And when the season was now sunny, he set out on the fifth of March, and came by the usual route to Hierapolis.Cf. xxi. 13, 8. There, as he was entering the gates of the great city, a colonnade on his left suddenly collapsed and crushed with a great weight of timbers and tiles fifty soldiers who were encamped under it, besides wounding many more.

Then, uniting all his forces, he marched to Mesopotamia so rapidly that, since no report of his coming had preceded him (for he had carefully guarded against that), he came upon the Assyrians unawares. Finally, having crossed the Euphrates on a bridge of boats, he arrived with his army and his Scythian auxiliaries at Batnae,Cf. xiv. 3, 3. a town of Osdroëne, where he met with a sad portent.

For when a great throng of ostlers, in order to get fodder as usual, had taken their place near a very high stack of chaff (such as are commonly constructed in that country), since many at once laid hold on what they wanted, the heap was broken and gave way, and fifty men at once met death by being buried under the huge mass that fell upon them.

Departing from there in sorrow, by a forced march he came to Carrae, an ancient town, notorious for the disaster of the Crassi and the Roman army.Marcus Crassus, the triumvir, and his son Publius in 53 B.C.; cf. Florus, i. 46, 11, etc. From there two different royal highways lead to Persia: the one on the left through Adiabene and over the Tigris; the other, on the right, through Assyria and across the Euphrates.