CILICIA (JANUARY)
Your own immense prestige and my unvarying belief in your consummate virtue have convinced me of the great importance it is to me that you should be acquainted with what I have accomplished,and that you should not be ignorant of the equity and disinterestedness with which I protected our allies and governed my province.For if you knew these facts,I thought Ishould with greater ease secure your approval of my wishes.
Having entered my province on the last day of July,and seeing that the time of year made it necessary for me to make all haste to the army,I spent but two days at Laodicea,four at Apamea three at Synnada,and the same at Philomelium.Having held largely attended assizes in these towns,I freed a great number of cities from very vexatious tributes,excessive interest,and fraudulent debt.Again,the army having before my arrival been broken up by something like a mutiny,and five cohorts--without a legate or a military tribune,and,in fact,actually without a single centurion--having taken up its quarters at Philomelium,while the rest of the army was in Lycaonia,I ordered my legate M.Anneius to bring those five cohorts to join the main army;and,having thus got the whole army together into one place,to pitch a camp at Iconium in Lycaonia.This order having been energetically executed by him,Iarrived at the camp myself on the 24th of August,having meanwhile,in accordance with the decree of the senate,collected in the intervening days a strong body of reserve men,a very adequate force of cavalry,and a contingent of volunteers from the free peoples and allied sovereigns.While this was going on,and when,after reviewing the army,I had on the 28th of August begun my march to Cilicia,some legates sent to me by the sovereign of Commagene announced,with every sign of panic,yet not without some foundation,that the Parthians had entered Syria.On hearing this I was rendered very anxious both for Syria and my own province,and,in fact,for all the rest of Asia.Accordingly,I made up my mind that I must lead the army through the district of Cappadocia,which adjoins Cilicia.For if I had gone straight down into Cilicia,I could easily indeed have held Cilicia itself,owing to the natural strength of Mount Amanus--for there are only two defiles opening into Cilicia from Syria,both of which are capable of being closed by insignificant garrisons owing to their narrowness,nor can anything be imagined better fortified than is Cilicia on the Syrian side--but I was disturbed for Cappadocia,which is quite open on the Syrian side,and is surrounded by kings,who,even if they are our friends in secret,nevertheless do not venture to be openly hostile to the Parthians.
Accordingly,Ipitched my camp in the extreme south of Cappadocia at the town of Cybistra,not far from Mount Taurus,with the object at once of covering Cilicia,and of thwarting the designs of the neighbouring tribes by holding Cappadocia.Meanwhile,in the midst of this serious commotion and anxious expectation of a very formidable war king Deiotarus,who has with good reason been always highly honoured in your judgment and my own,as well as that of the senate--a man distinguished for his goodwill and loyalty to the Roman people,as well as for his eminent courage and wisdom--sent legates to tell me that he was on his way to my camp in full force.Much affected by his zeal and kindness,I sent him a letter of thanks,and urged him to hasten.However,being detained at Cybistra five days while mats ring my plan of campaign,Irescued king Ariobarzanes,whose safety had been intrusted to me by the senate on your motion,from a plot that,to his surprise,had been formed against him:and I not only saved his life,but I took pains also to secure that his royal authority should be respected.
Metras and Athenus (the latter strongly commended to me by yourself),who had been exiled owing to the persistent enmity of queen Athenais,I restored to a position of the highest influence and favour with the king.Then,as there was danger of serious hostilities arising in Cappadocia in case the priest,as it was thought likely that he would do,defended himself with arms--for he was a young man,well furnished with horse and foot and money,and relying on those all who desired political change of any sort--I contrived that he should leave the kingdom:and that the king,without civil war or an appeal to arms,with the full authority of the court thoroughly secured,should hold the kingdom with proper dignity.
Meanwhile.I was informed by despatches and messengers from many sides,that the Parthians and Arabs had approached the town of Antioch in great force,and that a large body of their horsemen,which had crossed into Cilicia,had been cut to pieces by some squadrons of my cavalry and the prntorian cohort then on garrison duty at Epiphanea-Wherefore,seeing that the forces of the Parthians had turned their backs upon Cappadocia,and were not far from the frontiers of Cilicia,I led my army to Anianus with the longest forced marches I could.Arrived there,I learnt that the enemy had retired from Antioch,and that Bibulus was at Antioch.
