XXVII. Though Crassus used such words to encourage them, he did not
see many eager to follow his exhortations: but, by ordering them to
shout the battle cry, he discovered the dispirited condition of his
men, so weak, and feeble, and irregular a shout they made; while the
cries on the side of the enemy were clear and bold. When the Parthians
began the attack, their slaves and clients, riding about on the flanks
of the Romans, galled them with their arrows: and the horsemen in
front, using their long spears, kept driving the Romans into a narrow
compass, except those who, to avoid death from the arrows, made a
desperate attempt to rush upon the Parthians; wherein they did the
enemy little damage, but met with a speedy death by great and mortal
wounds; for the Parthians drove their spears, heavy with iron, against
the horsemen; and, from the force of the blow, they often went even
through two men. After thus fighting, as dark came on the Parthians
retired, saying, that they allowed Crassus a single night to lament
his son, unless he should take better counsel for himself, and choose
rather to come to King Arsakes than to be taken. The Parthians
encamped near the Romans, in high hopes. A painful night followed to
the Romans, who neither paid any attention to the interment of the
dead, nor care to the wounded, and those who were in the agonies of
death; but every man was severally lamenting his own fate; for it
appeared that they could not escape, either if they waited there till
daybreak, or if they plunged by night into a boundless plain. And the
wounded caused a great difficulty; for they would be an obstacle to
the quickness of their flight if they attempted to carry them off:
and, if they should leave them, their shouts would betray the attempt
to escape unobserved. Though they considered Crassus to be the cause
of all their sufferings, the soldiers still wished to see him and hear
his voice. But Crassus, wrapping himself up in his cloak, lay