and of all the mountain tracts adjoining it, are severe.  The climate of Syria is far milder.  Moreover, the troops of Antiochus had, we are informed, been enervated by an excessive indulgence on the part of their leader during the marches and halts of the preceding summer.  Their appetites had been pampered; their habits had become unmanly; their general tone was relaxed; and they were likely to deteriorate still more in the wealthy and luxurious cities where they were bidden to pass the winter.

These various circumstances raised the spirits of Phraates, and made him hold himself in readiness to resume hostilities at a moment’s notice.  Nor was it long before the complications which he had foreseen began to occur.  The insolence of the soldiers quartered upon them exasperated the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian towns, and caused them to look back with regret to the time when they were Parthian subjects.  The requisitions made on them for stores of all kinds was a further grievance.  After a while they opened communications with Phraates, and offered to return to their allegiance if he would assist them against their oppressors.  Phraates gladly listened to these overtures.  At his instigation a plot was formed like that which has given so terrible a significance to the phrase “Sicilian vespers.”  It was agreed that on an appointed day all the cities should break out in revolt:  the natives should take arms, rise against the soldiers quartered upon them, and kill all, or as many as possible.  Phraates promised to be at hand with his army, to prevent, the scattered detachments from giving help to each other.  It was calculated that in this way the invaders might be cut off almost to a man without the trouble of even fighting a battle.

But, before he proceeded to extremities, the Parthian prince determined to give his adversary a chance of escaping the fate prepared for him by timely concessions.  The winter was not over; but the snow was beginning to melt through the increasing warmth of the sun’s rays, and the day appointed for the general rising was probably drawing near.  Phraates felt that no time was to be lost.  Accordingly, he sent ambassadors to Antiochus to propose peace, and to inquire on what conditions it would be granted him.  The reply of Antiochus, according to Diodotus, was as follows:  “If Phraates would release his prisoner, Demetrius, from captivity, and deliver him up without ransom, at the same time restoring all the provinces which had been taken from Syria, and consenting to pay a tribute for Parthia itself, peace might be had; but not otherwise.”  To such terms it was, of course, impossible that Phraates should listen; and his ambassadors, therefore, returned without further parley.