ch he had taken, and making them go into winter quarters. It was,
no doubt, his intention to remain quiet during the two or three winter
months, after which he would have resumed the war, and have endeavored
to penetrate through Media into Parthia Proper, where he might expect
his adversary to make his last stand.

But Phraates saw that the position of affairs was favorable for striking
a blow before the spring came. The dispersion of his enemy's troops
deprived him of all advantage from the superiority of their numbers.
The circumstance of their being quartered in towns newly reduced,
and unaccustomed to the rudeness and rapacity of soldiers and
camp-followers, made it almost certain that complications would arise,
and that it would not be long before in some places the Parthians,
so lately declared to be oppressors, would be hailed as liberators.
Moreover, the Parthians were, probably, better able than their
adversaries to endure the hardships and severities of a campaign in the
cold season. Parthia is a cold country, and the winters, both of the
great plateau of Iran and of all the mountain tracts adjoining it, are
severe. The climate of Syria is far milder. Moreover, the troops
of Antiochus had, we are informed, been enervated by an excessive
indulgence on the part of their leader during the marches and halts of
the preceding summer. Their appetites had been pampered; their habits
had become unmanly; their general tone was relaxed; and they were likely
to deteriorate still more in the wealthy and luxurious cities where they
were bidden to pass the winter.

These various circumstances raised the spirits of Phraates, and made him
hold himself in readiness to resume hostilities at a moment's notice.
Nor was it long before the complications which he had foreseen began to
occur. The insolence of the soldiers quartered upon them exasperated the
inhabitants of the Mesopotamian towns, and caused them to look back with
regret to the time when they were Parthian subjects. The requisitions
made on them for stores of all kinds was a further grievance. After a
while they opened communications with Phraates, and offered to return
to their allegiance if he would assist them against their oppressors.
Phraates gladly listened to these overtures. At his instigation a plot
was formed like that which has given so terrible a significance to the
phrase "Sicilian vespers." It was agreed that on an appointed day all
the cities should brea