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108 the side of the republicans at Philippi in Macedonia against Octavian.

Antony, heir not only to the papers but also to the dreams of Caesar, considered an attack on Parthia as he passed through Asia Minor after the battle. In the late summer of 41 he was in Tarsus in Cilicia, where he had ordered Cleopatra to appear before him. From Tarsus Antony proceeded overland to Syria, where he appointed L. Decidius Saxa governor of that province. A body of Roman cavalry sought to raid Palmyra; but the people of that wealthy trading center were forewarned and fled to Parthian territory, where their influence was one cause for the Parthian invasion of Syria which was soon to take place. To these refugees were added the pro-Parthian tyrants who had gradually established themselves in Syrian cities during the period after the defeat of Crassus when Roman control was at an ebb. Such tyrants, removed by Antony, sought haven at the Parthian court.

From Syria Antony went southward to Alexandria. In 40, while he was still in Egypt with Cleopatra, the Parthians again took the field against the Romans, and this time they had the good fortune to have with them Quintus Labienus, one of the ambassadors whom Brutus and Cassius had sent to Parthia to