an already too small force.[1] From Actium on June 14,[2] 51 b.c., he wrote to Atticus that he hoped the Parthians would remain quiet.[3] At Athens Cicero still had no news of their movements,[4] but at Tralleis he heard that they were inactive.[5] On July 31 the new governor reached Laodicea within his own territory. His earlier ideas with regard to the peacefulness of the "Persians" (Parthians) were soon to undergo rapid changes.[6] He had scarcely begun his work when on August 9 reports reached him that some Roman cavalry had been cut up by the Parthians.[7] His two legions were scattered and practically mutinous when he arrived at camp in Iconium.[8] The troops were reunited, and Cicero was proceeding to whip them into shape, when on August 30[9] he received a dispatch from Antiochus I, king of Comma-
- ↑ Cicero Ep. ad fam. iii. 3.
- ↑ Translations of dates of this period from the old Roman calendar are of dubious accuracy, as the calendar is known to have been seriously incorrect at this time.
- ↑ Cicero Ep. ad Att. v. 9. 1.
- ↑ Ibid. v. 11. 4.
- ↑ Ibid. v. 14. 1.
- ↑ Cicero De domo sua 60. Cf. the much later writer Boethius, who remarks (De consolatione philosophiae ii. 7. 30–34) that in the time of Cicero the Parthians feared Rome.
- ↑ Cicero Ep. ad Att. v. 16. 4.
- ↑ Cicero Ep. ad fam. xv. 4. 2.
- ↑ Cf. Ep. ad fam. xv. 3. 1, written to Cato on August 30, 51 b.c., with xv. 4. 3, also to Cato but written four months afterward.
