mained encamped on high ground where the Parthian horsemen could not operate effectively. Overconfident because of their previous success, the Parthians advanced without seeking to effect a junction with Labienus, and charged up the slope of the hill on which the Romans awaited them. The legions met them in a downrush that swept all before it. The Parthian survivors fled to Cilicia without attempting to join Labienus, who tried to escape at nightfall. His plans were betrayed by deserters; many of his troops were killed in ambush, and the remainder went over to the Romans. Again Labienus escaped, but soon afterward he was taken prisoner and put to death; thus ended the career of the man who chose to style himself "Imperator Parthicus."[1]
Ventidius recovered Cilicia and then sent Pompaedius[2] Silo with a troop of cavalry to secure the Amanus Gates, through which passed the road to Syria.[3] This officer was unable to force the pass and
- ↑ Dio Cass. xlviii. 26 and 39–40; Strabo xiv. 2. 24. Rhosus (Arsus) seems to have begun a new era on its coinage with these victories of Ventidius in 39 b.c.; see George Macdonald, "A New Syrian Era," Journal international d'archéologie et numismatique, VI (1903), 47 f.
- ↑ Or Poppaedius; see notes in Boissevain's ed. of Dio Cass. at xlviii. 41.
- ↑ Dio Cass. xlviii. 41; Earnest Cary, ad loc., n. 1, states that the Cilician Gates are meant. That is obviously an error, since the Cilician Gates are located in the Taurus Mountains, whereas Dio clearly refers to a pass in the Amanus on the border between Cilicia and Syria. Rawlinson, Sixth Mon., p. 190 and n. 2, suggests the Syrian Gates, on the basis of Strabo xvi. 2. 8; the reference in n. 2 is incorrect, for Strabo xv. 2. 8 refers to the Caspian Gates, hundreds of miles to the east. The Amanus Gates, just north of Epiphanea in Cilicia, are the most probable.
