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 great wealth he was so eager for money as to pity those who could not support an enrolled legion from their own means, regarding them as poor men.  Of the soldiers the majority escaped through the mountains to friendly territory, but a fraction fell into the hands of the enemy.

[B.C. 52 (a.u. 702)]

[-28-] The Parthians at this time did not advance beyond the Euphrates, but won back the whole country east of it.  Later they also (though not in any numbers) invaded Syria, because the province had neither general nor soldiers.  The fact that there were not many of them enabled Cassius easily to effect their repulse.  When at Carrae the soldiers through hatred of Crassus granted to Cassius absolute control of themselves, and the commander himself on account of the greatness of the disaster voluntarily allowed it, but Cassius would not accept it:  now, however, he took charge of Syria perforce, for the time being and subsequently.  For the barbarians would not keep away from it, but campaigned once more against them with a larger band and under the nominal leadership of one Pacorus by name, the son of Orodes, though under the real direction of Osaces (for the other was still a child).  They came as far as Antioch, subduing the whole country before them.  They had hopes of subjugating also what remained, since the Romans were not at hand with a force fit to cope with them, and the people were fretting under Roman rule but ready to turn to the invaders, who were neighbors and acquaintances.