Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

378
HISTORY OF PERSIA
rained arrows upon them. The heavy cavalry next came
up, and in spite of the great bravery shown by the
Gaulish horsemen, who crept under the Parthians and
stabbed their horses, or even pulled the lances from their
hands, the combat was too unequal the Roman detach-
;
ment was annihilated, and Publius, being wounded by a
dart, ordered his armour-bearer to despatch him.
Crassus had decided on a
general advance, when to
his dismay he learned of the disaster by seeing the head
of Publius on a spear. The Parthians, encouraged by
their success, redoubled their efforts, bringing the heavy
cavalry into action. They continued the uneven contest
until sunset, when according to custom they rode off to a
distant camp, calling out that they would allow Crassus to
mourn his son during the night, before completing their
task by the capture of the Proconsul, which was their
special object.
Crassus was, as Plutarch puts it,
" altogether past
helping," and consequently Octavius and Cassius,^ who
were his staff officers, gave orders for a night retreat,
by which they hoped to escape from the enemy. The
Parthians were aware of this movement, but negligently
allowed it to be executed without making any immediate
attempt to harass the demoralized Romans. In the
morning they began by massacring the wounded left in
camp, and by the time they followed up the retreating
it army was safe in Carrhae.
So utterly demoralized were the Romans that, instead
of halting
in this stronghold to recover their shaken morale
they made another night retreat, in the course of which
they broke up into detachments of armed rabble. Crassus,
jnisled by his guide, had only reached some low hills when
the Parthians overtook him. Octavius came to his rescue
and a small force stood at bay on an eminence, from which
they drove the Parthians.
The Surena now resorted to treachery to complete his
success. He proposed a truce to arrange for the withdrawal
of the Roman forces unmolested. Crassus was
unwilling to trust to his good faith ; but the mutinous
^ Gaius Cassius Longinus was afterwards the leader in the assassination of Caesar.