[69] This "very Hyrodes" and his brother Mithridates are said to have murdered their father Arsakes XII. Phraates III., who is spoken of in the Life of Lucullus. The two brothers quarrelled. Mithridates is mentioned by some authorities as the immediate successor of his father under the title of Arsakes XIII. Mithridates III. Mithridates was besieged in Babylon by Hyrodes; and Mithridates, after surrendering to his brother, was put to death. (Dion Cassius, 39. c. 56; Appian, On the Affairs of Syria, c. 51; Justinus, xlii. 4.)
[70] This river is probably the same as the Bilecha, now the Belejik, a small stream which joins the Euphrates on the left bank at Racca, the old Nikephorium. This river is mentioned by Isidorus of Charax and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. c. 3), who calls it Belias.
[71] Plutarch seems to mean something like drums furnished with bells or rattles; but his description is not very clear, and the passage may be rendered somewhat differently from what I have rendered it: "but they have instruments to beat upon (ῥόπτρα), made of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders" (ἠχείοις, whatever the word may mean here). The word ῥόπτρον properly means a thing to strike with; but it seems to have another meaning here. (See Passow's Greek Lexicon.) The context seems to show that a drum is meant.
[72] Margiana was a country east of the Caspian, the position of which seems to be determined by the Murg-aub river, the ancient Margus. Hyrcania joined it on the west. Strabo (p. 516) describes Margiana as a fertile plain surrounded by deserts. He says nothing of its iron. Plinius (Hist. Nat. vi. 16) says that Orodes carried off the Romans who were captured at the time of the defeat of Crassus, to Antiochia, in Margiana.
[73] So Xenophon (Cyropædia, i. 3. 2) represents King Astyages. The king also wore a wig or false locks.
[74] The peculiarity of the Parthian warfare made a lasting impression on the Romans; and it is often alluded to by the Latin writers:—
Fidentemque fuga Parthum versisque sagittis.
Virgil, Georgic iii. 31.
[75] In reading the chapter, it must be remembered that Publius is young Crassus. If there is any apparent confusion between the father and son, it will be removed by reading carefully. I have chosen to translate Plutarch, not to mend him.
[76] The reading of this passage in Appian (Parthica, c. 29) is τέλμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which Sintenis has adopted. The common reading is συντάγμασιν ἐντυχόντες, which various critics variously explain.