Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/207

ANTONY. ]99 punishment he should please to inflict upon them, only entreating that he would forget and not discompose him- self with their faults. At which he lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed the gods, that if to balance the great favors he had received of them any judgment lay in store, they would pour it upon his head alone, and grant his soldiers victory. The next day they took better order for their marcli, and the Parthians, who thought they were marching rather to plunder than to fight, were much taken aback, when they came up and were received with a shower of missiles, to find the enemy not disheartened, but fresh and resolute. So that they themselves began to lose courage. But at the descent of a hill where the Romans were obliged to pass, they got together, and let fly their arrows upon them as they moved slowly down. But the full-armed infantry, facing round, received the light troops within ; and those in the first rank knelt on one knee, holding their shields before them, the next rank holdino- theirs over the first, and so again others over these, much like the tiling of a house, or the rows of seats in a theatre, the whole affording sure defence against arrows, which glance upon them without doing any harm. The Par- thians, seeing the Romans down upon their knees, could not imagine but that it must proceed from weariness ; so that they laid down their bows, and, taking their spears, made a fierce onset, when the Romans, with a great cry, leapt upon their feet, striking hand to hand with their javelins, slew the foremost, and put the rest to flight After this rate it was every day, and the trouble they gave made the marches short ; in addition to which famine began to be felt in the camp, for they coidd get but little com, and that which they got they were forced to fight for ; and, besides this, they were in want of implements to grind it and make bread. For they had left almost all