XX. After this he advanced along the river, with seven legions and nearly four thousand horsemen, and almost as many light-armed troops as horsemen. Some of the scouts now returned from their exploration and reported that the country was clear of men, and that they had fallen in with the tracks of many horses, which indicated that they had turned about and were retreating. This gave Crassus still better hopes, and made the soldiers completely despise the Parthians, who, as they supposed, would not come to close quarters. However, Cassius again had some conversation with Crassus, and advised him at least to give his troops rest in some of the garrisoned cities, till he should get some certain information about the enemy; but if he would not do this, to advance towards Seleukeia along the river. He urged that the boats which carried the provisions would furnish them with supplies by stopping at the places of encampment, and that, by having the river as a protection against being hemmed in by the enemy, they would always be able to fight them on fair terms.
XXI. While Crassus was considering and reflecting on these matters, there comes an Arab chieftain, Ariamnes[67] by name, a cunning and faithless man, and of all the misfortunes that were by chance combined to ruin the Romans the chief and crowning mischief. Some of them who had served with Pompeius knew him as one who had received favours from Pompeius, and was supposed to be a friend to the Romans; but he now came to Crassus with a treacherous intent, and with the privity of the royal generals, to try if he could draw him far away from the river and the foot of the hills, into a boundless plain, where he might be surrounded by the enemy; for nothing was further from the intentions of the Parthians than to attack the Romans right in front. Accordingly, the barbarian coming to Crassus (and he was a plausible talker), spake in high terms of Pompeius as his benefactor, and praised the force of Crassus; but he blamed him for his tardiness, inasmuch as he was delaying and making preparation, as if he would have occasion to employ arms instead of hands and the most active feet, against an enemy who had long been trying to get together, as quick as they could, their most valuable property and their best slaves, and to move off to the Scythians or Hyrkanians. "And yet," he said, "if you intend to fight, you ought to press on before the king recovers his courage and all his forces are concentrated; for now Surena and Sillakes have been thrown in your way to stand the attack, and the king is no where to be seen." But all this was false. For Hyrodes had at first divided his forces into two parts, and he was himself ravaging Armenia to take vengeance on Artavasdes; but he sent Surena against the Romans, not because he despised them, as some say, for it was not consistent for him to disdain Crassus as an antagonist, the first of the Romans, and to war against Artavasdes and take the villages of Armenia; but it seems that he really feared the danger, and that he was on the watch to await the result, and that he put Surena in the front to try the fortune of a battle, and so to divert the enemy. For Surena was no person of mean estate: in wealth, birth, and consideration, he was next to the king; but, in courage and ability, the first of the Parthians of his time; and, besides all this, in stature and beauty of person he had no equal. He used always to travel, when he was on his own business, with a thousand camels to carry his baggage, and he had following him two hundred carriages for concubines; and a thousand mailed horsemen, with a larger number of light cavalry, escorted him; and he had in all, horsemen, clients,[68] and slaves, no less than ten thousand. Now by hereditary right he had the privilege of first placing the diadem on the head of him who became king of the Parthians;[69] and this very Hyrodes, who had been driven out, he restored to the Parthian empire, and took for him Seleukeia the Great, being the first to mount the wall and to put to flight with his own hand those who opposed him. Though he was not yet thirty years of age at that time, he had the first reputation for prudent counsel and judgment, by which qualities particularly he caused the ruin of Crassus, who through his confidence and pride in the first place, and next through his fears and his misfortunes, became a most easy victim to fraud.