To attack an enemy whose main arm is the cavalry with a body of foot-soldiers, supported by an insignificant number of horse, must be at all times rash and dangerous.

To direct such an attack on the more open part of the country, where cavalry could operate freely, was wantonly to aggravate the peril.

After the first disaster, to quit the protection of walls, when it had been obtained, was a piece of reckless folly.

Had Crassus taken care to obtain the support of some of the desert tribes, if Armenia could not help him, and had he then advanced either by the way of the Mons Masius and the Tigris, or along the line of the Euphrates, the issue of his attack might have been different.

He might have fought his way to Seleucia and Ctesiphon, as did Trajan, Avidius Cassius, and Septimius Severas, and might have taken and plundered those cities.