many distinguished Parthians. His name occurs again in Plutarch's Life
of Antonius. Phraates delivered up to Augustus, B.C. 20, the Roman
soldiers, eagles, and standards which had been taken by Crassus; an
event which is commemorated by extant medals, and was recorded by
Augustus among his other exploits in the Monumentum Ancyranum.]

[Footnote 99: This is the Greek word ([Greek: akoniton] ὰκόνιτον): the
same name is now given to Monkshood or Wolfsbane, a genus of
Ranunculaceae. Aconite is now used as a medicine; "The best forms are
either an alcoholic extract of the leaves, or an alcoholic tincture of
the root made by displacement." It is a poisonous plant, and death has
followed from the careless use of it ("Aconite," _Penny Cyclopædia_
and _Supplement_ to the _P. Cyc._).

With this farce, as Plutarch remarks, the history of Crassus
terminates. If Plutarch designed to make Crassus contemptible, he has
certainly succeeded. And there is nothing in other authorities to
induce us to think that he has done Crassus injustice. With some good
qualities and his moderate abilities, he might have been a respectable
man in a private station. But insatiable avarice, and that curse of
many men, ambition without the ability that can ensure success and
command respect, made Crassus a fool in his old age, and brought him
to an ignominious end.]




COMPARISON OF NIKIAS AND CRASSUS.