While Cicero was busy with the condition of his province; his attention was distracted by what we may call a Parthian “scare.”  The whole army of this people was said to have crossed the Euphrates under the command of Pacorus, the king’s son.  The governor of Syria had not yet arrived.  The second in command had shut himself up with all his troops in Antioch.  Cicero marched into Cappadocia, which bordered the least defensible side of Cilicia, and took up a position at the foot of Mount Taurus.  Next came news that Antioch was besieged.  On hearing this he broke up his camp, crossed the Taurus range by forced marches, and occupied the passes into Syria.  The Parthians raised the siege of Antioch, and suffered considerably at the hands of Cassius during their retreat.

Though Cicero never crossed swords with the Parthians, he found or contrived an opportunity of distinguishing himself as a soldier.  The independent mountaineers of the border were attacked and defeated; Cicero was saluted as “Imperator” on the field of battle by his soldiers, and had the satisfaction of occupying for some days the position which Alexander the Great had taken up before the battle of Issus.  “And he,” says Cicero, who always relates his military achievements with something like a smile on his face, “was a somewhat better general than either you or I.”  He next turned his arms against the Free Cilicians, investing in regular form with trenches, earthworks, catapults, and all the regular machinery of a siege, their stronghold Pindenissum.  At the end of forty-seven days the place surrendered.  Cicero gave the plunder of the place to his host, reserving the horses only for public purposes.  A considerable sum was realized by the sale of slaves.  “Who in the world are these Pindenissi? who are they?” you will say.  “I never heard the name.”  “Well, what can I do?  I can’t make Cilicia another Aetolia, or another Macedonia.”  The campaign was concluded about the middle of December, and the governor, handing over the army to his brother, made his way to Laodicea.  From this place he writes to Atticus in language that seems to us self-glorious and boastful, but still has a ring of honesty about it.  “I left Tarsus for Asia (the Roman province so called) on June 5th, followed by such admiration as I cannot express from the cities of Cilicia, and especially from the people of Tarsus.  When I had crossed the Taurus there was a marvelous eagerness to see me in Asia as far as my districts extended.  During six months of my government they had not received a single requisition from me, had not had a single person quartered upon them.  Year after year before my time this part of the year had been turned to profit in this way.  The wealthy cities used to pay large sums of money not to have to find winter quarters for the soldiers.  Cyprus paid more than L48,000 on this account; and from this island—­I say it without exaggeration and in sober truth—­not a single coin was levied while I was in power.