Plutarch's Lives, Volume 4 (of 4)

by Plutarch

XXXII. As Sextus[382] Pompeius was still in possession of Sicily and was ravaging Italy, and with his numerous piratical ships, of which Menas the pirate and Menekrates were commanders, had rendered the sea unsafe to vessels, and as he seemed to be in a friendly disposition towards Antonius, for he had received his mother when she had fled from Rome with Fulvia, it was resolved to come to terms with him also. They met at the promontory of Misenum and the mound, the fleet of Pompeius being anchored close by them, while the forces of Antonius and Cæsar were arranged by the side of them. Having agreed that Pompeius should have Sardinia and Sicily on condition of keeping the sea clear of pirates and sending to Rome a certain quantity of grain, they invited one another to an entertainment. They cast lots on the occasion, and it was the lot of Pompeius to feast them first. Upon Antonius asking him where they should sup, “There,” said he, pointing to the commander’s ship of six banks of oars, “for this is all the paternal residence that is left for Pompeius.” This he said to reproach Antonius, who had the house that had belonged to the father of Sextus. Fixing his ship at anchor and making a kind of bridge from the promontory, he received them with a hearty welcome. When the banquet was at its height and jokes against Cleopatra and Antonius were plentiful, Menas the pirate approaching Pompeius said to him, so that the rest could not hear, “Will you let me cut off the anchors of the ship and make you master not of Sicily and Sardinia, but of the Roman empire?” Pompeius, on hearing this, considered with himself for a short time, and said, “You ought to have done it, Menas, without mentioning it to me: but now let us be satisfied with things as they are; perjury is not for me.” Pompeius, after being feasted by Cæsar and Antonius in turn, sailed back to Sicily.

XXXIII. After the settlement of affairs, Antonius sent forward Ventidius[383] into Asia to prevent the Parthians from advancing further, and, in order to please Cæsar, he was appointed priest of the former Cæsar; and everything else that concerned public affairs they transacted in common and in a friendly way. But their games of amusement caused annoyance to Antonius, as he always carried off therein less than Cæsar. Now there was with Antonius a man skilled in divinations, an Egyptian, one of those who cast nativities, who, whether it was to please Cleopatra, or whether he said it in good faith, spoke freely to Antonius, saying that his fortune, though most splendid and great, was obscured by that of Cæsar, and he advised him to remove as far as possible from the young man: “For thy dæmon,” he said, “is afraid of the dæmon of Cæsar, and though it is proud and erect when it is by itself, it is humbled by his dæmon when it is near, and becomes cowed.” And indeed the things which were happening seemed to confirm the Egyptian; for it is said that when they were casting lots by way of amusement, in whatever they might happen to be engaged, and throwing dice, Antonius came off with disadvantage. They frequently matched cocks,[384] and fighting quails, and those of Cæsar were always victorious. Whereat Antonius being annoyed, though he did not show it, and paying more regard to the Egyptian, departed from Italy, leaving the management of his affairs to Cæsar; and he took with him Octavia as far as Greece, there having been a daughter born to them. While he was spending the winter in Athens, he received intelligence of the first successes of Ventidius, who had defeated the Parthians in a battle, in which Labienus lost his life and Pharnapates, the most skilful of the generals of King Hyrodes.[385] On the occasion of this victory Antonius feasted the Greeks; and he acted as gymnasiarch for the Athenians, and leaving at home the insignia of his rank, he went forth with the rods of a gymnasiarch[386] and the dress and white shoes; and he took the youths by the neck when he separated them.

XXXIV. As he was going to set out for the war, he took a crown from the sacred olive,[387] and in conformity to a certain oracle, he filled a vessel with water from the Clepsydra, and carried it with him. In the mean time Pacorus,[388] the king’s son, with a large Parthian army again advanced against Syria, but Ventidius engaged with him in Cyrrhestica and put his army to flight with great loss; Pacorus himself fell among the first. This exploit, which was one of the most celebrated, gave the Romans full satisfaction for the defeat of Crassus, and again confined the Parthians within Media and Mesopotamia, after being defeated in three successive battles. Ventidius gave up all intention of pursuing the Parthians further, because he feared the jealousy of Antonius, but he visited those who had revolted and brought them into subjection, and besieged Antiochus of Commagene[389] in the city Samosata. The king proposed to pay a thousand talents and to obey the order of Antonius, but Ventidius told him to send his proposal to Antonius; for he had now advanced near, and he would not allow Ventidius to make peace with Antiochus, because he wished that this single exploit at least should bear his name, and that everything should not be accomplished by Ventidius. As, however, the siege was protracted, and the citizens, after despairing of coming to terms, betook themselves to a vigorous defence, Antonius, who was making no progress, but was ashamed and repented of his conduct, was glad to make peace with Antiochus and to take three hundred talents; and after settling some trifling matters in Syria, he returned to Athens, and sent Ventidius to enjoy a triumph after bestowing on him the suitable decorations. Ventidius is the only Roman to the present time who has had a triumph over the Parthians; and he was a man of obscure birth, but the friendship of Antonius gave him the opportunity of doing great deeds, of which he made the best use, and so confirmed what was generally said of Antonius and Cæsar, that they were more successful as generals through others than of themselves. For Sossius[390] also, a legatus of Antonius, had great success in Syria; and Canidius,[391] who was left by Antonius in Armenia, defeated the Armenians and the kings of the Iberians and Albanians, and advanced as far as the Caucasus. All this success increased the name and the fame of the power of Antonius among the barbarians.

XXXV. Antonius being again irritated against Cæsar by certain calumnies, sailed to Italy with three hundred vessels; but as the people of Brundusium would not receive his fleet, he sailed round and anchored at Tarentum.[392] There he sent Octavia, for she accompanied him from Greece, at her request, to her brother: she was then pregnant, and had already borne him two daughters. She met Cæsar on the way, and after gaining over his friends Agrippa and Mæcenas,[393] she prayed him with much urgency and much entreaty not to let her become a most wretched woman after being most happy. For now, she said, all men turned their eyes upon her, who was the wife of one Imperator and the sister of another; “but if the worse should prevail,” she continued, “and there should be war, it is uncertain which of you must be the victor and which the vanquished; but I shall be unfortunate both ways.” Cæsar, being moved by these words, came in a friendly manner to Tarentum, and those who were present saw a most noble spectacle, a large army on land tranquil, and many ships quietly holding on the shore, and the meeting and friendly salutations of the two Imperators and their friends. Antonius gave an entertainment first, which Cæsar consented to for his sister’s sake. It being agreed that Cæsar should give Antonius two legions for the Parthian war, and that Antonius should give Cæsar a hundred brazen-beaked vessels. Octavia, independently of what had been agreed, asked for her brother twenty light ships[394] from her husband, and for her husband a thousand soldiers from her brother. Accordingly, separating from one another, the one immediately engaged in the war against Pompeius,[395] being desirous to get Sicily; and Antonius, entrusting to Cæsar Octavia and his children by her and by Fulvia, crossed over to Asia.

XXXVI. That great evil, which had long slept, the passion for Cleopatra, which appeared to be put to rest and to have been tranquillised by better considerations, blazed forth again and recovered strength as Antonius approached Syria. And finally (as Plato[396] says of the stubborn and ungovernable beast of the soul), kicking away everything that was good and wholesome, he sent Fonteius Capito to bring Cleopatra to Syria. On her arrival he gave and added to her dominions nothing small or trifling, but Phœnice, Cœle Syria, Cyprus, a large part of Cilicia, and further, that part of Judæa which produces the balsam, and all the part, of Arabia Nabathæa which was turned towards the external sea.[397] These donations caused the Romans the greatest vexation; though he gave tetrarchies and kingdoms of great nations to many private persons, and took kingdoms from many, as for instance Antigonus[398] the Jew, whom he brought out and beheaded, though no king before had been punished in this way. But the scandal of the thing was that which gave more offence than all the honours conferred on Cleopatra. The evil report was increased by his acknowledging his twin children by Cleopatra, one of whom he called Alexander and the other Cleopatra; and he gave to one the surname of Sun, and the other of Moon. However, he had some dexterity in putting a good face on bad things, for he said that the greatness of the Roman power was shown not in what they received, but in what they gave; and that noble families were extended by a succession and progeny of many kings. Thus, for instance, he said, that his own ancestor was begotten by Hercules, who did not deposit his successors in a single womb, nor did he fear laws like Solon’s[399] and penalties for conception, but gave nature her course to leave many beginnings and foundations of families.

XXXVII. When Phraates[400] had killed his father Hyrodes and got possession of the kingdom, other Parthians fled, not few in number; and among them Monæses, a man of illustrious rank and great power, fled to Antonius, who likening the fortune of Monæses to that of Themistocles[401] and comparing his own means and magnanimity to those of the Persian kings, gave him three cities, Larissa and Arethusa and Hierapolis, which was before called Bambyce. Upon the Parthian king sending to Monæses a right hand,[402] Antonius gladly despatched Monæses to him, having resolved to deceive Phraates with a pretence of peace, but claiming the restoration of the standards taken in the time of Crassus and such of the prisoners as still survived. Antonius having sent Cleopatra back to Egypt, marched through Arabia[403] and Armenia to a place where he reviewed his army, which had assembled there, and also the troops of the confederate kings; and they were many, but the greatest of all was Artavasdes,[404] king of Armenia, who supplied six thousand horse and seven thousand foot soldiers. There were of the Romans sixty thousand foot soldiers, and the cavalry which was classed with the Romans was ten thousand Iberians[405] and Celts; and of the other nations there were thirty thousand together with cavalry and light-armed troops. Yet so great a preparation and power, which alarmed even the Indians beyond Bactria and shook all Asia, it is said, was made of no avail to him by reason of Cleopatra. For through his eagerness to spend the winter with her, he opened the campaign before the fit time and conducted everything in a disorderly way, not having the mastery over his own judgment, but through the influence of some drugs or magic always anxiously looking towards her, and thinking more of his speedy return than of conquering the enemy.

XXXVIII. Now, in the first place, though it was his business to winter there in Armenia and to give his army rest, which was worn out by a march of eight thousand stadia, and before the Parthians moved from their winter-quarters in the commencement of spring, to occupy Media, he did not wait for the time, but immediately led forward his army, leaving Armenia on the left and touching on Atropatene,[406] which he ravaged. In the next place, the engines which were necessary for sieges were carried along with the army in three hundred waggons, and among them was a ram eighty feet long; and it was not possible for any one of them, if it was damaged, to be repaired when it was wanted, because the upper country only produced wood of insufficient length and hardness: accordingly in his hurry he left all the engines behind as encumbrances to his speed, after appointing a watch and Statianus as commander over the waggons; and he commenced the siege of Phraata,[407] a large city, in which were the children and wives of the king of Media. But the difficulties soon proved what an error he had committed in leaving behind the engines; and as he wished to come to close quarters with the enemy, he commenced erecting a mound against the city, which rose slowly and with much labour. In the meantime Phraates came down with a great force, hearing of the waggons being left behind that carried the machines, and sent many horsemen against them, by whom Statianus was hemmed in and killed and ten thousand men with him. The barbarians took possession of the engines and destroyed them. They also took many prisoners, among whom was king Polemon.[408]

XXXIX. This misfortune greatly annoyed, as we may suppose, all the soldiers of Antonius, who at the commencement of the war had received this unexpected blow; and the Armenian Artavasdes despairing of the success of the Romans went off with his troops, though he had been the chief cause of the war. The Parthians now showed themselves to the besiegers in gallant array and insultingly threatened them, on which Antonius, not wishing to let despondency and dejection abide in his army by their being quiet and to increase, took ten legions and three prætorian cohorts of heavy-armed men and all the cavalry, and led them out to forage in the hope that the enemy would thus be drawn on, and that a regular battle would ensue. After advancing one day’s march, he saw that the Parthians were spreading themselves around him and seeking to attack him on the march, on which he hung out in the camp the sign of battle, but at the same time he ordered the tents to be taken down, as if his intention were not to fight but to lead off his troops; and he passed along the line of the barbarians, which was in the form of a crescent, having given orders, as soon as the first ranks of the enemy should be within reach of the heavy-armed soldiers, for the cavalry to ride at them. To the Parthians who stood opposed to the Romans, their discipline appeared to be something indescribable; and they observed the Romans as they marched past at equal intervals without disorder and in silence, brandishing their spears. But when the standard was raised and the cavalry facing about rushed upon the enemy, the Parthians received their onset and repelled it, though the Romans were all at once too close to allow them to use their arrows; but when the heavy-armed soldiers joined in the conflict at the same time with shouts and the clatter of arms, the Parthian horses were frightened and gave way and the Parthians fled before they came to close quarters. Antonius pressed on the pursuit, and had great hopes that he had finished the whole war or the chief part in that battle. But when the infantry had followed up the pursuit for fifty stadia and the cavalry for three times that distance, looking at those of the enemy who had fallen and were captured, they found only thirty captives and eighty corpses, which caused dismay and despondency in all the army, when they reflected that though victorious they had killed so few, and that when defeated they must sustain such a loss as they had near the waggons. On the following day they broke up their encampment and took the road towards Phraata and the camp. On their march they fell in at first with a few of the enemy, and then a greater number, and finally with all, who, as if they were unvanquished and fresh, challenged them and fell upon them from all sides, so that with difficulty and much labour they got safe to their camp. As the Medes made a sally against the mound and terrified those who were defending it, Antonius being enraged put in practice what is called decimation[409] against the cowards; for he divided the whole number into tens, and put to death one out of each ten who was chosen by lot; and to the rest he ordered barley to be measured out, instead of wheat.

XL. The war was attended with great hardship to both sides, and the future was still more alarming, as Antonius was expecting famine, for it was no longer possible to get forage without many of the soldiers being wounded and killed. Phraates knowing that the Parthians were able to bear anything rather than to endure hardship in the winter and to encamp in the open air, was afraid lest, if the Romans held out and abided there, his troops would leave him, as the atmosphere was beginning to grow heavy after the autumnal equinox. Accordingly he planned such a stratagem as this. The chiefs of the Parthians,[410] both in the forages and on other occasions when they met the Romans, made less vigorous resistance, both allowing them to take some things and commending their valour in that they were most courageous men, and were justly admired by their king. After this, riding up nearer to them, and quietly placing their horses near the Romans, they would abuse Antonius, saying that though Phraates wished to come to terms and to spare so many brave men, Antonius would not give him the opportunity, but sat there awaiting those dangerous and powerful enemies, hunger and winter, from whom it would be difficult for them to escape, even under convoy of the Parthians. Many persons reported this to Antonius, and though he was softened by hope, still he did not send heralds to the Parthians until he inquired from the barbarians who assumed this friendly demeanour, whether what they said really expressed the king’s meaning. On their saying that it was so, and urging him not to fear or distrust, he sent some of his companions to demand back the standards and the captives, that it might not be supposed that he was so eager to make his escape and get away. The Parthian told him not to trouble himself about that matter, but promised him peace and security if he would depart forthwith; whereupon in a few days Antonius got his baggage together and broke up his camp. Though Antonius had great powers of persuasion before a popular assembly, and was skilled above every man of the age in leading an army by his words, he was unable through shame and depression of spirits to encourage the soldiers, and he bade Domitius Ænobarbus[411] do this. Some of the soldiers took this amiss, considering it as a token of contempt towards them, but the majority were affected by it, and perceived the reason, and they thought that they ought on this account the more to show their respect and obedience to the commander.

XLI. As Antonius was intending to lead the troops back by the same road, which was through a plain country without trees, a man, by nation a Mardian,[412] who was well acquainted with the Parthian habits, and had already shown himself faithful to the Romans in the battle at the waggons, came up to Antonius and advised him in his flight to keep to the mountains on his right, and not to expose a force, in heavy armour and encumbered, to so numerous a cavalry and to the arrows in bare and open tracts, which was the very thing that Phraates designed when he induced him by friendly terms to raise the siege; and that he would lead them a shorter road, where he would find a better supply of necessaries. Antonius on hearing this deliberated; he did not wish to appear to distrust the Parthians after the truce, yet as he approved of the shorter road, and the line of march being along inhabited villages, he asked the Mardian for a pledge of his fidelity. The Mardian offered himself to be put in chains until he should place the army in Armenia; and he was put in chains, and he conducted them for two days without their meeting with any opposition. On the third day, when Antonius had completely ceased to think of the Parthians, and was advancing in a careless way by reason of his confidence, the Mardian observed that an embankment against the overflowing of a river had been recently broken, and that the stream was flowing in a great current on the road by which they had to pass, and he knew that the Parthians had done this with the intention of making the river an obstacle to the Roman march by the difficulty and delay that it would occasion; and he bade Antonius look out and be on his guard, as the enemy was near. Just while he was placing the heavy-armed men in order, and taking measures for the javelin-men and slingers to make an attack through their ranks upon the enemy, the Parthians appeared and rode round them with the design of encircling the Romans and putting them in disorder on all sides. The light-armed troops made a sally against them, and the Parthians, after inflicting some wounds with their arrows and receiving as many from the leaden bullets[413] and javelins of the Romans, retreated. The Parthians then commenced a second attack, which continued until the Celtæ in a mass drove their horses against them and dispersed them; and the Parthians showed themselves no more on that day.