He therefore, with a gallantry and boldness that we cannot sufficiently admire--a boldness that seemed like rashness, but was in reality prudence--without calculating too closely the immediate chances of battle, led his troops against one of the most forward of the advancing tribes.

But fortune, unhappily, was adverse.

How the battle was progressing we are not told; but it appears that in the thick of an engagement Artabanus received a wound in the forearm, from the effects of which he died almost immediately.

The death of the leader decides in the East, almost to a certainty, the issue of a contest.

We cannot doubt that the Parthians, having lost their monarch, were repulsed; that the expedition failed; and that the situation of affairs became once more at least as threatening as it had been before Artabanus made his attempt.