and Imperator to those who addressed him, was conducted, seated on a horse, and in front of him trumpeters, and some lictors rode upon camels; and there were purses[88] suspended from the fasces, and, by the side of the axes, heads of Romans newly cut off.  Behind these followed courtesans of Seleukeia, singing girls, who chanted many obscene and ridiculous things about the effeminacy and cowardice of Crassus.  All this was public.  But Surena assembling the Senate of Seleukeia,[89] laid before them certain licentious books of the Milesiaca of Aristeides,[90] and, in this matter, at least, there was no invention on his part; for they were found among the baggage of Rustius,[91] and they gave Surena the opportunity of greatly insulting and ridiculing the Romans, because they could not, even when going to war, abstain from such things and such books.  To the Senate of Seleukeia, however, AEsopus[92] appeared to be a wise man, when they saw Surena with the wallet of Milesian obscenities in front of him, and dragging behind him a Parthian Sybaris in so many waggons full of concubines, in a manner forming a counterpart to those vipers and skytalae[93] so much talked of, by presenting the visible and the front parts formidable and terrific, with spears, and bows, and horses, but in the rear of the phalanx, terminating in harlots, and rattling cymbals, and lute-playing, and nocturnal revels with women.  Rustius, indeed, merits blame, but the Parthians were shameless in finding fault with the Milesian stories; for many of the kings who have reigned over them, as Arsakidae, have been the sons of Milesian and Ionian concubines.

XXXIII.  While this was going on, Hyrodes happened to have been reconciled to Artavasdes the Armenian, and had agreed to receive the sister of Artavasdes as wife to his son Pacorus:  and there were banquets and drinking-parties between them, and representations of many Greek plays; for Hyrodes was not a stranger either to the Greek language or the literature of the Greeks:  and Artavasdes used to write tragedies, and speeches, and histories, some of which are preserved.  When the head of Crassus was brought to the door, the tables were taken away, and a tragedy actor Jason,[94] by name, a native of Tralles, chanted that part of the Bacchae[95] of Euripides which relates to Agave.  While he was receiving applause.  Sillakes, standing by the door of the apartment, and making a reverence, threw the head of Crassus before the company.  The Parthians clapped their hands with shouts of joy and the attendants, at the command of the king, seated Sillakes, while Jason handed over to one of the members of the chorus the dress of Pentheus, and, laying hold of the head of Crassus, and, putting on the air of a bacchant, he sung these verses with great enthusiasm:—­

    We bring from a mountain
    A young one new killed to the house,
    A fortunate prey.

This delighted all the company; and, while the following verses were being chanted, which are a dialogue with the chorus,