Dion Cassius (40. c. 17, &c.) gives the story of the passage of the river. The eagle, according to him, was very obstinate. It stuck fast in the ground, as if it was planted there; and when it was forced up by the soldiers, it went along very unwillingly.
The Roman eagle was fixed at one end of a long shaft of wood, which had a sharp point at the other end for the purpose of fixing it in the ground. The eagle was gold, or gilded metal; and, according to Dion Cassius, it was kept in a small moveable case or consecrated chapel. The eagle was not moved from the winter encampment, unless the whole army was put in motion. The Vexilla ([Greek: sêmeia] σημεῖα of the Greek writers) were what we call the colours.
(See the note of Reimarus on Dion Cassius, 40. c. 18.)]
[Footnote 67: Dion Cassius (40. c. 20), who tells the story, names the man Augarus. See the note of Reimarus.]
[Footnote 68: This is the translation of Plutarch's word [Greek: pelatês] πελάτης, which word [Greek: pelatês] πελάτης is used by the Greek writers on Roman history to express the Latin Cliens. It is not here supposed that Parthian clients were the same as Roman clients; but as Plutarch uses the word to express a certain condition among the Parthians, which was not that of slavery, it is proper to retain his word in the translation.]
[Footnote 69: This "very Hyrodes" and his brother Mithridates are said to have murdered their father Arsakes XII. Phraates III., who is spoken of in the Life of Lucullus. The two brothers quarrelled. Mithridates is mentioned by some authorities as the immediate successor of his father under the title of Arsakes XIII. Mithridates III. Mithridates was besieged in Babylon by Hyrodes; and Mithridates, after surrendering to his brother, was put to death. (Dion Cassius, 39. c. 56; Appian, _On the Affairs of Syria_, c. 51; Justinus, xlii. 4.)]
[Footnote 70: This river is probably the same as the Bilecha, now the Belejik, a small stream which joins the Euphrates on the left bank at Racca, the old Nikephorium. This river is mentioned by Isidorus of Charax and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. c. 3), who calls it Belias.]
[Footnote 71: Plutarch seems to mean something like drums furnished with bells or rattles; but his description is not very clear, and the passage may be rendered somewhat differently from what I have rendered it: "but they have instruments to beat upon ([Greek: rhoptra] ῥόπτρα), made of skin, and hollow, which they stretch round brass sounders" ([Greek: êcheiois] ἠχείοις, whatever the word may mean here). The word [Greek: rhoptron] ῥόπτρον properly means a thing to strike with; but it seems to have another meaning here. (See Passow's _Greek Lexicon_.) The context seems to show that a drum is meant.]