3-52 CRASSUS.

garrisons of seven thousand foot and one thousand horse in the new conquests, he returned to take up his winter quarters in Syria, where his son was to meet him coming from Caesar out of Gaul, decorated with rewards for his valor, and bringing with him one thousand select horse. Here Crassus seemed to commit his first error, and ex- cept, indeed, the whole expedition, his greatest; for, whereas he ought to have gone forward and seized Bab- ylon and Seleucia, cities that were ever at enmity with the Parthians, he gave the enemy time to provide against him. Besides, he spent his time in Syria more like an usurer than a general, not in taking an account of the arms, and in improving the skill and discipline of his soldiers, but in computing the revenue of the cities, wast- ing many days in weighing by scale and balance the treasure that was in the temple of Hierapolis, issuing re- quisitions for levies of soldiers upon particular towns aud kingdoms, and then again withdrawing them on payment of sums of money, by which he lost his credit and be- came despised. Here, too, he met with the first ill-omen from that goddess, whom some call Venus, others Juno, others Nature, or the Cause that produces out of moisture the first principles and seeds of all things, and gives man- kind their earliest knowledge of all that is good for them. For as they were going out of the temple, young Crassus stumbled, and his father fell upon him. When he drew his army out of winter quarters, am- bassadors came to him from Arsaces,* with this short speech : If the army was sent by the people of Rome, he denounced mortal war, but if, as he understood was the case, against the consent of his country, Crassus for his own private profit had invaded his territory, then their

• Arsaces is the title common to man emperors. Hyrodes, which

all the kings of the dynasty called occurs presently, more usually writ- the Arsacida? ; as Caesar to the Ro- ten Orodes, is the proper name.