XI.
Vbi haec atque talia dissertavere, incipit orationem Caesar de fastigio Romano Parthorumque obsequiis, seque divo Augusto adaequabat, petitum ab eo regem referens omissa Tiberii memoria, quamquam is quoque miserat. addidit praecepta (etenim aderat Meherdates), ut non dominationem et servos, sed rectorem et civis cogitaret, clementiamque ac iustitiam, quanto ignota barbaris, tanto laetiora capesseret. hinc versus ad legatos extollit laudibus alumnum urbis, spectatae ad id modestiae: ac tamen ferenda regum ingenia neque usui crebras mutationes. rem Romanam huc satietate gloriae provectam ut externis quoque gentibus quietem velit. datum posthac C. Cassio, qui Syriae praeerat, deducere iuvenem ripam ad Euphratis.
11.
As soon as the envoys ended explaining their mission, Claudius began to expand on the greatness of Rome and on the homage paid to us by the Parthians. He claimed equality with Augustus — who had also been called on for a king — but failed to mention that Tiberius had been similarly petitioned. Next, he urged Meherdates, who was present, not to regard himself as absolute master and his subjects as slaves, but as the ruler of citizens, and to practice clemency and justice, which barbarians would eagerly accept the more unfamiliar they were with such virtues in kings. Then, addressing again the envoys, he sang the praises of Meherdates, the city’s adoptive son, whose conduct had been up to that time exemplary. He added, however, that the temperaments of kings were to be borne with patience and that frequent change of rulers was not a good thing. The Roman empire had achieved such greatness, he said, that it yearned for peace even among foreign peoples. After this, Gaius Cassius, the governor of Syria, was assigned the task of escorting the young prince as far as the west bank of the Euphrates.
XII.
Ea tempestate Cassius ceteros praeminebat peritia legum: nam militares artes per otium ignotae, industriosque aut ignavos pax in aequo tenet. ac tamen quantum sine bello dabatur, revocare priscum morem, exercitare legiones, cura provisu perinde agere ac si hostis ingrueret: ita dignum maioribus suis et familia Cassia per illas quoque gentis celebrata. igitur excitis quorum de sententia petitus rex, positisque castris apud Zeugma, unde maxime pervius amnis, postquam inlustres Parthi rexque Arabum Acbarus advenerat, monet Meherdaten barbarorum impetus acris cunctatione languescere aut in perfidiam mutari: ita urgeret coepta. quod spretum fraude Acbari, qui iuvenem ignarum et summam fortunam in luxu ratum multos per dies attinuit apud oppidum Edessam. et vocante Carene promptasque res ostentante, si citi advenissent, non comminus Mesopotamiam, sed flexu Armeniam petivit, id temporis importunam, quia hiems occipiebat.
12.
In those days Cassius had achieved eminence above all others as a jurist, since military distinction was out of the question without wars, and quiet times erased all difference between the bold and the timid. Yet, even as a military commander, Cassius managed, in so far as was possible in peacetime, to maintain the ancient discipline alive. He kept his legions in fighting trim and practiced the same diligence and alertness in his duties as if an enemy was about to attack. His conduct was worthy of his forefathers and of the name of the Cassii, already renowned even among the peoples of the Orient. Now, he called together all those who had desired to send to Rome for a new king and set up camp at Zeugma, where the Euphrates was easily fordable. After the arrival of the Parthian chiefs and of the Arab king Acharus, he warned Meherdates that the zeal of barbarians, ardent at first, would fizzle out with delays or even turn hostile, thus, he urged him to push on with his plan. His advice came to nothing through the perfidy of Acharus, who detained several days in the city of Edessa the unwary young man, who in his foolish mind equated being king with the pursuit of pleasure. To no avail did Carenes, the satrap of Mesopotamia, solicit him to hurry, assuring him that all would work out well if he moved quickly into nearby Mesopotamia. Meherdates, instead, turned by a wide detour towards Armenia, where the terrain became impassable with the approach of winter.
XIII.
Exim nivibus et montibus fessi, postquam campos propinquabant, copiis Carenis adiunguntur, tramissoque amne Tigri permeant Adiabenos, quorum rex Izates societatem Meherdatis palam induerat, in Gotarzen per occulta et magis fida inclinabat. sed capta in transitu urbs Ninos, vetustissima sedes Assyriae, [et] castellum insigne fama, quod postremo inter Darium atque Alexandrum proelio Persarum illic opes conciderant. interea Gotarzes apud montem, cui nomen Sanbulos, vota dis loci suscipiebat, praecipua religione Herculis, qui tempore stato per quietem monet sacerdotes ut templum iuxta equos venatui adornatos sistant. equi ubi pharetras telis onustas accepere, per saltus vagi nocte demum vacuis pharetris multo cum anhelitu redeunt. rursum deus, qua silvas pererraverit, nocturno visu demonstrat, reperiunturque fusae passim ferae.
13.
Exhausted by the snow and the mountains, when the plains at last came into view, they met with Carenes’ forces. Together they crossed the Tigris river and the territory of the Adiabeni, whose monarch Izates had ostensibly embraced Mehardates’ cause, but behind the scenes a more secret and trustworthy accord bound him to Gotarzes’ side. In any case, they managed on their way to capture Nineveh, the most ancient capital city of Assyria, and a fortified place famous for having been the site of the last battle between Darius and Alexander the Great, where the might of the Persian empire had been destroyed. Meanwhile, Gotarzes was offering a sacrifice on Mount Sambulos to the deity of the place, the local worship being centered on Hercules. At specific times of the year, the god directs the priests in dreams to make horses ready beside the temple with all that was required for the chase. Provided with quivers filled with arrows, the horses are let loose in the forested ravines of the mountain and return at night panting hard as after heavy exertion. In a new night dream the god reveals the places where he had hunted and there all the wild animals he had struck down are found scattered in all directions.
XIV.
Ceterum Gotarzes, nondum satis aucto exercitu, flumine Corma pro munimento uti, et quamquam per insectationes et nuntios ad proelium vocaretur, nectere moras, locos mutare et missis corruptoribus exuendam ad fidem hostis emercari. ex quis Izates Adiabeno, mox Acbarus Arabum cum exercitu abscedunt, levitate gentili, et quia experimentis cognitum est barbaros malle Roma petere reges quam habere. at Meherdates validis auxiliis nudatus, ceterorum proditione suspecta, quod unum reliquum, rem in casum dare proelioque experiri statuit. nec detrectavit pugnam Gotarzes deminutis hostibus ferox; concursumque magna caede et ambiguo eventu, donec Carenem profligatis obviis longius evectum integer a tergo globus circumveniret. tum omni spe perdita Meherdates, promissa Parracis paterni clientis secutus, dolo eius vincitur traditurque victori. atque ille non propinquum neque Arsacis de gente, sed alienigenam et Romanum increpans, auribus decisis vivere iubet, ostentui clementiae suae et in nos dehonestamento. dein Gotarzes morbo obiit, accitusque in regnum Vonones Medos tum praesidens. nulla huic prospera aut adversa quis memoraretur: brevi et inglorio imperio perfunctus est, resque Parthorum in filium eius Vologesen translatae.
14.
Gotarzes, on the other hand, aware that his army was not sufficiently strong, used the river Corma as protection, and even though the other side was challenging him to a fight through provocative messages, he kept finding pretexts for delays, changing his position, and sending out emissaries to induce the enemy to defect. Soon Izates and his Adiabeni, followed by Achbarus and his Arab contingent, with the fickleness characteristic of Orientals, withdrew their support, another example that barbarians love to solicit kings from Rome but prefer not to keep them. Meherdates, having now lost such powerful backing, was left no choice but to commit everything to the fortunes of a single engagement. Encouraged by the reduction in the forces of the enemy, Gotarzes no longer hesitated to fight. The clash was vicious, with heavy losses of men and an uncertain outcome, until Carenes, after breaking through and dispersing the opposing line, was carried too far, becoming enveloped by fresh enemy reinforcements. With all hopes of victory lost, Meherdates put faith in the false promises of Parraces, one of his father’s vassals, and by the treachery of this man was captured and brought before the victor. Gotarzes reviled him, not as a relative or even as one of the Arsacid gens, but as a foreigner and a Roman. He had his ears cut off, then bid him live, a testimony to his clemency and a stain to the Roman name. Not much later, Gotarzes died of illness, and Vonones, the viceroy of Media, succeeded him, his reign being short and inglorious, distinguished by neither good nor bad fortune, until the Parthian empire fell to his son Vologeses.
XV.
At Mithridates Bosporanus amissis opibus vagus, postquam Didium ducem Romanum roburque exercitus abisse cognoverat, relictos in novo regno Cotyn iuventa rudem et paucas cohortium cum Iulio Aquila equite Romano, spretis utrisque concire nationes, inlicere perfugas; postremo exercitu coacto regem Dandaridarum exturbat imperioque eius potitur. quae ubi cognita et iam iamque Bosporum invasurus habebatur, diffisi propriis viribus Aquila et Cotys, quia Zorsines Siracorum rex hostilia resumpserat, externas et ipsi gratias quaesivere missis legatis ad Eunonen qui Aorsorum genti praesidebat. nec fuit in arduo societas potentiam Romanam adversus rebellem Mithridaten ostentantibus. igitur pepigere, equestribus proeliis Eunones certaret, obsidia urbium Romani capesserent.
15.
Mithridates, former king of Bosporus, now a stateless wanderer after losing his throne, received news that Didius, the Roman legate, had left with the man strength of his troops, and that Cotys, his young and inexperienced successor, had only a few cohorts under Julius Aquila, a Roman knight. Contemptuous of both Cotys and Aquila, Mithridates began to incite the neighboring tribes to revolt, to attract deserters and in the end, having assembled an army of sorts, he drove from his throne the king of the Dandaridae and occupied his kingdom. On hearing of this, Cotys and Aquila feared that Mithridates would next march into Bosporus, and since they had little trust in their own forces (also because Zorsines, the king of the Siraci, had resumed hostilities), they themselves sought external help by sending envoys to Eunones, the head of the Aorsi. The alliance was accepted without hesitation for their kingdom could rely on the might of Rome against the rebel Mithridates. Thus, it was convened that Eunones would fight the enemy with cavalry and the Romans concentrate on the siege of towns.
XVI.
Tunc composito agmine incedunt, cuius frontem et terga Aorsi, media cohortes et Bosporani tutabantur nostris in armis. sic pulsus hostis, ventumque Sozam, oppidum Dandaricae, quod desertum a Mithridate ob ambiguos popularium animos obtineri relicto ibi praesidio visum. exim in Siracos pergunt, et transgressi amnem Pandam circumveniunt urbem Vspen, editam loco et moenibus ac fossis munitam, nisi quod moenia non saxo sed cratibus et vimentis ac media humo adversum inrumpentis invalida erant; eductaeque altius turres facibus atque hastis turbabant obsessos. ac ni proelium nox diremisset, coepta patrataque expugnatio eundem intra diem foret.
16.
Their combined forces having been arrayed for battle, they advanced, the Aorsi in the front and rear, the Roman cohorts and the Bosporan auxiliaries forming the main body, the latter trained to fight like the Roman infantry. After forcing the enemy to flight, they pushed on to Soza, a fortified town of the Dandaridae abandoned by Mithridates, where it was thought advisable to leave a garrison, given the uncertain attitude of its inhabitants. From there, they progressed toward the Siraci and, after crossing the Panda river, they lay siege to the city of Uspe standing on a height and protected by ramparts and a ditch. The circumvallation, however, was no more than barricades of fascines and woven twigs, filled between with earth, than real stone walls capable of fending off an assault. Towers were erected higher than these barriers to strike the besieged with darts and incendiary missiles. If darkness had not cut short the attack, the siege would have started and ended the same day.
XVII.
Postero misere legatos, veniam liberis corporibus orantis: servitii decem milia offerebant. quod aspernati sunt victores, quia trucidare deditos saevum, tantam multitudinem custodia cingere arduum: belli potius iure caderent, datumque militibus qui scalis evaserant signum caedis. excidio Vspensium metus ceteris iniectus, nihil tutum ratis, cum arma, munimenta, impediti vel eminentes loci amnesque et urbes iuxta perrumperentur. igitur Zorsines, diu pensitato Mithridatisne rebus extremis an patrio regno consuleret, postquam praevaluit gentilis utilitas, datis obsidibus apud effigiem Caesaris procubuit, magna gloria exercitus Romani, quem incruentum et victorem tridui itinere afuisse ab amne Tanai constitit. sed in regressu dispar fortuna fuit, quia navium quasdam quae mari remeabant in litora Taurorum delatas circumvenere barbari, praefecto cohortis et plerisque auxiliarium interfectis.
17.
Next day, the besieged sent out representatives to ask grace for the free men of the city, offering ten thousand slaves in exchange. The victors turned down all proposals of surrender, since to massacre a population willing to surrender would have been monstrous and to keep such a vast multitude under guard next to impossible. Better, it was decided, to let them perish by the impartial fortunes of war. Thus, the soldiers, who had already mounted the walls by means of scaling ladders, were given the signal to attack and to show no mercy. The indiscriminate killing of the inhabitants spread terror to other cities. It was clear that no safety was to be found anywhere, for armed resistance, fortifications, elevated or difficult to access positions, rivers, cities, all was equally of no avail against the enemy they faced. Consequently, Zorsines, having long reflected whether he should consider first Mithridates’ cause, already desperate, or the nation of his fathers, love of country prevailed in the end, so he gave hostages and knelt before the images of Caesar. Great fame accrued to the Roman army, as it was well known that it had advanced within three days’ march of the river Tanais, not only victorious, but also with its forces intact. The return journey was less fortunate, inasmuch as some of the ships (for they were journeying back by sea) became stranded on the coast of the Tauri and were surrounded by these barbaric people, a cohort prefect and many of the auxiliaries being killed.
XVIII.
Interea Mithridates nullo in armis subsidio consultat cuius misericordiam experiretur. frater Cotys, proditor olim, deinde hostis, metuebatur: Romanorum nemo id auctoritatis aderat ut promissa eius magni penderentur. ad Eunonen convertit, propriis odiis [non] infensum et recens coniuncta nobiscum amicitia validum. igitur cultu vultuque quam maxime ad praesentem fortunam comparato regiam ingreditur genibusque eius provolutus ‘Mithridates’ inquit ‘terra marique Romanis per tot annos quaesitus sponte adsum: utere, ut voles, prole magni Achaemenis, quod mihi solum hostes non abstulerunt.’
18.
Recourse to arms having proven useless, Mithridates, in the meantime, reflected to whose compassionate ear he should next appeal. His brother Cotys, who had turned traitor once before, then had become an enemy, he feared. Among the Romans there was no one around of such authority to warrant trust in his promises. Thus, he turned to Eunones, who had no reason to be hostile to him and whose influence had risen with his recent alliance with us. He conformed his appearance and demeanor to the low state of his present fortunes, then entered the royal palace, and falling at Eunones’s knees, cried that Mithridates, whom the Romans had pursued for so long by land and sea, was come to him of his own choosing. He pleaded with the king to dispose as he wished of the scion of the great Achaemenes, that, he said, being the only glory his enemies had left him the power to claim.
XIX.
At Eunones claritudine viri, mutatione rerum et prece haud degeneri permotus, adlevat supplicem laudatque quod gentem Aorsorum, quod suam dextram petendae veniae delegerit. simul legatos litterasque ad Caesarem in hunc modum mittit: populi Romani imperatoribus, magnarum nationum regibus primam ex similitudine fortunae amicitiam, sibi et Claudio etiam communionem victoriae esse. bellorum egregios finis quoties ignoscendo transigatur: sic Zorsini victo nihil ereptum. pro Mithridate, quando gravius mereretur, non potentiam neque regnum precari, sed ne triumpharetur neve poenas capite expenderet.
19.
Thereupon, deeply impressed by the nobility of the man’s name, his changed fortune, and the dignified tenor of his appeal, Eunones bade him rise and praised him for trusting the nation of the Aorsi and the king’s hand in his quest for pardon. He at once sent envoys to Caesar with a letter, the import of which was along these lines: that bonds of friendship between the Roman emperor and the kings of great nations had, as their foundation, their common greatness. Between himself and Claudius there were also the ties of shared victories. The most glorious way of ending wars was to conclude them with a pardon. Zorsines, though vanquished, had lost nothing. For Mithridates, though his guilt was greater, Eunones was asking neither power nor a throne, but only that he would not be led in a triumphal procession and that his life be spared.
XX.
At Claudius, quamquam nobilitatibus externis mitis, dubitavit tamen accipere captivum pacto salutis an repetere armis rectius foret. hinc dolor iniuriarum et libido vindictae adigebat: sed disserebatur contra suscipi bellum avio itinere, importuoso mari; ad hoc reges ferocis, vagos populos, solum frugum egenum, taedium ex mora, pericula ex properantis, modicam victoribus laudem ac multum infamiae, si pellerentur. quin adriperet et servaret exulem, cui inopi quanto longiorem vitam, tanto plus supplicii fore. his permotus scripsit Eunoni, meritum quidem novissima exempla Mithridaten, nec sibi vim ad exequendum deesse: verum ita maioribus placitum, quanta pervicacia in hostem, tanta beneficentia adversus supplices utendum; nam triumphos de populis regnisque integris adquiri.
20.
Though lenient towards foreign potentates, Claudius was not yet sure whether it would be preferable to accept the prisoner with a promise of safety or to go and capture him by using force. He was tempted to choose the latter course by the rancor he nursed against him for his misdeeds and for the pleasure of vengeance, but was dissuaded by the likelihood of a war in pathless regions and on a sea without harbors. Added thereto was the prospect of fighting vicious kings, wandering tribes, soils that sustained no crops, the tedium of delays, the perils of undue haste, the meagre glory of victory, and the burning shame of defeat. Why not catch at the opportunity that offered and forbear to kill an exile, who, deprived of everything, would only extend his misery the longer he lived? Persuaded by these considerations, Claudius wrote to Eunones that Mithridates had indeed deserved the supreme penalty, and that he, Claudius, did not lack the power of exacting it, but that it was a Roman tradition to demonstrate as much rigor against an enemy as indulgence towards those seeking grace. With respect to triumphs, Claudius wrote, they were not earned by victory over rulers of divided countries, but over peoples and kingdoms in their full force.