[-25-] By such words Labienus persuaded Orodes to wage war and the king entrusted to him a large force and his son Pacorus, and with them invaded Phoenicia.  They marched to Apamea and were repulsed from the wall, but won over the garrisons in the country without resistance.  These had belonged to the troops that followed Brutus and Cassius.  Antony had incorporated them in his own forces and at this time had assigned them to garrison Syria because they knew the country.  So Labienus easily won over these men, since they were well acquainted with, him, all except Saxa, their temporary leader.  He was a brother of the general and was quaestor, and hence he alone refused to join the Parthian invaders.  Saxa the general was conquered in a set battle through the numbers and ability of the cavalry, and when later by night he made a dash from his entrenchments to get away, he was pursued.  His flight was due to his fear that his associates might take up with the cause of Labienus, who labored to prevail upon them by shooting various pamphlets into the camp.  Labienus took possession of these men and slew the greater part, then captured Apamea, which no longer resisted when Saxa had fled into Antioch, since he was believed to be dead; he later captured Antioch, which the fugitive had abandoned, and at last, pursuing him in his flight into Cilicia, seized the man himself and killed him. [-26-] Upon his death Pacorus made himself master of Syria and subjugated all of it except Tyre.  This city the Romans that survived and the natives who sided with them had occupied in advance, and neither persuasion nor force (for Pacorus had no fleet) could prevail against them.  They accordingly remained secure from capture.  The rest Pacorus gained and then invaded Palestine, where he removed from office Hyrcanus, to whom the affairs of the district had been entrusted by the Romans, and set up his brother Aristobulus[45] as ruler instead because of the enmity existing between them.  Meantime Labienus had occupied Cilicia and had obtained the allegiance of the cities of the mainland except Stratonicea; Plancus in fear of him had crossed over to the islands:  most of these towns he took without conflict, but Mylasa and Alabanda with great peril.  These cities had accepted garrisons from him, but murdered them on the occasion of a festival and revolted.  For this he himself punished the people of Alabanda when he had captured it, and razed to the ground Mylasa, abandoned by the dwellers there.  Stratonicea he besieged for a long time, but was unable to capture it in any way.

In satisfaction of the defections mentioned he continued to levy money and rob the temples; and he named himself imperator and Parthicus,—­the latter being quite the opposite of the Roman custom, in that he took his title from those he had led against his countrymen:  whereas regularly it would imply that he had conquered the Parthians instead of citizens. [-28-] Antony kept hearing of these operations as he did of whatever else