who was in the East collecting troops for his great struggle with Antony and Octavian; and thus a handful of Parthians came into his power.  Of this circumstance he determined to take advantage, in order to obtain, if possible, a considerable body of troops from Orodes.  He presented each of the Parthian soldiers with a sum of money, and dismissed them all to their homes, at the same time seizing the opportunity to send some of his own officers, as ambassadors, to Orodes, with a request for substantial aid.  On receiving this application the Parthian monarch appears to have come to the conclusion that it was to his interest to comply with it.  Whether he made conditions, or no, is uncertain; but he seems to have sent a pretty numerous body of horse to the support of the “Liberators” against their antagonists.  Perhaps he trusted to obtain from the gratitude of Cassius what he had failed to extort from the fears of Pompey.  Or, perhaps, he was only anxious to prolong the period of civil disturbance in the Roman State, which secured his own territory from attack, and might ultimately give him an opportunity of helping himself to some portion of the Roman dominions in Asia.

The opportunity seemed to him to have arrived in B.C. 40.  Philippi had been fought and lost.  The “Liberators” were crushed.  The struggle between the Republicans and the Monarchists had come to an end.  But, instead of being united, the Roman world was more than ever divided; and the chance of making an actual territorial gain at the expense of the tryant power appeared fairer than it had ever been before.  Three rivals now held divided sway in the Roman State; each of them jealous of the other two, and anxious for his own aggrandizement.  The two chief pretenders to the first place were bitterly hostile; and while the one was detained in Italy by insurrection against his authority, the other was plunged in luxury and dissipation, enjoying the first delights of a lawless passion, at the Egyptian capital.  The nations of the East were, moreover, alienated by the recent exactions of the profligate Triumvir, who, to reward his parasites and favorites, had laid upon them a burden that they were scarcely able to bear.  Further, the Parthians enjoyed at this time the advantage of having a Roman officer of good position in their service, whose knowledge of the Roman tactics, and influence in Roman provinces, might be expected to turn to their advantage.  Under these circumstances, when the spring of the year arrived, Antony being still in Egypt, and Octavian (as far as was known) occupied in the siege of Perusia, the Parthian hordes, under Labienus and Pacorus, burst upon Syria in greater force than on any previous occasion.  Overrunning with their numerous cavalry the country between the Euphrates and Antioch, and thence the valley of the Orontes, they had (as usual) some difficulty with the towns.  From Apamaea, placed (like Durham) on a rocky peninsula almost surrounded by the river,