Book 3
31
About the same time Scipio, notwithstanding some checks he had received near Mount Amanus, assumed the title of emperor; after which he exacted great sums of money from the neighbouring states and princes; obliged the farmers of the revenue to pay the two years' taxes, which lay in their hands, and advance a third by way of loan, and sent orders to the whole province; for levying cavalry. Having got a sufficient number together, he quitted the Parthians, his nearest enemies who not long before had slain M. Crassus, and held Bibulus invested; and marched out of Syria with his legions and cavalry. When he arrived in Asia Minor, he found the whole country filled with terror on account of the Parthian war; and the soldiers themselves declared, that they were ready to march against an enemy, but would never bear arms against a consul, and their fellow-citizens. To stifle these discontents, he made considerable presents to the troops, quartered them in Pergamus and other rich towns, and gave up the whole country to their discretion.
