father of Pompey the Great, and led in triumph be fore that general. Supported by the credit of C. Cafar, under whom he had served in Gaul, and paffed through all the degrees of the army, he became prætor and conful. He was the only perfon that triumphed for his exploits against the Parthians, and obtained that honour after having been led in a triumph himfelf. I have faid, that Ventidius contributed very much to make the Romans amends for the affront they had received at the battle of Carræ. He had begun to revenge the defeat of Craffus and his army, by two fucceffive victories gained over those terrible enemies. A third, ftill greater than the former, completed the work, and was obtained in this manner. That general (a), apprehending the Parthians, whofe preparations were much advanced, would prevent him, and pass the Euphrates before he had time to draw all his troops together out of their different quarters, had recourfe to this ftratagem. There was a petty Eastern prince in his camp, under the name of an ally, whom he knew to be entirely in the interefts of the Parthians, and that he held fecret intelligence with them, and gave them advice of all the defigns of the Romans which he could difcover. He refolved to make this man's treachery the means to draw the Parthians into a fnare he had laid for them. With that view he contracted a more than ordinary intimacy with this traitor. He converfed frequently with him upon the operations of the campaign. Affecting at length to open himfelf to him with great confidence, he obferved, that he was much afraid, from advices he had received, that the Parthians did not defign to pass the Euphrates at Zeugma, as ufual, but a great way lower. For, faid he, if they pals at Gg 3 Zeugma, (v) A. M. 3965. Ant. J. C. 39. Jofeph. Antiq. xiv. 24. Plut. in Anton. p. 931. Appian. in Parth. p. 156. Dion. Caff. 1. 49. p. 403, 404. Juftin. 1. 40. c. 4. Zeugma, the country on this fide is so mountainous, that the cavalry, in which the whole force of their army confifts, can do us no great hurt. But if they pafs below, there are nothing but plains, where they will have all manner of advantages againft us, and it will be impoffible for us to make head against them. As foon as he had imparted this fecret to him, the fpy did not fail, as Ventidius had rightly foreseen, to communicate it to the Parthians, with whom it had all the effect he could defire. Pacorus, inftead of going to Zeugma immediately, took the other rout, loft abundance of time in the great compafs he was obliged to take, and in the preparations neceffary for paffing the river there. Ventidius got forty days by this means, which he employed in making Silon of Judæa join him, with the legions quartered on the other fide of mount Taurus, and found himself in a condition to give the Parthians a good reception when they entered Syria. As they faw that they had not been attacked either in paffing the river, or afterwards, they attributed that inactivity to terror and cowardice, and marched directly to charge the enemy in their camp, though fituated very advantageously upon an eminence, not doubting but they fhould foon make themselves mafters of it, and that without much refiftance. They were mistaken. The Romans quitted their camp, fell on them with impetuofity, and pushed them with the utmoft vigour upon the declivity; and as they had the advantage of the ground, and their light-armed troops poured fhowers of darts upon the Parthians, they foon put them into diforder, notwithstanding the vigorous refiftance they made at firft. The flaughter was very great. Pacorus was killed in the battle, and his death was followed immediately with the flight of his whole army. The vanquished made hafte to regain the bridge, in order to return into their own country; but the Romans prevented them, and and cut the greatest part of them in pieces. Some few efcaping by flight, retired to Antiochus King of Comagena. Hiftory obferves, that this celebrated battle, which fo well revenged the defeat of Craffus, was fought exactly on the fame day with the battle of Carræ fourteen years before. Orodes was fo ftruck with the loss of the battle, and the death of his son, that he was almost out of his fenfes. For several days he neither opened his mouth, nor took any nourishment. When the excess of his grief was a little abated, and would permit him to fpeak, nothing was heard from him but the name of Pacorus. He imagined that he faw him, and called to him; he seemed to discourse with him, and, as if he were living, to speak to him, and hear him speak. At other times he remembered that he was dead, and fhed a torrent of tears *. Never was grief more juft. This was the most fatal blow for the Parthian monarchy it had ever received; nor was the lofs of the prince lefs than that of the army itself. For he was the most excellent perfon the houfe of the Arfacides had ever produced, for juftice, clemency, valour, and all the qualities which conftitute the truly great prince. He had made himself fo much beloved in Syria, during the little time he refided there, that never did the people exprefs more affection for any of their native fovereigns, than for the perfon of this foreign prince. When Qrodes had a little recovered the dejection into which the death of his dear fon Pacorus had thrown him, he found himself extremely imbarraffed about the choice of his fucceffor out of his other children. He had thirty by different women, each of whom Orodes, repente filii morte et exercitus clade audita, ex dolore in furorem vertitur. Multis diebus non alloqui quenquam, non cibum fumere, non vocem mittere, ita ut etiam mutus factus videretur. Poft multos deinde dies, ubi dolor vocem laxaverat, nihil aliud quam Pacorum vocabat. Pacorus illi videri, Pacorus audiri videbatur: can illo loqui, cum illo confifteri. Interdum quafi amiffum Aebiliter dolebat. Juftin. whom folicited him in favour of her own, and made ufe of all the afcendant she had over a fpirit impaired by age and affliction. At laft he determined however to follow the order of birth and nominated PHRAATES, the eldest and most vicious of them all. He had fcarce taken poffeffion of the throne (a), when he caufed all his brothers, whom his father had by the daughter of Antiochus Eufebes King of Syria, to be murdered, and that only because their mother was of a better family than his, and they had more merit than himself. The father, who was ftill alive, not being able to avoid profe fling extreme difpleasure upon that occafion, that unnatural fon ordered him alfo to be put to death. He treated the rest of his brothers in the fame manner, and did not spare his own fon, from the apprehenfion that the people would set him upon the throne in his stead. It was this prince, fo cruel in regard to all his own family, that treated Hyrcanus King of the Jews with peculiar favour and clemency. Abridgement of the history of the kings of Cappadocia, from the foundation of that kingdom to the time when it became a province of the Roman empire. HAVE fpoke, in feveral parts of this hiftory, of the as I occafion, but without either mentioning either beginning or fucceffion. I fhall here unite in one point of view all that relates to that kingdom. Cappadocia is a great country of Afia Minor (b). The Perfians, under whom it was at first, had divided it into two parts, and established two fatrapies or governments in it. The Macedonians, into whofe pof (a) A. M. 3967. (b) Strab. 1. 1. p. Ant. J. C. 37. 533, 534. fethon feffion it fell, fuffered thofe two governments to be changed into kingdoms. The one extended toward mount Taurus, and was properly called Cappadocia, or Cappadocia Major; the other toward Pontus,, and was called Cappadocia Pontica, or Cappadocia Minor; they were at length united into one kingdom. Strabo fays, that Ariarathes was the firft King of Cappadocia, but does not mention at what time he began to reign. It is probable, that it was about the time Philip (c), father of Alexander the Great, began to reign in Macedonia, and Ochus in Perfia; admit ting that the kingdom of Cappadocia continued three hundred threefcore and fixteen years, before it was reduced into a province of the Roman empire under Tiberius. It was governed at firft by a long fucceffion of kings named Ariarathes; then by kings called Ariobarza, nes, who did not exceed the third generation; and at length by the laft, Archelaus. According to Diodorus Siculus, there were many kings of Cappadocia before Ariarathes: but as their history is almost entirely unknown, I fhall make no mention of it in this place, ARIARATHES I. (d) He reigned jointly with his brother Holophernes, for whom he had a particular affection. Having joined the Perfians (e) in the expedition againft Egypt, he acquired great glory, and returned home laden with honours by King Ochus. ARIARATHES II. fon of the former, had lived at peace in his dominions (ƒ), during the wars of Alex. ander the Great, who, out of impatience to come to blows with Darius, was unwilling to be delayed for the (c) A. M. 3644. (d) A. M. 3644. (e) A M. 3653. (u) A. M. 3668. Diod. I. 18. p. 599. Ant. J. C. 360. Plut. in Eumen. p. 548. |