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19Now Crassus, trying to encourage them, said: “Be not alarmed, soldiers, because the bridge has been destroyed nor think because of this that any disaster is portended. 2For I declare to you upon oath that I have decided to make my return march through Armenia.” By this he would have emboldened them, had he not added in a loud voice the words: “Be of good cheer; for none of us shall come back this way.” 3When they heard this, the soldiers deemed that it had been an omen for them as great as the others, and they fell into greater discouragement; and so it was that they paid no heed to the remainder of his exhortation, in which he belittled the barbarian and glorified the Roman state, offered them money and announced prizes for valour. 4Still, even as it was, they followed and no one said a word or did anything to oppose him, partly, perhaps, out of regard for the law, but also because by this time they were terrified and could neither plan nor carry out any measures of safety. At any rate, in all else that they did also, as if predestined to ruin by some divinity, they were helpless in both mind and body.
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