with law, because he was commander:  but they voted them also to Ventidius, since they thought that he had paid the Parthians in full through the death of Pacorus for the disasters that Roman arms had incurred in the time of Crassus, especially since both events had befallen on the same day of the corresponding years.  And it turned out that Ventidius alone celebrated the triumph, even as the victory had been his alone, for Antony met an untimely fate, and he acquired a greater reputation from this fact and the irony of fortune alike.  He himself had once marched in procession with the other captives at the triumph of Pompeius Strabo, and now he was the first of the Romans to celebrate a triumph over the Parthians.

[-22-] This took place at a later period:  at the time mentioned Antony attacked Antiochus, shut him up in Samosata and proceeded to besiege him.  As he accomplished nothing and the time was spent in vain, and he suspected that the soldiers felt coldly toward him on account of his dishonoring Ventidius, he secretly opened negotiations with the foe, and made fictitious agreements with him so that he might have a fair appearing reason for withdrawal.  In the end Antony got neither hostages (except two and these of little importance) nor the money which he had demanded, but he granted Antiochus the death of one Alexander, who had earlier deserted from him to the Roman side.  After doing this he set out for Italy, and Gaius Sosius received from him the governorship of Syria and Cilicia.  This man subdued the Aradii, who had been besieged up to this time and had been reduced to hard straits by famine and disease, and conquered Antigonus in battle after killing the Roman guards that he kept about him, and reduced him by siege when he took refuge in Jerusalem.  The Jews had committed many outrages upon the Romans,—­for the race is very bitter when aroused to anger,—­but they suffered far more themselves.  The first of them were captured fighting for the precinct of their god, and later the rest on the day even then called the day of Saturn.  And so great still were their religious scruples that the men who had been first captured along with the temple obtained leave from Sosius when the day of Saturn came around again, and went up with the remaining population into the building, where they performed all the customary rites.  These people Antony entrusted to one Herod to govern, and Antigonus he bound to a cross and flogged,—­treatment accorded to no other king by the Romans,—­and subsequently slew him.

[B.C. 37 (a. u. 717)]

[-23-] This was the course of events in the days of Claudius and Norbanus:  the following year the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note in Syria.  Antony arrived in Italy and returned again to the province, consuming the entire season:  and Sosius, because he would be advancing his master’s interests and not his own, and furthermore dreading his jealousy and anger, spent the time in devising means not for