Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
The next day, having put the baggage in order, they marched back
to the camp before Phraata, in the way meeting with some
scattering troops of the enemy, and, as they marched further,
with greater parties, at length with the body of the enemy's
army, fresh and in good order, who called them to battle, and
charged them on every side, and it was not without great
difficulty that they reached the camp. There Antony, finding
that his men had in a panic deserted the defense of the mound,
upon a sally of the Medes, resolved to proceed against them by
decimation, as it is called, which is done by dividing the
soldiers into tens, and, out of every ten, putting one to death,
as it happens by lot. The rest he gave orders should have,
instead of wheat, their rations of corn in barley.
The war was now become grievous to both parties, and the
prospect of its continuance yet more fearful to Antony, in
respect that he was threatened with famine; for he could no
longer forage without wounds and slaughter. And Phraates, on
the other side, was full of apprehension that, if the Romans
were to persist in carrying on the siege, the autumnal equinox
being past and the air already closing in for cold, he should be
deserted by his soldiers, who would suffer anything rather than
wintering in open field. To prevent which, he had recourse to
the following deceit: he gave order to those of his men who had
made most acquaintance among the Roman soldiers, not to pursue
too close when they met them foraging, but to suffer them to
carry off some provision; moreover, that they should praise
their valor, and declare that it was not without just reason
that their king looked upon the Romans as the bravest men in the
world. This done, upon further opportunity they rode nearer in,
and, drawing up their horses by the men, began to revile Antony
for his obstinacy; that whereas Phraates desired nothing more
than peace, and an occasion to show how ready he was to save the
lives of so many brave soldiers, he, on the contrary, gave no
opening to any friendly offers, but sat awaiting the arrival of
the two fiercest and worst enemies, winter and famine, from whom
it would be hard for them to make their escape, even with all
the good-will of the Parthians to help them. Antony, having
these reports from many hands, began to indulge the hope;
nevertheless, he would not send any message to the Parthian till
he had put the question to these friendly talkers, whether what
they said was said by order of their king. Receiving answer
that it was, together with new encouragement to believe them, he
sent some of his friends to demand once more the standards and
prisoners, lest, if he should ask nothing, he might be supposed
to be too thankful to have leave to retreat in quiet. The
Parthian king made answer, that as for the standards and
prisoners, he need not trouble himself; but if he thought fit to
retreat, he might do it when he pleased, in peace and safety.
Some few days, therefore, being spent in collecting the baggage,
he set out upon his march. On which occasion, though there was
no man of his time like him for addressing a multitude, or for
carrying soldiers with him by the force of words, out of shame
and sadness he could not find in his heart to speak himself, but
employed Domitius Aenobarbus. And some of the soldiers resented
it, as an undervaluing of them; but the greater number saw the
true cause, and pitied it, and thought it rather a reason why
they on their side should treat their general with more respect
and obedience than ordinary.
Antony had resolved to return by the same way he came, which was
through a level country clear of all trees, but a certain
Mardian came to him (one that was very conversant with the
manners of the Parthians, and whose fidelity to the Romans had
been tried at the battle where the machines were lost), and
advised him to keep the mountains close on his right hand, and
not to expose his men, heavily armed, in a broad, open, riding
country, to the attacks of a numerous army of light-horse and
archers; that Phraates with fair promises had persuaded him from
the siege on purpose that he might with more ease cut him off in
his retreat; but, if so he pleased, he would conduct him by a
nearer route, on which moreover he should find the necessaries
for his army in greater abundance. Antony upon this began to
consider what was best to be done; he was unwilling to seem to
have any mistrust of the Parthians after their treaty; but,
holding it to be really best to march his army the shorter and
more inhabited way, he demanded of the Mardian some assurance of
his faith, who offered himself to be bound until the army came
safe into Armenia. Two days he conducted the army bound, and,
on the third, when Antony had given up all thought of the
enemy, and was marching at his ease in no very good order, the
Mardian, perceiving the bank of a river broken down, and the
water let out and overflowing the road by which they were to
pass, saw at once that this was the handiwork of the Parthians,
done out of mischief, and to hinder their march; so he advised
Antony to be upon his guard, for that the enemy was nigh at
hand. And no sooner had he begun to put his men in order,
disposing the slingers and dart men in convenient intervals for
sallying out, but the Parthians came pouring in on all sides,
fully expecting to encompass them, and throw the whole army into
disorder. They were at once attacked by the light troops, whom
they galled a good deal with their arrows; but, being themselves
as warmly entertained with the slings and darts, and many
wounded, they made their retreat. Soon after, rallying up
afresh, they were beat back by a battalion of Gallic horse, and
appeared no more that day.
By their manner of attack Antony seeing what to do, not only
placed the slings and darts as a rear guard, but also lined both
flanks with them, and so marched in a square battle, giving
order to the horse to charge and beat off the enemy, but not to
follow them far as they retired. So that the Parthians, not
doing more mischief for the four ensuing days than they
received, began to abate in their zeal, and, complaining that
the winter season was much advanced, pressed for returning home.
But, on the fifth day, Flavius Gallus, a brave and active
officer, who had a considerable command in the army, came to
Antony, desiring of him some light-infantry out of the rear, and
some horse out of the front, with which he would undertake to do
some considerable service. Which when he had obtained, he beat
the enemy back, not withdrawing, as was usual, at the same time,
and retreating upon the mass of the heavy infantry, but
maintaining his own ground, and engaging boldly. The officers
who commanded in the rear, perceiving how far he was getting
from the body of the army, sent to warn him back, but he took no
notice of them. It is said that Titius the quaestor snatched
the standards and turned them round, upbraiding Gallus with thus
leading so many brave men to destruction. But when he on the
other side reviled him again, and commanded the men that were
about him to stand firm, Titius made his retreat, and Gallus,
charging the enemies in the front, was encompassed by a party
that fell upon his rear, which at length perceiving, he sent a
messenger to demand succor. But the commanders of the heavy
infantry, Canidius amongst others, a particular favorite of
Antony's, seem here to have committed a great oversight. For,
instead of facing about with the whole body, they sent small
parties, and, when they were defeated, they still sent out small
parties, so that by their bad management the rout would have
spread through the whole army, if Antony himself had not marched
from the van at the head of the third legion, and, passing this
through among the fugitives, faced the enemies, and hindered
them from any further pursuit.
In this engagement were killed three thousand, five thousand
were carried back to the camp wounded, amongst the rest Gallus,
shot through the body with four arrows, of which wounds he died.
Antony went from tent to tent to visit and comfort the rest of
them, and was not able to see his men without tears and a
passion of grief. They, however, seized his hand with joyful
faces, bidding him go and see to himself and not be concerned
about them, calling him their emperor and their general, and
saying that if he did well they were safe. For in short, never
in all these times can history make mention of a general at the
head of a more splendid army; whether you consider strength and
youth, or patience and sufferance in labors and fatigues; but as
for the obedience and affectionate respect they bore their
general, and the unanimous feeling amongst small and great
alike, officers and common soldiers, to prefer his good opinion
of them to their very lives and being, in this part of military
excellence it was not possible that they could have been
surpassed by the very Romans of old. For this devotion, as I
have said before, there were many reasons, as the nobility of
his family, his eloquence, his frank and open manners, his
liberal and magnificent habits, his familiarity in talking with
everybody, and, at this time particularly, his kindness in
assisting and pitying the sick, joining in all their pains, and
furnishing them with all things necessary, so that the sick and
wounded were even more eager to serve than those that were whole
and strong.
Nevertheless, this last victory had so encouraged the enemy,
that, instead of their former impatience and weariness, they
began soon to feel contempt for the Romans, staying all night
near the camp, in expectation of plundering their tents and
baggage, which they concluded they must abandon; and in the
morning new forces arrived in large masses, so that their number
was grown to be not less, it is said, than forty thousand horse;
and the king had sent the very guards that attended upon his own
person, as to a sure and unquestioned victory. For he himself
was never present in any fight. Antony, designing to harangue
the soldiers, called for a mourning habit, that he might move
them the more, but was dissuaded by his friends; so he came
forward in the general's scarlet cloak, and addressed them,
praising those that had gained the victory, and reproaching
those that had fled, the former answering him with promises of
success, and the latter excusing themselves, and telling him
they were ready to undergo decimation, or any other punishment
he should please to inflict upon them, only entreating that he
would forget and not discompose himself with their faults. At
which he lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed the gods,
that if to balance the great favors he had received of them any
judgment lay in store, they would pour it upon his head alone,
and grant his soldiers victory.
The next day they took better order for their march, and the
Parthians, who thought they were marching rather to plunder than
to fight, were much taken aback, when they came up and were
received with a shower of missiles, to find the enemy not
disheartened, but fresh and resolute. So that they themselves
began to lose courage. But at the descent of a hill where the
Romans were obliged to pass, they got together, and let fly
their arrows upon them as they moved slowly down. But the
full-armed infantry, facing round, received the light troops
within; and those in the first rank knelt on one knee, holding
their shields before them, the next rank holding theirs over the
first, and so again others over these, much like the tiling of a
house, or the rows of seats in a theater, the whole affording
sure defense against arrows, which glance upon them without