They forthwith proceeded to carry into effect the compact that had been made at Luca. They induced the Tribune C. Trebonius to bring forward two bills, one of which gave the province of the two Spains to Pompey, and that of Syria to Crassus; the other prolonged Caesar's government for five years more, namely, from the 1st of January, B.C. 53, to the end of the year 49. Pompey was now at the head of the state; and at the expiration of his year of office would no longer be a private man, but with the command of an army and in possession of the imperium. With an army he felt sure of regaining his former influence. He had now completed the theatre which he had been some time building, and, as a means of regaining the popular favor, he resolved to open it with an exhibition of games of unparalleled splendor and magnificence. The building itself was worthy of the conqueror of the East. It was the first stone theatre that had been erected at Rome, and was sufficiently large to accommodate 40,000 spectators. The games exhibited lasted many days. Five hundred African lions and eighteen elephants were killed. A rhinoceros was likewise exhibited on this occasion for the first time. Pompey sent an army into Spain under the command of his lieutenants, L. Afranius and M. Petreius, while he himself remained in the neighborhood of Rome as Proconsul. Before the end of the year Crassus set out for Syria, with the intention of attacking the Parthians. He was anxious to distinguish himself in war, like Pompey and Caesar, and, though upward of sixty years of age, he chose rather to enter upon an undertaking for which he had no genius than to continue the pursuit of wealth and influence at home. He crossed the Euphrates in B.C. 54, but, hesitating to proceed at once against Parthia, he gave the enemy time to assemble his forces, and returned to Syria without accomplishing any thing of importance. He spent the winter in Syria, where, instead of exercising his troops and preparing for the ensuing campaign, he plundered the temples, and employed his time in collecting money from every quarter. In the following spring (B.C. 53) he again crossed the Euphrates, and plunged into the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia. He trusted to the guidance of an Arabian chieftain, who promised to lead him by the shortest way to the enemy. But this man was in the pay of Surenas, the Parthian general; and when he had brought the Romans into the open plains of Mesopotamia, he seized a frivolous pretext, and rode off to inform Surenas that the Roman army was delivered into his hands. The Parthians soon appeared. They worried the densely-marshaled Romans with showers of arrows; and by feigned retreats, during which they continued to discharge their arrows, they led the Romans into disadvantageous positions. The son of Crassus, who had distinguished himself as one of Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul, was slain, and the Romans, after suffering great loss, retreated to Carrhae,