Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Parthians being obliged, after the loss of three battles
successively, to keep themselves within the bounds of Media and
Mesopotamia. Ventidius was not willing to push his good fortune
further, for fear of raising some jealousy in Antony, but,
turning his arms against those that had quitted the Roman
interest, he reduced them to their former obedience. Among the
rest, he besieged Antiochus, king of Commagene, in the city of
Samosata, who made an offer of a thousand talents for his
pardon, and a promise of submission to Antony's commands. But
Ventidius told him that he must send to Antony, who was already
on his march, and had sent word to Ventidius to make no terms
with Antiochus, wishing that at any rate this one exploit might
be ascribed to him, and that people might not think that all his
successes were won by his lieutenants. The siege, however, was
long protracted; for when those within found their offers
refused, they defended themselves stoutly, till, at last,
Antony, finding he was doing nothing, in shame and regret for
having refused the first offer, was glad to make an
accommodation with Antiochus for three hundred talents. And,
having given some orders for the affairs of Syria, he returned
to Athens; and, paying Ventidius the honors he well deserved,
dismissed him to receive his triumph. He is the only man that
has ever yet triumphed for victories obtained over the
Parthians; he was of obscure birth, but, by means of Antony's
friendship, obtained an opportunity of showing his capacity, and
doing great things; and his making such glorious use of it gave
new credit to the current observation about Caesar and Antony,
that they were more fortunate in what they did by their
lieutenants than in their own persons. For Sossius, also, had
great success, and Canidius, whom he left in Armenia, defeated
the people there, and also the kings of the Albanians and
Iberians, and marched victorious as far as Caucasus, by which
means the fame of Antony's arms had become great among the
barbarous nations.
He, however, once more, upon some unfavorable stories, taking
offense against Caesar, set sail with three hundred ships for
Italy, and, being refused admittance to the port of Brundusium,
made for Tarentum. There his wife Octavia, who came from Greece
with him, obtained leave to visit her brother, she being then
great with child, having already borne her husband a second
daughter; and as she was on her way, she met Caesar, with his
two friends Agrippa and Maecenas, and, taking these two aside,
with great entreaties and lamentations she told them, that of
the most fortunate woman upon earth, she was in danger of
becoming the most unhappy; for as yet everyone's eyes were fixed
upon her as the wife and sister of the two great commanders,
but, if rash counsels should prevail, and war ensue, "I shall be
miserable," said she, "without redress; for on what side soever
victory falls, I shall be sure to be a loser." Caesar was
overcome by these entreaties, and advanced in a peaceable temper
to Tarentum, where those that were present beheld a most stately
spectacle; a vast army drawn up by the shore, and as great a
fleet in the harbor, all without the occurrence of any act of
hostility; nothing but the salutations of friends, and other
expressions of joy and kindness, passing from one armament to
the other. Antony first entertained Caesar this also being a
concession on Caesar's part to his sister; and when at length an
agreement was made between them, that Caesar should give Antony
two of his legions to serve him in the Parthian war, and that
Antony should in return leave with him a hundred armed galleys,
Octavia further obtained of her husband, besides this, twenty
light ships for her brother, and of her brother, a thousand foot
for her husband. So, having parted good friends, Caesar went
immediately to make war with Pompey to conquer Sicily. And
Antony, leaving in Caesar's charge his wife and children, and
his children by his former wife Fulvia, set sail for Asia.
But the mischief that thus long had lain still, the passion for
Cleopatra, which better thoughts had seemed to have lulled and
charmed into oblivion, upon his approach to Syria, gathered
strength again, and broke out into a flame. And, in fine, like
Plato's restive and rebellious horse of the human soul, flinging
off all good and wholesome counsel, and breaking fairly loose,
he sends Fonteius Capito to bring Cleopatra into Syria. To whom
at her arrival he made no small or trifling present, Phoenicia,
Coele-Syria, Cyprus, great part of Cilicia, that side of Judaea
which produces balm, that part of Arabia where the Nabathaeans
extend to the outer sea; profuse gifts, which much displeased
the Romans. For, although he had invested several private
persons in great governments and kingdoms, and bereaved many
kings of theirs, as Antigonus of Judaea, whose head he caused to
be struck off (the first example of that punishment being
inflicted on a king), yet nothing stung the Romans like the
shame of these honors paid to Cleopatra. Their dissatisfaction
was augmented also by his acknowledging as his own the twin
children he had by her, giving them the name of Alexander and
Cleopatra, and adding, as their surnames, the titles of Sun and
Moon. But he, who knew how to put a good color on the most
dishonest action, would say, that the greatness of the Roman
empire consisted more in giving than in taking kingdoms, and
that the way to carry noble blood through the world was by
begetting in every place a new line and series of kings; his own
ancestor had thus been born of Hercules; Hercules had not
limited his hopes of progeny to a single womb, nor feared any
law like Solon's, or any audit of procreation, but had freely
let nature take her will in the foundation and first
commencement of many families.
After Phraates had killed his father Hyrodes, and taken
possession of his kingdom, many of the Parthians left their
country; among the rest, Monaeses, a man of great distinction
and authority, sought refuge with Antony, who, looking on his
case as similar to that of Themistocles, and likening his own
opulence and magnanimity to those of the former Persian kings,
gave him three cities, Larissa, Arethusa, and Hierapolis, which
was formerly called Bambyce. But when the king of Parthia soon
recalled him, giving him his word and honor for his safety,
Antony was not unwilling to give him leave to return, hoping
thereby to surprise Phraates, who would believe that peace would
continue; for he only made the demand of him, that he should
send back the Roman ensigns which were taken when Crassus was
slain, and the prisoners that remained yet alive. This done, he
sent Cleopatra into Egypt, and marched through Arabia and
Armenia; and, when his forces came together, and were joined by
those of his confederate kings (of whom there were very many,
and the most considerable, Artavasdes, king of Armenia, who came
at the head of six thousand horse and seven thousand foot), he
made a general muster. There appeared sixty thousand Roman
foot, ten thousand horse, Spaniards and Gauls, who counted as
Romans; and, of other nations, horse and foot, thirty thousand.
And these great preparations, that put the Indians beyond
Bactria into alarm, and made all Asia shake, were all, we are
told, rendered useless to him because of Cleopatra. For, in
order to pass the winter with her, the war was pushed on before
its due time; and all he did was done without perfect
consideration, as by a man who had no proper control over his
faculties, who, under the effects of some drug or magic, was
still looking back elsewhere, and whose object was much more to
hasten his return than to conquer his enemies.
For, first of all, when he should have taken up his
winter-quarters in Armenia, to refresh his men, who were tired
with long marches, having come at least eight thousand furlongs,
and then have taken the advantage in the beginning of the spring
to invade Media, before the Parthians were out of
winter-quarters, he had not patience to expect his time, but
marched into the province of Atropatene, leaving Armenia on the
left hand, and laid waste all that country. Secondly, his haste
was so great, that he left behind the engines absolutely
required for any siege, which followed the camp in three hundred
wagons, and, among the rest, a ram eighty feet long; none of
which was it possible, if lost or damaged, to repair or to make
the like, as the provinces of the upper Asia produce no trees
long or hard enough for such uses. Nevertheless, he left them
all behind, as a mere impediment to his speed, in the charge of
a detachment under the command of Statianus, the wagon-officer.
He himself laid siege to Phraata, a principal city of the king
of Media, wherein were that king's wife and children. And when
actual need proved the greatness of his error in leaving the
siege train behind him, he had nothing for it but to come up and
raise a mound against the walls, with infinite labor and great
loss of time. Meantime Phraates, coming down with a large army,
and hearing that the wagons were left behind with the battering
engines, sent a strong party of horse, by which Statianus was
surprised, he himself and ten thousand of his men slain, the
engines all broken in pieces, many taken prisoners, and, among
the rest, king Polemon.
This great miscarriage in the opening of the campaign much
discouraged Antony's army, and Artavasdes, king of Armenia,
deciding that the Roman prospects were bad, withdrew with all
his forces from the camp, although he had been the chief
promoter of the war. The Parthians, encouraged by their
success, came up to the Romans at the siege, and gave them many
affronts; upon which Antony, fearing that the despondency and
alarm of his soldiers would only grow worse if he let them lie
idle, taking all the horse, ten legions, and three praetorian
cohorts of heavy infantry, resolved to go out and forage,
designing by this means to draw the enemy with more advantage to
a battle. To effect this, he marched a day's journey from his
camp, and, finding the Parthians hovering about, in readiness to
attack him while he was in motion, he gave orders for the signal
of battle to be hung out in the encampment, but, at the same
time, pulled down the tents, as if he meant not to fight, but to
lead his men home again; and so he proceeded to lead them past
the enemy, who were drawn up in a half-moon, his orders being
that the horse should charge as soon as the legions were come up
near enough to second them. The Parthians, standing still while
the Romans marched by them, were in great admiration of their
army, and of the exact discipline it observed, rank after rank
passing on at equal distances in perfect order and silence,
their pikes all ready in their hands. But when the signal was
given, and the horse turned short upon the Parthians, and with
loud cries charged them, they bravely received them, though they
were at once too near for bowshot; but the legions, coming up
with loud shouts and rattling of their arms, so frightened their
horses and indeed the men themselves, that they kept their
ground no longer. Antony pressed them hard, in great hopes that
this victory should put an end to the war; the foot had them in
pursuit for fifty furlongs, and the horse for thrice that
distance, and yet, the advantage summed up, they had but thirty
prisoners, and there were but fourscore slain. So that they
were all filled with dejection and discouragement, to consider,
that when they were victorious, their advantage was so small,
and that when they were beaten, they lost so great a number of
men as they had done when the carriages were taken.