rst placed
the crown on his head and then cleared the land from the enemy,
not to get rid of him as soon as possible by the executioner.
His place as commander-in-chief of the invading army destined for Syria
was filled by a prince, the king's son Pacorus, with whom on account
of his youth and inexperience the prince Osaces had to be associated
as military adviser. On the other side the interim command
in Syria in room of Crassus was taken up by the prudent and resolute
quaestor Gaius Cassius.

Repulse of the Parthians

The Parthians were, just like Crassus formerly, in no haste to attack,
but during the years 701 and 702 sent only weak flying bands,
who were easily repulsed, across the Euphrates; so that Cassius
obtained time to reorganize the army in some measure, and with the help
of the faithful adherent of the Romans, Herodes Antipater,
to reduce to obedience the Jews, whom resentment at the spoliation
of the temple perpetrated by Crassus had already driven to arms.
The Roman government would thus have had full time to send
fresh troops for the defence of the threatened frontier;
but this was left undone amidst the convulsions of the incipient
revolution, and, when at length in 703 the great Parthian invading army
appeared on the Euphrates, Cassius had still nothing to oppose to it
but the two weak legions formed from the remains of the army of Crassus.
Of course with these he could neither prevent the crossing
nor defend the province. Syria was overrun by the Parthians,
and all Western Asia trembled. But the Parthians did not understand
the besieging of towns. They not only retreated from Antioch,
into which Cassius had thrown himself with his troops, without having
accomplished their object, but they were on their retreat
along the Orontes allured into an ambush by Cassius' cavalry
and there severely handled by the Roman infantry; prince Osaces
was himself among the slain. Friend and foe thus perceived
that the Parthian army under an ordinary general and on ordinary ground
was not capable of much more than any other Oriental army.
However, the attack was not abandoned. Still during the winter
of 703-704 Pacorus lay encamped in Cyrrhestica on this side
of the Euphrates; and the new governor of Syria, Marcus Bibulus,
as wretched a general as he was an incapable statesman,
knew no better course of action than to shut himself up
in his fortresses. It was generally expected that the war
would break out in