures when his safety was at stake.

XXIX. Mithridates made no haste to be present at the battle, because
he supposed that Lucullus would carry on the campaign with his usual
caution and delay; but he was advancing leisurely to join Tigranes. At
first he fell in with a few Armenians on the r