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102 ly thereafter Bibulus, recently arrived in Syria, entered Antioch.

Cicero, in camp on October 8 near Mopsuhestia in Cilicia, apparently felt much reassured. He wrote Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had been asking about the Parthians, that he really did not think there were any, just Arabs partially equipped as Parthians, and that he thought they had all gone home. He, Cicero, understood that there was not a single enemy in Syria. Evidently news of the Parthian defeat by his military rival Cassius had already arrived, and possibly Cicero wished to minimize the importance of the victory. Perhaps this also accounts for his onslaught on the towns of the Amanus, which began almost immediately afterward, on October 13.

The raiders under Pacorus at once withdrew and went into winter quarters in Cyrrhestica. Cicero left his brother Quintus in charge of Cilicia and of the winter camp established there and returned to Laodicea. Everyone realized that the situation was fraught with danger for the coming year. Suggestions were made that Caesar should go with his own army to face the Parthians in the next summer, or that Pom-