ured Syria in many ways,
even to the point of inflicting more damage upon the people than had the
pirates, who were then in their prime. Still, he regarded all his gains
from that source as mere trifles and was at one time planning and
preparing to lead a campaign also against the Parthians and their
wealth. Phraates had been treacherously murdered by his children, and
Orodes having taken the kingdom in turn had expelled Mithridates his
brother from Media, which he was governing. The latter took refuge with
Gabinius and persuaded him to connive at his restoration. However, when
Ptolemy came with Pompey's letter and promised that he would furnish
large sums, both to him and the army, Gabinius abandoned the Parthian
project and hastened to Egypt. This he did although the law forbade
governors to enter any one's territory outside their own borders or to
begin wars on their own responsibility, and although the people and the
Sibyl had declared that the man should not be restored. But the only
restraint these considerations exercised was to lead him to sell them
for a higher price. He left in Syria Sisenna his son, a mere boy, and a
very few soldiers with him, exposing the province to which he had been
assigned more than ever to the pirates. He himself then reached
Palestine, arrested Aristobulus, who had caused some trouble at Rome and
escaped, sent him to Pompey, imposed tribute upon the Jews and
thereafter invaded Egypt.

[-57-] Berenice was at this time ruling the Egyptians, and though she
feared the Romans she accorded him no satisfactory treatment. Instead,
she sent for one Seleucus who purported to belong to the royal race that
once had flourished in Syria, acknowledged him as her husband and made
him sharer of the kingdom and of the war. When he was seen to be held in
no esteem she had him killed and joined to herself on the same terms
Archelaus, son of that Archelaus who had deserted to Sulla; he was an
energetic man living in Syria. Gabinius could, indeed, have stopped the
evil in its beginning: he had arrested Archelaus, of whom he had been
suspicious all along, and seemed likely, therefore, to have no further
trouble. He was afraid, however, that this course might cause him to
receive from Ptolemy less of the money that had been stipulated, on the
assumption that he had done nothing of importance, and he hoped that he
could exact even a larger amount in view of the cleverness and renown of
Archelaus; moreover he