he murder of Julius the Parthians
are declared to have actually taken a part. It appears that--about
B.C. 46--a small body of Parthian horse-archers had been sent to the
assistance of a certain Bassus, a Roman who amid the troubles of the
times was seeking to obtain for himself something like an independent
principality in Syria. The soldiers of Bassus, after a while (B.C. 43),
went over in a body to Cassius, 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