主题：【原创】伊朗猜想（八卦） -- 泉畔人家

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XLVI. The Parthian War

III, 11 While in the north the Roman people by the hand of Caesar were conquering the Gauls, in the east they received a serious blow from the Parthians. Nor can we complain of fortune; for it was a disaster which admitted of no consolation. 2 Both gods and men were defied by the avarice of the consul Crassus, in coveting the gold of Parthia, and its punishment was the slaughter of eleven legions p211and the loss of his own life. 3 For Metellus, the tribune of the people, had called down terrible curses on the general as he was leaving Rome; and after the army had passed Zeugma, the Euphrates swallowed up the standards, which were swept away by its swirling eddies; 4 and when Crassus had pitched his camp at Nicephorium, ambassadors arrived from King Orodes with a message bidding him remember the treaties made with Pompeius and Sulla. 5 Crassus, who coveted the royal treasures, answered not a word that had any semblance of justice, but merely said that he would give his reply at Seleucia. 6 The gods, therefore, who punish those who violate treaties, did not fail to support either the craft or the valour of our enemies. In the first place, Crassus deserted the Euphrates, which provided the sole means of transporting his supplies and protecting his rear, trusting to the advice of a pretended deserter, a certain Syrian named Mazaras. 7 Next, again under the same guidance, the army was conducted into the midst of vast plains, to be exposed to enemy attacks from every side. 8 And so he had scarcely reached Carrhae, when the king's generals, Silaces and Surenas, displayed all around him their standards fluttering with gold and silken pennons; then without delay the cavalry, pouring round on all sides, showered their weapons as thick as hail or rain upon them. Thus the army was destroyed in lamentable slaughter. 9 The consul himself, invited to a parley, would on a given signal have fallen alive into the hands of the enemy, had not the barbarians, owing to the resistance of the tribunes, used their swords to prevent his escape.1 10 The general's son they overwhelmed p213with missiles almost within his father's sight. The remnants of the unhappy army, scattered wherever their flight took them, through Armenia, Cilicia and Syria, scarcely even brought back the news of the disaster. The head of Crassus was cut off and with his right hand was taken back to the king and treated with mockery which was not undeserved; for molten gold was poured into his gaping mouth, so that the dead and bloodless flesh of one whose heart had burned with lust for gold was itself burnt with gold.