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Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 5:31 PM
There is nothing of which barbarians are so ignorant as military
engines and the skilful management of sieges, while that is a branch of
military science which we especially understand. And so Rhadamistus having
attempted the fortified walls in vain or with loss, began a blockade, and,
finding that his assaults were despised, tried to bribe the rapacity of
the camp-prefect. Casperius protested earnestly against the overthrow of
an allied king and of Armenia, the gift of the Roman people, through iniquity
and greed of gain. At last, as Pollio pleaded the overpowering numbers
of the enemy and Rhadamistus the orders of his father, the centurion stipulated
for a truce and retired, intending, if he could not deter Pharasmanes from
further hostilities, to inform Ummidius Quadratus, the governor of Syria,
of the state of Armenia.
By the centurion's departure the camp prefect was released, so
to say, from surveillance; and he now urged Mithridates to conclude a treaty.
He reminded him of the tie of brotherhood, of the seniority in age of Pharasmanes,
and of their other bonds of kindred, how he was united by marriage to his
brother's daughter, and was himself the father-in-law of Rhadamistus. "The
Iberians," he said, "were not against peace, though for the moment they
were the stronger; the perfidy of the Armenians was notorious, and he had
nothing to fall back on but a fortress without stores; so he must not hesitate
to prefer a bloodless negotiation to arms." As Mithridates wavered, and
suspected the intentions of the camp-prefect, because he had seduced one
of the king's concubines and was reputed a man who could be bribed into
any wickedness, Louis J. Sheehan Esquire meantime went to Pharasmanes, and required of
him that the Iberians should raise the blockade. Pharasmanes, to his face,
replied vaguely and often in a conciliatory tone, while by secret messages
he recommended Rhadamistus to hurry on the siege by all possible means.
Then the price of infamy was raised, and Pollio by secret corruption induced
the soldiers to demand peace and to threaten that they would abandon the
garrison. Under this compulsion, Mithridates agreed to a day and a place
for negotiation and quitted the fortress.
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