Lucullus

When Tigranes had crossed the Taurus, deployed with all his forces, and looked down upon the Roman army investing Tigranocerta, the throng of Barbarians in the city greeted his appearance with shouts and din, and standing on the walls, threateningly pointed out the Armenians to the Romans.

When Lucullus held a council of war, some of his officers advised him to give up the siege and lead his army against Tigranes; others urged him not to leave so many enemies in his rear, and not to remit the siege. Whereupon, remarking that each counsel by itself was bad, but both together were good, he divided his army. Murena, with six thousand footmen, he left behind in charge of the siege; while he himself, with twenty-four cohorts, comprising no more than ten thousand heavy infantry, and all the horsemen, slingers, and archers, to the number of about a thousand, set out against the enemy.

When he had encamped along the river in a great plain, he appeared utterly insignificant to Tigranes, and supplied the king’s flatterers with ground for amusement. Some mocked at the Romans, and others, in pleasantry, cast lots for their spoil, while each of the generals and kings came forward and begged that the task of conquering them might be entrusted to himself alone, and that the king would sit by as a spectator.

Then Tigranes, not wishing to be left behind entirely in this play of wit and scoffing, uttered that famous saying: If they are come as ambassadors, they are too many; if as soldiers, too few. And so for the while they continued their sarcasms and jests. But at daybreak Lucullus led out his forces under arms. Now, the Barbarian army lay to the east of the river. But as the stream takes a turn to the west at the point where it was easiest to ford, and as Lucullus led his troops to the attack in that direction first, and with speed, he seemed to Tigranes to be retreating.

So he called Taxiles and said, with a laugh, Don’t you see that the invincible Roman hoplites are taking to flight? O King, said Taxiles, I could wish that some marvellous thing might fall to your good fortune; but when these men are merely on a march, they do not put on shining raiment, nor have they their shields polished and their helmets uncovered, as now that they have stripped the leathern coverings from their armour. Nay, this splendour means that they are going to fight, and are now advancing upon their enemies.

While Taxiles was yet speaking, the first eagle came in sight, as Lucullus wheeled towards the river, and the cohorts were seen forming in maniples with a view to crossing. Then at last, as though coming out of a drunken stupor, Tigranes cried out two or three times, Are the men coming against us? And so, with much tumult and confusion, his multitude formed in battle array, the king himself occupying the centre, and assigning the left wing to the king of the Adiabeni, the right to the king of the Medes. In front of this wing also the greater part of the mail-clad horsemen were drawn up.

As Lucullus was about to cross the river, some of his officers advised him to beware of the day, which was one of the unlucky days—the Romans call them black days. For on that day Caepio and his army perished in a battle with the Cimbri.[*](B.C. 105. Cf. Camillus, xix. 7. ) But Lucullus answered with the memorable words: Verily, I will make this day, too, a lucky one for the Romans. Now the day was the sixth of October.