In those same days the pirates, scattered over every sea, and now not merely intercepting the supplies carried by ships but also laying waste islands and provinces, were growing beyond all measure, as men flocked to join them everywhere through the impunity of crime and greed for plunder. Pompey crushed them — after much devastation, indeed, which they had long wrought by land and sea, but nevertheless with wonderful speed.
1 Isdem diebus piratae per omnia sparsi maria et iam non tantum intercipientes nauium commeatus sed etiam insulas prouinciasque uastantes, inpunitate sceleris et auiditate praedae uulgo sese adsociantibus in inmensum augebantur: quos Cn. Pompeius post multam quidem uastationem, quam terra marique diu egerant, mira tamen celeritate conpressit.
At the same time Metellus overthrew the island of Crete over a period of two years, brought it under Roman power, tamed by a long war, and exchanged the laws of Minos for Roman laws.
2 Eodem tempore Cretam insulam per biennium Metellus euertit diuturnoque bello domitam in potestatem redegit legesque Minois Romanis legibus permutauit.
Afterwards Pompey, the successor of Lucullus, shut the king’s camp in by siege in Lesser Armenia near Mount Dastracus. The king made a sally by night with all his forces and resolved, moreover, to beat off his pursuer in battle. Pompey set himself to pursue the fugitives. And so battle was joined by night.
3 Pompeius postea, successor Luculli, in minore Armenia iuxta montem Dastracum castra regis obsidione conclusit. rex cum omnibus copiis eruptione per noctem facta, insuper etiam persequentem bello repellere statuit. Pompeius fugientes persequi intendit. itaque bellum nocte commissum est.
The moon had then risen behind the Romans. The king’s men, taking the length of the shadows for the nearness of the enemy, poured out all their missiles to no effect. The Romans, attacking afterwards men who were as good as unarmed, conquered without effort.
4 luna tunc orta a tergo Romanis erat. regii longitudinem umbrarum proximitatem hostium rati cuncta in inritum tela fuderunt. Romani ueluti inermes postea adgressi sine labore uicerunt.
For of the royal army forty thousand were slain or captured; of the Romans a thousand were wounded, but scarcely forty killed.
5 namque de exercitu regio XL milia caesa uel capta sunt, Romani uulnerati mille, uix autem quadraginta interfecti.
The king slipped away in flight amid the tumult of battle and, aided too by the favour of a dimly lit night, escaped; deserted by all his friends — philosophers, writers of histories and of poems, and physicians — alone, leading his horse by hand through trackless country and trembling at every sound of the night, he turned aside into a certain fort, and from there went on into Armenia.
6 rex inter tumultus belli fuga lapsus, adiutus etiam beneficio sublustris noctis euasit, relictusque ab omnibus amicis philosophis scriptoribus rerum uel carminum ac medicis solus per deuia equum manu trahens atque ad omnes nocturnos strepitus trepidans, in quoddam castellum deuertit atque inde in Armeniam perrexit.
Pompey, intending to pursue the king, founded the city of Nicopolis, with old men, camp-followers and the sick who were willing, between two rivers which rise from one mountain in different caverns, that is, the Euphrates and the Araxes.
7 Pompeius regem insecuturus inter duo flumina, quae ab uno monte diuersis specubus exoriuntur, hoc est Euphraten et Araxen, urbem Nicopolim senibus, lixis et aegris uolentibus condidit.
He granted pardon to Tigranes at his entreaty; he defeated the army of Oroeses, king of the Albanians, and his prefects three times in battle; afterwards he gladly accepted letters and gifts from Oroeses for restoring peace with the Albanians; he routed Artaces, king of Hiberia, in war and received all Hiberia in surrender.1
8 oranti Tigrani ueniam dedit; exercitum Horodis Albanorum regis praefectosque eius ter proelio uicit; postea epistulas Horodis et munera pro pace cum Albanis instauranda libenter accepit; Artacem regem Hiberiae bello fudit totamque Hiberiam in deditionem accepit.
1Oroeses, king of the Albanians of the eastern Caucasus; Orosius calls him Horodes, the name of the Parthian king Orodes (6.13). Hiberia is Caucasian Iberia (eastern Georgia), not Spain.
Then, having settled Armenia, the Colchians, Cappadocia and Syria by setting their affairs in order, he advanced from Pontus into Parthia, and on the fiftieth day came to Ecbatana, the capital of the Parthian kingdom.2
9 inde, cum Armeniam Colchos Cappadociam et Syriam ordinatis rebus conposuisset, promouens de Ponto in Parthiam ad Ecbatanam urbem caput Parthici regni quinquagensimo die uenit.
2Pompey never invaded Parthia or reached Ecbatana; after the Caucasus he turned south into Syria and Judaea.