Orodes;[1] but before the scheme could be carried out the latter apparently heard of the affair and recalled Pacorus.[2] The threatened invasion of the summer of 50 b.c. therefore failed to materialize, and by the middle of July Cicero felt that danger from the Parthians was over and that he could safely leave for Rome. The garrisons placed in Apamea and elsewhere were withdrawn, an action which caused some criticism.[3] Pacorus was allowed to live and was later even restored to the high command, where he proved himself one of the most capable generals Parthia ever possessed. For the next decade Parthia failed to make good her threat of serious invasion. The fact that no tetradrachms were struck from about 52 to 40/39 b.c. may indicate a transference of activity to the eastern part of the empire.[4]
Naturally it was to the advantage of Orodes to further the civil war among the Romans. Pompey sent
- ↑ Dio Cass. xl. 30. There is nothing in this account which directly implicates Pacorus. Cicero's failure to mention the incident is not strange, since his account closes at about this point. Cf. Tarn, "Tiridates II and the Young Phraates," Mélanges Gustave Glotz (Paris, 1932), II, 834 f.
- ↑ Justin xlii. 4. 5.
- ↑ Cicero Ep. ad fam. ii. 17. 3. His later references to the Parthians are few: Ep. ad Att. vi. 6; vii. 2 and 26; viii. 11.
- ↑ On the possibility of numismatic evidence for joint rule with Orodes see Wroth, Parthia, p. 88, No. 173 and n. 1, and p. 97, Nos. 1 f. and n. 1; cf. Gardner, Parthian Coinage, pp. 41 f. Tarn, loc. cit. would assign these coins to the young Phraates instead and date them about 26 b.c. On the absence of tetradrachms see McDowell, Coins from Seleucia, pp. 184 and 221.
