[Footnote 70:  This river is probably the same as the Bilecha, now the Belejik, a small stream which joins the Euphrates on the left bank at Racca, the old Nikephorium.  This river is mentioned by Isidorus of Charax and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. c. 3), who calls it Belias.]

[Footnote 71:  Plutarch seems to mean something like drums furnished with bells or rattles; but his description is not very clear, and the passage may be rendered somewhat differently from what I have rendered it:  “but they have instruments to beat upon ([Greek:  rhoptra]), made of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders” ([Greek:  echeiois], whatever the word may mean here).  The word [Greek:  rhoptron] properly means a thing to strike with; but it seems to have another meaning here. (See Passow’s Greek Lexicon.) The context seems to show that a drum is meant.]

[Footnote 72:  Margiana was a country east of the Caspian, the position of which seems to be determined by the Murg-aub river, the ancient Margus.  Hyrcania joined it on the west.  Strabo (p. 516) describes Margiana as a fertile plain surrounded by deserts.  He says nothing of its iron.  Plinius (Hist.  Nat. vi. 16) says that Orodes carried off the Romans who were captured at the time of the defeat of Crassus, to Antiochia, in Margiana.]

[Footnote 73:  So Xenophon (Cyropaedia, i. 3. 2) represents King Astyages.  The king also wore a wig or false locks.]

[Footnote 74:  The peculiarity of the Parthian warfare made a lasting impression on the Romans; and it is often alluded to by the Latin writers:—­

     Fidentemque fuga Parthum versisque sagittis.

     Virgil, Georgic iii. 31.

]

[Footnote 75:  In reading the chapter, it must be remembered that Publius is young Crassus.  If there is any apparent confusion between the father and son, it will be removed by reading carefully.  I have chosen to translate Plutarch, not to mend him.]

[Footnote 76:  The reading of this passage in Appian (Parthica, c. 29) is [Greek:  telmasin entuchontes], which Sintenis has adopted.  The common reading is [Greek:  suntagmasin entuchontes] , which various critics variously explain.]

[Footnote 77:  In the old Latin translation of Guarini, the name Cn.  Plancus occurs in place of Megabacchus.  Kaltwasser conjectures that Megabacchus was a Greek, but the context implies that he was a Roman.  Orelli (Onomastic. C. Megaboccus) takes him to be the person mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic. ii. 7), which Gronovius had already observed, and again by Cicero, Pro Scauro, c. 2.]

[Footnote 78:  Censorinus was a cognomen of the Marcia Gens, and several of the name are mentioned in the history of Rome; but this Censorinus does not appear to be otherwise known.]

[Footnote 79:  Carrhae was a Mesopotamian town, south of Orfa or Edessa, and about 37 deg.  N. lat.  It is supposed to be the Haran of Genesis (xi. 31).]