selected from the Epitome

Florus turns Roman war memory into a compressed and rhetorical history. His northern and eastern notices are not quiet ethnography; they are Roman imperial literature, but they preserve the shape of what Rome remembered about Thrace, Pontus, Sarmatia, Dacia, Parthia, and the far north.

The selected passages below gather Thracians, Scordisci, Sarmatians, Moesi, Dacians, Mithridates' Black Sea and Caucasus route, Pompey's northern march, Parthian wars, and embassies from Scythians and Sarmatians under Augustus.

The English is a Good Works Translation from the Latin passages printed below.

Translation

Book 1.39 -- The Thracian War

After the Macedonians, if the gods please, the Thracians rebelled, those old tributaries of the Macedonians. Not content merely to rush into the nearest provinces, they came through Thessaly and Dalmatia all the way to the Adriatic Sea. Satisfied with that boundary, as if nature stood between, they hurled twisted weapons into the waters themselves.

Meanwhile, throughout that whole time, no cruelty was left unused against captives. They polluted death with such mockeries as offering to the gods with human blood, drinking from the bones of heads, and defiling death by fire and smoke; they even tore infants from pregnant women by torture.

The Scordisci, the fiercest of all Thracians, agreed in character with the position of their forests and mountains. Therefore the army which Cato had led was not merely routed or put to flight by them, but, a thing like a prodigy, wholly cut off. Didius drove them back into their own Thrace when they were wandering and spread out in free plunder. Drusus drove them farther and forbade them to cross the Danube. Minucius devastated everything along the Hebrus, losing many men while cavalry rode through the treacherous frozen river. Volso penetrated Rhodope and Caucasus. Curio came as far as Dacia, but was frightened by the darkness of the forests. Appius reached even the Sarmatians; Lucullus reached the boundary of nations, the Tanais, and Lake Maeotis.

Nor were the bloodiest of enemies subdued except by their own customs. For fire and sword were used savagely against the captives; yet nothing seemed more horrible to the barbarians than that, with their hands cut off, they were left alive and ordered to survive their own punishment.

Book 1.40 -- The Mithridatic War

The Pontic peoples lie from the north toward the left, named from the Pontic sea. The most ancient king of these peoples and regions was Aeetes, afterward Artabazes, sprung from the seven Persians, and then Mithridates, by far the greatest of all. For although four years were enough for Pyrrhus and fourteen for Hannibal, Mithridates resisted for forty years, until, overcome in three huge wars, he was consumed by the good fortune of Sulla, the courage of Lucullus, and the greatness of Pompey.

He had put forward to the legate Cassius as the cause of that war that his boundaries were being handled by Nicomedes the Bithynian. But carried away by immense ambitions, he burned with desire for all Asia and, if he could, Europe. Our own vices gave him hope and confidence. Since we were distracted by civil wars, the opportunity invited him, and Marius, Sulla, and Sertorius showed the bare side of empire from far away. Among these wounds of the commonwealth and these tumults, suddenly, as if the time had been watched for, the sudden whirlwind of the Pontic war burst from the farthest watchtower of the north upon men at once weary and distracted.

The first onrush of the war at once seized Bithynia. Asia was then taken by equal terror, and cities and peoples did not hesitate to desert from us to the king. He was present; he pressed on; he used savagery as if it were courage. For what was more atrocious than his one edict, when he ordered all men of Roman citizenship in Asia to be killed? Then houses, temples, altars, and all human and divine law were violated.

But this terror in Asia also opened Europe to the king. Therefore, after Archelaus and Neoptolemus had been sent as commanders, except for Rhodes, which stood more firmly for us, the rest of the Cyclades, Delos, Euboea, and Athens itself, the glory of Greece, were held by him. Royal terror was already breathing upon Italy itself and the city of Rome.

So Lucius Sulla hastened, a man excellent in arms, and by equal violence drove back the rushing enemy with what was almost a hand. First he forced Athens, who would believe it, the parent of grain, by siege and famine to human food. Soon the Piraeus harbor, enclosed by six walls or more, was torn down. After he had subdued those most ungrateful men, nevertheless, as he himself said, he gave them as a gift to the honor of their dead, their rites, and their fame.

Soon, after he had driven out the king's garrisons from Euboea and Boeotia, he scattered all the forces in one battle at Chaeronea and another at Orchomenus. Immediately crossing into Asia, he crushed Mithridates himself. The war would have been finished if Sulla had not preferred to triumph over Mithridates quickly rather than truly.

At that time Sulla gave Asia this settlement: a treaty was struck with the Pontic people; Nicomedes received Bithynia back from the king; Ariobarzanes received Cappadocia; Asia was again ours as it had been at the beginning; Mithridates was only driven back. Therefore this did not break the Pontic people, but inflamed them. For the king, baited in a way by Asia and Europe, now sought again not something alien, but what he had lost and now regarded as seized by right of war. Thus, as fires insufficiently extinguished revive with a greater flame, so he began again from the start, with forces increased in a greater measure, and at last came again into Asia by sea, land, and rivers, with the whole weight of his kingdom.

Cyzicus, a noble city, brightens the shores of the Asiatic region with citadel, walls, harbor, and marble towers. He had invaded it with his whole war as if it were another Rome. But news gave the townspeople confidence to resist, teaching that Lucullus was approaching, who, horrible to say, suspended by a wineskin among the enemy ships and steering his way with his feet, had escaped, to those seeing from a distance, like a sea-monster. Soon the disaster was turned. When delay, famine, and from famine plague pressed the king in his siege, Lucullus overtook him while still fresh and cut him down so greatly that the rivers Granicus and Aesepus were made bloody. The king, cunning and experienced in Roman greed, ordered packs and money to be scattered by the fugitives, to delay those who followed.

His flight was no happier at sea than on land. A storm attacked his fleet of more than one hundred ships, heavy with the apparatus of war, in the Pontic sea and tore it with such foul destruction that it made the likeness of a naval battle. Plainly it seemed that Lucullus, by some commerce with waves and storms, had handed the king over to the winds to be defeated. All the powers of a very strong kingdom were now worn away, but his courage grew by evils.

Therefore, turning toward neighboring nations, he involved almost the whole East and North in his own ruin. Iberians, Caspians, Albanians, and both Armenias were stirred up; through all these Fortune was seeking glory, name, and titles for her Pompey. When Pompey saw Asia burning with new disturbances and other kings coming forward, judging that there must be no delay before the strengths of the nations joined together, he immediately made a bridge and, first of all men before him, crossed the Euphrates. He found the fleeing king in the middle of Armenia and, such was the man's fortune, finished him in a single battle.

That fight took place at night, and the moon was on Pompey's side. For, as if fighting as his comrade, she presented herself behind the enemy and in the face of the Romans; the Pontic men, by mistake, struck at their own shadows falling farther away as if they were enemy bodies. Mithridates was indeed defeated that night. Afterward he had no strength, though he tried everything, like snakes which, after the head is crushed, threaten at the end with the tail. For after he had escaped the enemy as far as Colchis, he thought of joining the Bosporus, then leaping through Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, and so unexpectedly invading Italy. But, anticipated by the revolt of his citizens and the crime of his son Pharnaces, he drove out by the sword the breath which poison had badly attempted.

Meanwhile Gnaeus the Great, following the rebellious remnants of Asia, flew through different peoples and lands. Toward the east he followed the Armenians and captured Tigranes, the very head of the nation, yet ordered him, as a suppliant, to reign at Artaxata. In the north, following a Scythian road as if by stars at sea, he cut down the Colchians, pardoned Iberia, and spared the Albanians. He ordered Orodes, king of the Colchians, with camp set under Caucasus itself, to come down to level ground; he ordered Artoces, who ruled the Iberians, to give hostages, even his children. He even rewarded Orodes when he sent, of his own accord from his Albania, a golden couch and other gifts.

Nor, when his column turned south, did he fail to carry Roman standards through Lebanon of Syria and Damascus, through those fragrant memorial lands, through forests of incense and balsam. The Arabs were ready if he commanded anything. The Jews tried to defend Jerusalem, but he entered and saw that great secret of an impious people, lying open beneath a golden vine: the Heaven. When brothers were quarrelling over the kingdom, he became arbiter and ordered Hyrcanus to reign; Aristobulus, because he was renewing empire, he gave into chains. Thus, under Pompey's leadership, the Roman people wandered through all Asia in its breadth and made the province which it had held as the farthest one into the middle. Except for the Parthians, who preferred treaty, and the Indians, who did not yet know us, all Asia between the Red Sea, the Caspian, and Ocean was held, subdued or crushed, by Pompey's standards.

Book 1.46 -- The Parthian War

While the Roman people were defeating the Gauls through Caesar in the north, they themselves meanwhile received a grave wound from the Parthians in the east. We cannot complain of fortune; disaster is without consolation. With gods and men against him, the greed of the consul Crassus, while he gaped after Parthian gold, was punished by the slaughter of eleven legions and his own head.

The tribune of the people Metellus had devoted the departing commander to hostile curses; when the army had crossed at Zeugma, the Euphrates, snatching the standards by sudden whirlwinds, swallowed them; and when he had placed camp at Nicephorium, envoys sent by King Orodes warned him to remember the treaties struck with Pompey and Sulla. Gaping after royal treasures, he answered that he would give his response at Seleucia, with no right even imagined. Therefore the gods who avenge treaties did not fail the ambushes or courage of the enemy.

First the Euphrates, which alone could both bring up supplies and protect the rear, was left behind when trust was placed in a certain Mazara, a Syrian pretending to be a deserter. Then, with the same man as guide, the army was led into the middle vastness of the plains, so that it would be exposed to the enemy from every side. And so, when it had scarcely come to Carrhae, the king's commanders Silaces and Surenas showed on every side the standards glittering with gold and silk banners. Then, without delay, cavalry poured around them from every side and, like hail and storms, sent dense missiles all at once. Thus the army was destroyed in miserable slaughter.

Crassus himself, drawn into a conference, would have fallen alive into enemy hands when the sign was given, unless the tribunes, resisting, had forestalled the flight of their commander by barbarian steel. The same men covered the commander's son with missiles almost before his father's eyes. Even so, the severed head became a mockery for the enemy. The remnants of the unlucky army, as flight snatched each man, were scattered into Armenia, Cilicia, and Syria, barely carrying back the news of the disaster. His head, cut off with the right hand, was brought back to the king as a mockery, and not undeservedly. For molten gold was poured into the opening of his mouth, so that the dead and bloodless body of the man whose mind had burned with desire for gold might itself be burned by gold.

Book 2.19 -- The Parthian War under Ventidius

Although Caesar had removed part of the faction in Cassius and Brutus, and in Pompey had abolished the whole name of the faction, he had not yet advanced to the firmness of peace while Antony remained as a rock, knot, and delay to public security. Antony too did not lack vices by which he might perish; rather, having tried everything through ambition and luxury, he freed first the enemy, then the citizens, and finally the age itself from fear.

The Parthians had raised their spirits higher because of the disaster of Crassus and gladly received the civil discords of the Roman people. Therefore, as soon as the first opportunity shone out, they did not hesitate to break forth, invited even by Labienus, who, sent by Cassius and Brutus, what madness of crimes, had solicited the enemy as aid. Under Pacorus, a royal youth as leader, they scattered Antony's garrisons. Saxa, the legate, obtained from his sword that he not come into their power. Finally, when Syria had been taken away, the evil was spreading more widely under the appearance of aid to enemies conquering for themselves, until Ventidius, also one of Antony's legates, with incredible good fortune cut down far and wide between the Orontes and Euphrates the forces of Labienus, Labienus himself, Pacorus, and all the Parthian cavalry. The number was more than twenty thousand. Nor was this without the commander's plan: by feigning fear he allowed the enemy to come so close to the camp that, when the space for shooting had been used up, he took away the use of their arrows. The king fell fighting very bravely. Soon, when his head was carried through the cities which had revolted, Syria was recovered without war. Thus we balanced the disaster of Crassus with the death of Pacorus.

Book 2.20 -- The Parthian War under Antony

After Parthians and Romans had tested one another, when Crassus and Pacorus had each made proof of mutual courage, friendship was renewed with equal respect, and indeed the treaty was struck by Antony himself with the king. But, the man's vanity was boundless: out of desire for titles he longed to have the Araxes and Euphrates read beneath his images, and without cause, without plan, and not even with an imagined declaration of war, as if this too were part of a commander's art, to creep up, he suddenly left Syria and made an attack on the Parthians.

The nation, crafty beyond its confidence in arms, pretends alarm and flight into the plains. Antony at once followed as if victorious, when suddenly no great force of the enemy, unexpectedly and now at evening against men tired by the road, burst out like a cloudburst and with arrows sent from every side covered two legions. Nothing had happened compared with the disaster which threatened for the next day, unless the mercy of the gods had intervened. One man from the disaster of Crassus rode up to the camp in Parthian dress and, after greeting them in Latin and winning trust by his very speech, taught them what threatened: the king would soon be present with all his forces; they should go back and seek the mountains; even so perhaps the enemy would not be absent. And so a smaller force of enemies followed than had threatened; still, they were present.

The remaining forces would have been destroyed if, while missiles pressed upon them like hail, some soldiers, as if instructed by chance, had sunk to their knees and, lifting their shields above their heads, presented the likeness of the slain. Then the Parthian bow held back. Afterward, when the Romans rose again, the thing was so miraculous that one of the barbarians cried out: "Go and farewell, Romans! Deservedly the fame of nations calls you victors, you who have fled the missiles of the Parthians."

Afterward they suffered no less disaster from the road than from the enemy. First the region was hostile with thirst; then certain brackish streams were more hostile; finally even sweet waters, which were now drunk by invalids and those worn down, were harmful. Soon the heats through Armenia and the snows through Cappadocia, and the sudden change of both climates, were like plague. Thus, with scarcely a third part remaining from sixteen legions, with his silver cut everywhere by axes and while he repeatedly begged death from his own gladiator amid delays, the excellent commander nevertheless escaped into Syria, where by an incredible madness of mind he was sometimes made fiercer, as if he had conquered because he had escaped.

Book 2.26 -- The Moesian War

How fierce the Moesi were, how savage, how horrible to tell even among barbarians themselves, may be seen from this. One of their leaders, after asking silence before the battle line, said, "Who are you?" The answer came back in turn: "Romans, lords of nations." And he said, "So it will be, if you defeat us." Marcus Crassus accepted the omen. They immediately sacrificed a horse before the line and conceived a vow that, from the entrails of the slain commanders, they would both sacrifice and feast. I would believe the gods heard them: they could not even endure the trumpets. No small terror was struck into the barbarians by Comicius, a centurion of stupidity barbarous enough, yet effective among such men. Carrying a fire-pan on his helmet, when it was shaken by the motion of his body, he poured out flame as if from a burning head.

Book 2.27 -- The Thracian War

The Thracians had often revolted before, but especially then under King Rhoemetalces. He had accustomed the barbarians to military standards and discipline, even to Roman arms. But when they were completely subdued by Piso, they showed rage in captivity itself; for while trying their chains with their teeth, they punished their own savagery.

Book 2.28 -- The Dacian War

The Dacians cling to mountains. From there, under the rule of King Cotiso, whenever the Danube, hardened by ice, had joined its banks, they used to run down and plunder neighboring lands. Caesar Augustus decided to move away a people difficult to approach. Therefore, when Lentulus was sent, he drove them beyond the farther bank and set garrisons on this side. Thus Dacia was not then conquered, but moved away and deferred.

Book 2.29 -- The Sarmatian War

The Sarmatians ride over open plains. It was enough to keep them too from the Danube by the same Lentulus. They have nothing except snows, frosts, and forests. Their barbarism is so great that they do not even understand peace.

Book 2.34 -- Parthian Peace and Northern Embassies

When all peoples toward the west and south had been pacified, and toward the north too, at least within the Rhine and Danube, and likewise toward the east within the Cyrus and Euphrates, those also who remained outside the empire nevertheless felt its greatness and revered the Roman people as conqueror of nations. For the Scythians too sent envoys, and the Sarmatians sought friendship. The Seres also, and the Indians dwelling under the very sun, bringing gems and pearls and even elephants among their gifts, complained of nothing more than the length of the road; they had spent four years completing it. Yet the very color of the people confessed that they came from another sky. The Parthians too, as if repenting of victory, voluntarily returned the standards taken in the disaster of Crassus. Thus everywhere there was certain and continuous peace or treaty of the whole human race, and at last Caesar Augustus, in the seven hundredth year from the founding of the city, dared to close the twin Janus, which had been closed only twice before him, under King Numa and after Carthage was first conquered.

Then, turning toward peace, he restrained with many grave and severe laws an age inclined to every evil and flowing into luxury. Because of these many great deeds, he was called perpetual dictator and father of the fatherland. It was also discussed in the senate whether, because he had founded the empire, he should be called Romulus. But the name Augustus seemed holier and more reverent, so that already then, while he cultivated the earth, he might be consecrated by the name and title itself.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from selected Latin passages of Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome. The selected sections are Book 1.39, 1.40, 1.46, 2.19, 2.20, 2.26, 2.27, 2.28, 2.29, and 2.34.

The English translation is independently derived from the Latin. No modern English translation was used as the base text.

Compiled for the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Latin

### Book 1.39 -- Bellum Thracicum

Post Macedonas, si dis placet, Thraces rebellabant, illi quondam tributarii Macedonum; nec in proximas modo provincias contenti incurrere, Thessaliam atque Dalmatiam, in Hadriaticum mare usque venerunt; eoque fine contenti, quasi interveniente natura, contorta in ipsas aquas tela miserunt. Nihil interim per id omne tempus residuum crudelitatis fuit in captivos saevientibus: itaque dis sanguine humano, bibere in ossibus capitum, huiuscemodi ludibriis foedare mortem tam igne quam fumo, partus quoque gravidarum mulierum extorquere tormentis. Saevissimi omnium Thracum Scordisci simularum et montium situ cum ingenio consentiebant. Itaque non fusus modo ab his aut fugatus, sed - simile prodigio - omnino totus interceptus exercitus quem duxerat Cato. Didius vagos et libera populatione diffusos intra suam reppulit Thraciam. Drusus ulterius egit et vetuit transire Danuvium. Minucius toto vastavit Hebro, multis quidem amissis, dum per perfidum glacie flumen equitatur. Volso Rhodopen Caucasumque penetravit. Curio Dacia tenus venit, sed tenebras saltuum expavit. Appius in Sarmatas usque pervenit, Lucullus ad terminum gentium Tanain lacumque Maeotin. Nec aliter cruentissimi hostium quam suis moribus domiti. Quippe in captivos igni ferroque saevitum est; sed nihil barbaris atrocius visum est quam quod abscisis manibus relicti vivere superstites poenae suae iubebantur.

### Book 1.40 -- Bellum Mithridaticum

Ponticae gentes a septentrione in sinistrum iacent, a Pontico cognominatae mari. Harum gentium atque regionum rex antiquissimus Aeetas, post Artabaxes, a septem Persis oriundus, inde Mithridates, omnium longe maximus. Quippe cum quattuor Pyrrho, quattuordecim anni Hannibali suffecerint, ille per quadraginta annos restitit, donec tribus ingentibus bellis subactus felicitate Sullae, virtute Luculli, magnitudine Pompei consumeretur.

Causam quidem illius belli praetenderat apud Cassium legatum, adtrectari terminos suos a Nicomede Bithyno; ceterum elatus animis ingentibus Asiae totius, et, si posset, Europae cupiditate flagrabat. Spem ac fiduciam dabant nostra vitia; quippe cum civilibus bellis distringeremur, invitabat occasio, nudumque latus imperi ostendebat procul Marius, Sulla, Sertorius. Inter haec rei publicae volnera et hos tumultus repente quasi captato tempore in lassos simul atque districtos subitus turbo Pontici belli ab ultima veluti specula septentrionis erupit.

Primis statim impetus belli Bithyniam rapuit, Asia inde pari terrore correpta est, nec cunctanter ad regem ab urbibus nostris populisque descitum est. Aderat, instabat, saevitia quasi virtute utebatur. Nam quid atrocius uno eius edicto, cum omnes qui in Asia forent Romanae civitatis homines interfici iussit? Tum quidem domus templa et arae, humana omnia atque divina iura violata sunt. Sed hic terror Asiae Europam quoque regi aperiebat. Itaque missis Archelao Neoptolemoque praefectis, excepta Rhodo, quae pro nobis firmius stetit, ceterae Cyclades, Delos, Euboea et ipsum Graeciae decus Athenae tenebantur. Italiam iam ipsamque urbem Romam regius terror adflabat. Itaque L. Sulla festinat, vir armis optimus, parique violentia ruentem ulterius hostem quadam quasi manu reppulit. Primumque Athenas urbem - quis crederet? - frugum parentem, obsidione ac fame ad humanos cibos compulit; mox subrutus Piraei portus sex aut amplius muris cinctus. Postquam domuerat ingratissimos hominum, tamen, ut ipse dixit, in honorem mortuorum sacris suis famaeque donavit. Mox cum Euboea atque Boeotia praesidia regis dispulisset, omnis copias uno apud Chaeroniam, apud Orchomenon altero bello dissipavit, statimque in Asiam transgressus ipsum opprimit. Et debellatum foret, nis de Mithridate triumphare cito quam vero maluisset. Ac tum quidem hunc Asiae statum Sulla dederat: ictum cum Ponticis foedus, recepit Bithyniam a rege Nicomedes, Ariobarzanes Cappadociam: Asia rursus nostra, ut coeperat, Mithridates tantum repulsus. Itaque non fregit ea res Ponticos, sed incendit. Quippe rex Asia et Europa quodam modo inescatus non iam alienam, sed, quia amiserat, quasi raptam belli iure repetebat. Igitur ut exstincta parum fideliter incendia maiore flamma reviviscunt, ita ille de integro, auctis maiorem in modum copiis, tota denique regni sui mole in Asiam rursus mari terra fluminibusque veniebat.

Cyzicum, nobilis civitas, arce, moenibus, portu turribusque marmoreis Asiaticae plagae litora inlustrat. Hanc ille quasi alteram Romam toto invaserat bello. Sed fiduciam oppidanis resistendi nuntius fecit, docens adventare Lucullum, qui - horribile dictu - per medias hostium naves utre suspensus et pedibus iter adgubernans, videntibus procul quasi marina pristis evaserat. Mox clade conversa, cum ex mora obsidi regem fames et ex fame pestilentia urgeret, recentem Lucullus adsequitur adeoque caedit, ut Granicus et Aesepus amnem cruenti redderentur. Rex callidus Romanaeque avaritiae peritus spargi a fugientibus sarcinas et pecuniam iussit, qua sequentes moraretur.

Nec felicior in mari quam in terra fuga. Quippe centum amplius navium classem adparatu belli gravem in Pontico mari adgressa tempestas tam foeda strage laceravit, ut navalis belli instar efficeret, planeque ut Lucullus quodam cum fluctibus procellisque commercio debellandum tradidisse regem ventis viderentur. Adtritae iam omnes validissimi regni vires erant, sed animus malis augebatur.

Itaque conversus ad proximas gentes totum paene orientem ac septentrionem ruina sua involvit. Hiberni, Caspii, Albani et utraeque sollicitantur Armeniae, per quae omnia decus et nomen et titulos Pompeio suo Fortuna quaerebat. Qui ubi novis motibus ardere Asiam videt aliosque prodire reges, nihil cunctandum ratus, priusquam inter se gentium robora coirent, statim ponte facto omnium ante se primus transit Euphratem regemque fugientem media nactus Armenia - quanta felicitas viri! uno proelio confecit. Nocturna ea dimicatio fuit et luna in partibus. Quippe quasi commilitans cum a ergo se hostibus, a facie Romanis praebuisset, Pontici per errorem longius cadentis umbras suas quasi hostium corpora petebant. Et Mithridates quidem nocte illa debellatus est. Nihil enim postea valuit, quamquam omnia expertus more anguium, qui optrito capite postremum cauda minantur. Quippe cum effugisset hostem Colchis tenus, iungere Bosporon, inde per Thraciam Macedoniamque et Graeciam transilire, sic Italiam nec opinatus invadere tantum cogitavit! Sed defectione civium Pharnacisque fili scelere praeventus male temptatum veneno spiritum ferro expulit.

Gnaeus interim Magnus rebellis Asiae reliquias sequens per diversa gentium terrarumque volitabat. Nam sub orientem secutus Armenios, capit, ipso capite gentis, Artaxatis supplicem iussit regnare Tigranen. At in septentrione Scythicum iter tamquam in mari stellis secutus Colchos cecidit, ignovit Hiberniae, pepercit Albanis. Regem colchorum Orodem, positis sub ipso Caucaso castris, iussit in plana descendere, at Artocen, qui Hibernis imperabat, et obsides liberos dare; Oroden etiam remuneratus est, ultro ab Albania sua lectum aureum et alia dona mittentem. Nec non et in meridiem verso agmine Libanum Syriae Damascumque transgressus per memoria illa odorata, per turis et balsami silvas Romana circumtulit signa. Arabes, si quid imperaret, praesto fuere. Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum. Dissidentibusque de regno fratribus arbiter factus regnare iussit Hyrcanum; Aristobulum, quia renovabat imperium, in catenas dedit. Sic Pompeio duce populus totam, qua latissima est, Asiam pervagatus, quam extremam imperii habebat provinciam mediam fecit. Exceptis quippe Parthis, qui foedus maluerunt, et Indis, qui adhuc nos nec noverant, omnis Asia inter rubrum et Caspium et Oceanum Pompeianis domita vel oppressa signis tenebatur.

### Book 1.46 -- Bellum Parthicum

Dum Gallos per Caesarem in septentrione debellat, ipse interim ad orientem grave volnus a Parthis populus Romanus accepit. Nec de fortuna queri possumus; caret solacio clades. Adversis et dis et hominibus cupiditas consulis Crassi, dum Parthico inhiat auro, undecim strage legionum et ipsius capite multata est. Et tribunus plebi Metellus exeuntem ducem hostilibus Diris devoverat, et cum Zeugma transisset exercitus, rapta subitis signa turbinibus hausit Euphrates, et cum apud Nicephorium castra posuisset, missi ab Orode rege legati denuntiave, percussorum cum Pompeio foederum Sullaque meminisset. Regiis inhians ille thensauris, nihil ne imaginario quidem iure, sed Seleuciae se responsurum esse respondit. Itaque dii foederum ultores nec insidiis nec virtuti hostium defuerunt. Iam primum, qui solus et subvehere commeatus et munire poterat a tergo relictus Euphrates, dum simulato transfugae cuidam Mazarae Syro creditur. Tum in mediam camporum vastitatem eodem duce ductus exercitus, ut undique hosti exponeretur. Itaque vixdum venerat Carrhas, cum undique praefecti regis Silaces et Surenas ostendere signa auro sericisque vexillis vibrantia. Tunc sine mora circumfusi undique equitatus in modum grandinis atque nimborum densa pariter tela fuderunt. Sic miserabili strage deletus exercitus. Ipse in conloquium sollicitatus, signo dato vivus in hostium manus incidisset, nisi tribunis reluctantibus fugam ducis barbari ferro occupassent. Filium ducis paene in conspectu patris idem telis operuerunt. Sic quoque relatum* caput ludibrio hostibus fuit. Reliquiae infelicis exercitus, quo quemque rapuit fuga, in Armeniam, Ciliciam Syriamque distractae, vix nuntium cladis rettulerunt. Caput eius recisum cum dextera manu ad regem reportatum ludibrio fuit, neque indigne. Aurum enim liquidum in rictum oris infusum est, ut cuius animus arserat auri cupiditate, eius etiam mortuum et exsangue corpus auro ureretur.

### Book 2.19 -- Bellum Parthicum sub Ventidio

Quamvis in Cassio et Bruto parte sustulisset, in Pompeio totum partium nomen abolevisset, nondum tamen ad pacis stabilitatem profecerat Caesar, cum scopulus et nodus et mora publicae securitatis superesset Antonius. Nec ille defuit vitiis quin periret, immo omnia expertus ambitu et luxuria primum hostem, deinde cives, tandem etiam terrore saeculum liberavit.

Parthi clade Crassiana altius animos erexerat civilesque populi Romani discordias laeti acceperant. Itaque ut prima adfulsit occasio, non dubitaverunt et erumpere, ultro quidem invitante Labieno, qui missus a Cassio Brutoque - qui furor scelerum! - sollicitaverat hostes in auxilium. Et illi Pacoro, duce, regio iuvene, dispulerant Antoniana praesidia; Saxa legatus ne veniret in potestatem a gladio impetravit. Denique, ablata Syria, emanabat latius malus hostibus sub auxilii specie sib vincentibus, nisi Ventidius, et hic legatos Antonii, incredibili felicitate et Labieni copias ipsumque Pacorum et omnem Parthicum equitatum toto inter Oronten et Euphraten sinu late cecidisset. Viginti amplius milium fuit. Nec sine consilio ducis, qui simulato metu adeo passus est hostem castris succedere, donec absumpto iactus spatio adimeret usum sagittarum. Rex fortissime dimicans cecidit. Mox circumlato eius per urbes, quae desciverant, capite Syria sine bello recepta. Sic Crassianam cladem Pacori caede pensavimus.

### Book 2.20 -- Bellum Parthicum sub Antonio

Expertis invicem Parthis atque Romanis, cum Crassus et Pacorus utrimque virum mutuarum documenta fecissent, pari rursus reverentia integrata amicitia, et quidem ab ipso foedus Antonio cum rege percussum. Sed - immensa vanitas hominis - domus titulorum cupidine Araxen et Euphraten sub imaginibus suis legi concupiscit, neque causa neque consilio ac ne imaginaria quidem belli indictione, quasi hoc quoque ex arte ducis esset obrepere, relicta repente Syria in Parthos impetum fecit. Gens praeter armorum fiduciam callida simulat trepidationem et in campos fugam. Et hic statim quasi victor sequebatur, cum subito nec magna hostium manus ex improviso et iam in fessos via sub vespere velut nimbus erupit et missis undique sagittis duas legiones operuerunt. Nihil acciderat in comparationem cladis, quae in posterum diem inminebat, nisi intervenisset deum miseratio. Vnus ex clade Crassiana Parthico habitu castris adequitat et salute Latine data, cum fidem ipso sermone fecisset, quid inmineret edocuit: iam adfuturum cum omnibus copiis regem; irent retro peteremque montis; sic quoque hostem fortasse non defore. Atque ita secuta est minor vis hostium quam inminebat; adfuit tamen. Deletae reliquiae copiae forent, nisi urgentibus telis in modum grandinis quidam forte quasi docti procubuissent in genua milites, et elatis supra capita secutis caesorum speciem praebuissent. Tunc Parthus arcus inhibuit. Dein rursus cum se Romani extulissent, adeo res miraculo fuit, ut unus ex barbaris miserit vocem: "Ite et bene valete, Romani! Merito vos victores fama gentium loquitur, qui Parthorum tela fugistis." Non minor ex via postea quam ab hostibus accepta clades. Infesta primum siti regio, tum quibusdam salmacidae [fluvius] infestiores, novissime quae iam ab invalidis et audite hauriebantur noxiae etiam dulces fuere. Mox et ardores per Armeniam et nives per Cappadociam et utriusque caeli subita mutatio pro pestilentia fuit. Sic vix tertia parte de sedecim legionibus reliqua, cum argentum eius passim dolabris concideretur, et subinde inter moras mortem ab gladiatore suo flagitasset egregius imperator, tamen perfugit in Syriam, ubi incredibili quadam mentis vecordia ferocior aliquando factus est, quasi vicisset, qui evaserat.

### Book 2.26 -- Bellum Moesum

Moeni quam feri, quam truces fuerint, quam ipsorum etiam barbari barbarorum horribile dictu est. Vnus ducum ante aciem postulato silentio: "Qui vos estis?", inquit, responsum invicem: "Romani gentium domini". Et ille "ita" inquit "fiet, si nos viceritis". Accepit omen Marcus Crassus. Illi statim ante aciem inmolato equo concepere votum, ut caesorum extis ducum et litarent et vescerentur. Deos audisse crediderim: nec tubas sustinere potuerunt. Non minimum terroris incussit barbaris Comicius centurio satis barbarae, efficacis tamen apud tales homines stoliditatis, qui foculum gerens super cassidem, agitatum motu corporis, flamman velut ardenti capite funditabat.

### Book 2.27 -- Bellum Thracicum

Thraces antea saepe, tum maxime Rhoemetalce rege desciverant. Ille barbaros et signis militaribus et disciplina, armis etiam Romanis adsueverat; sed a Pisone perdomiti in ipsa captivitate rabiem ostendere. Quippe cum catenas morsibus temptaret, feritatem suam ipsi puniebat.

### Book 2.28 -- Bellum Dacicum

Daci montibus inhaerent. Inde Cotisonis regis imperio, quotiens concretus gelu Danuvius iunxerat ripas, decurrere solebant et vicina populari. Visum est Caesari Augusto gentem aditu difficilem summovere. Misso igitur Lentulo ultra ulteriorem perpulit ripam; citra praesidia constituta. Sic tum Dacia non victa, sed summota atque dilata est.

### Book 2.29 -- Bellum Sarmaticum

Sarmatae patentibus campis inequitant. Et hos per eundem Lentulum prohibere Danuvio satis fuit. Nihil praeter nives pruinasque et silvas habent. Tanta barbaria est, ut nec intellegant pacem.

### Book 2.34 -- Pax Parthorum et legationes septentrionales

Omnibus ad occasum et meridiem pacatis gentibus ad septentrionem quoque, dumtaxat intra Rhenum atque Danuvium, item ad orientem intra Cyrum et Euphraten, illi quoque reliqui, qui inmunes imperii erant, sentiebant tamen magnitudinem et victorem gentium populum Romanum reverebantur. Nam et Scythae misere legatos et Sarmatae amicitiam petentes. Seres etiam habitantesque sub ipso sole Indi, cum gemmis et margaritis elephantos quoque inter munera trahentes, nihil magis quam longinquitatem viae inputabant - quadriennium inpleverant; et tamen ipse hominum color ab alio venire caelo fatebatur. Parthi quoque, quasi victoriae paeniteret, rapta clade Crassiana signa ultro rettulere. Sic ubique certa atque continua totius generis humanis aut pax fuit aut pactio, aususque tandem Caesar Augustus septingentesimo ab urbe condita anno Ianum geminum cludere, bis ante se clusum sub Numa rege et victa primum Carthagine.

Hinc conversus ad pacem pronum in omnia mala et in luxuriam fluens saeculum gravibus severisque legibus multis coercuit, ob haec tot facta ingentia dictator perpetuus et pater patriae. Tractatum etiam in senatu an, quia condidisset imperium, Romulus vocarentur; sed sanctius et reverentius visum est nomen Augusti, ut scilicet iam tum, dum colit terras, ipso nomine et titulo consecraretur.

Source Colophon

The Latin source body was extracted from the local Florus source dossier and copied for this translation pass at Tulku/Tools/scythian/sources/expansion_bench_2026-05-11/florus_northern_eastern_latin_source_manual75.txt.

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