Crassus, however, on reaching his province, seemed in in haste to make a decision.  He must have arrived in Syria tolerably early in the spring but his operations during the first year of his proconsulship were unimportant.  He seems at once to have made up his mind to attempt nothing more than a reconnaissance.  Crossing the Euphrates at Zeugma, the modern Bir or Bireh-jik, he proceeded to ravage the open country, and to receive the submission of the Greek cities, which were numerous throughout the region between the Euphrates and the Belik.  The country was defended by the Parthian satrap with a small force; but this was easily defeated, the satrap himself receiving a wound.  One Greek city only, Zenodotium, offered resistance to the invader; its inhabitants, having requested and received a Roman garrison of one hundred men, rose upon them and put them barbarously to the sword; whereupon Crassus besieged and took the place, gave it up to his army to plunder, and sold the entire population for slaves.  He then, as winter drew near, determined to withdraw into Syria, leaving garrisons in the various towns.  The entire force left behind is estimated at eight thousand men.

It is probable that Orodes had expected a more determined attack, and had retained his army near his capital until it should become evident by which route the enemy would advance against him.  Acting on an inner circle, he could readily have interposed his forces, on whichever line the assailants threw themselves.  But the tardy proceedings of his antagonist made his caution superfluous.  The first campaign was over, and there had scarcely been a collision between the troops of the two nations.  Parthia had been insulted by a wanton attack, and had lost some disaffected cities; but no attempt had been made to fulfil the grand boasts with which the war had been undertaken.

It may be suspected that the Parthian monarch began now to despise his enemy.  He would compare him with Lucullus and Pompey, and understand that a Roman army, like any other, was formidable, or the reverse, according as it was ably or feebly commanded.  He would know that Crassus was a sexagenarian, and may have heard that he had never yet shown himself a captain or even a soldier.  Perhaps he almost doubted whether the proconsul had any real intention of pressing the contest to a decision, and might not rather be expected, when he had enriched himself and his troops with Mesopotamian plunder, to withdraw his garrisons across the Euphrates.  Crassus was at this time showing the worst side of his character in Syria, despoiling temples of their treasures, and accepting money in lieu of contingents of troops from the dynasts of Syria and Palestine.  Orodes, under these circumstances, sent an embassy to him, which was well calculated to stir to action the most sluggish and poor-spirited of commanders.  “If the war,” said his envoys, “was really waged by Rome, it must be fought out to the bitter end.