Note 52 — Chapter II
Reading edition
We remember the scorn with which Horace has treated the Roman soldier whom he supposes to have consented to accept both his life and a spouse from the Parthian conqueror:
Milesne Crassi conjuge barbara Turpis maritus vixit?—Ode iii., 5.
It has been calculated that of 40,000 legionaries half were killed, 10,000 returned to Syria, and that 10,000 settled themselves in the country we now know as Merv.