[409] See Life of Crassus, c. 10.
[410] οἱ γνωριμώτατοι, which Kaltwasser translates “those who were most acquainted with the Romans;” and his translation may be right.
[411] Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, which is the Roman mode of writing the word. He was the son of Domitius who was taken by Cæsar in Corfinium (Life of Cæsar, c. 34); and he is the Domitius who deserted Antonius just before the battle of Actium (c. 63).
[412] The Mardi inhabited a tract on the south coast of the Caspian, where there was a river Mardus or Amardus.
Plutarch has derived his narrative of the retreat from some account by an eye-witness, but though it is striking as a picture, it is quite useless as a military history. The route is not designated any further than this, that Antonius had to pass through a plain and desert country. It is certain that he advanced considerably east of the Tigris, and he experienced the same difficulties that Crassus did in the northern part of Mesopotamia. (Strabo, p. 523, ed. Casaub. as to the narrative of Adelphius, and Casaubon’s note.)
[413] These were used by the slingers (funditores) in the Roman army.
[414] ἐπ’ οὐρὰν, Sintenis: but the MS. reading is ἀπ’ οὐρᾶς, “from the rear.” See the note of Schaefer, and of Sintenis.
[415] Contrary to Parthian practice. Compare the Life of Crassus, c. 27.
[416] These are the soldiers in full armour. Sintenis refers to the Life of Crassus, c. 25. See life of Antonius, c. 49, οἱ δὲ ὁπλῖται ... τοῖς θυρεοῖς.
[417] The Romans called this mode of defence Testudo, or tortoise. It is described by Dion Cassius (xlix. 30). The testudo was also used in assaulting a city or wall. A cut of one from the Antonine column is given in Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, art. Testudo.