captive should be put to death, but again not
long after repenting[51] ... that his life should be spared....[51] Now
the bearer of the second letter came in before the first, and later
Titius received the epistle in regard to killing him. Thinking,
therefore, that it was really the second, or else knowing the truth but
not caring to heed it, he followed the order of the arrival of the
two, but not their manifest intention. So Sextus was executed in the
consulship of Lucius Cornificius and one Sextus Pompeius.

[B.C. 35 (_a. u_. 719)]

Caesar held a horse-race in honor of the event, and set up for Antony
a chariot in front of the rostra and images in the temple of Concord,
giving him also authority to hold banquets there with his wife and
children, this being similar to the decree that had once been passed
in his own honor. He pretended to be still Antony's friend and was
endeavoring to console him for the disasters inflicted by the Parthians
and in that way to cure any jealousy that might be felt at his own
victory and the decrees which followed it.

[B.C. 38 (_a. u_. 716)]

[-19-]This was what Caesar did: Antony's experience with the barbarians
was as follows. Publius Ventidius heard that Pacorus was gathering an
army and was invading Syria, and became afraid, since the cities had not
grown quiet and the legions were still scattered in winter-quarters, and
so he acted as follows to delay him and make the assembling of an army
a slow process. He knew that a certain prince Channaeus, with whom he
enjoyed an acquaintance, was rather disposed to favor the Parthian cause.
Ventidius, then, honored him as if he had his entire confidence and took
him as an adviser in some matters where he could not himself be injured
and would cause Channaeus to think he possessed his most hidden secrets.
Having reached this point he affected to be afraid that the barbarians
might abandon the place where they customarily crossed the Euphrates near
where the city Zeugma is located, and use some other road farther down
the river. The latter, he said, was in a flat district convenient for the
enemy, whereas the former was hilly and suited _them_ best. He persuaded
the prince to believe this and through the latter deceived Pacorus. The
Parthian leader took the route through the flat district, where Ventidius
kept pretending he hoped he would not go, and as this was longer than the
other it gave the Roman time to assemble his forces. [-20-] So