The same family policy as that of Labienus is met with at that time in more instances than one. That Asinius Pollio was so determined an enemy to Pompey, Cicero, Brutus, and the other Pompeian senators, whose characters he must otherwise have liked, whereas the Cæsarians were not at all to his taste; was owing to nothing else but personal feeling. It so happened that when Pompeius Strabo, the father of Cn. Pompey, overcame in the Social War the Picentines and Marrucinians, the prætor of the Marrucinians was slain, Herius Asinius, the father or grandfather of Pollio (very likely his father; for he also called his son again Herius Asinius). For this reason, he looked upon Cæsar’s party as the Marian one, and attached himself to it as such. This was also the case with Munatius Plancus, a man of distinguished intellect, and not to be slightingly spoken of; but whom in other respects I cannot uphold. He was a Tiburtine, and all the inhabitants of Tibur, Præneste, in short, all the Latins, were thoroughgoing partisans of Cinna; so that Munatius quite naturally became a Cæsarian, as Cæsar, who was Cinna’s son-in-law, might in truth be deemed the representative of his party. Antony now again withdrew to the East, and being separated from Cleopatra, he lived for some time with Octavia, until he obliged her to go back to Rome. Whilst he now stayed in Asia, and sometimes also in Alexandria, he was allured by the hope of Asiatic trophies; for the Romans still smarted under the disgrace of the overthrow of Crassus. The Armenian king Artavasdes had made advances to him. The whole of the Parthian empire consisted of a number of distinct kingdoms, which in reality were vassal principalities, and not mere satrapies of the king of kings who kept his court at Ctesiphon near Seleucia. Antony marched with a large army through Armenia and Aderbijan to Media, the true Irak Ajemi; and there he besieged the town of Phraata. (The geography of those parts we know very little of.) His plan was wretchedly devised. Owing to the impassable nature of the ground, he had left his battering engines behind, with two legions under the legate Statianus to protect them; this depot was taken by the Parthian sovereign Phraortes, and the two legions were cut to pieces. Afterwards the main army also was so closely pressed, that Antony, having narrowly escaped the fate of Crassus, had to retreat to Armenia: the fourth part of his army had been annihilated, and most of his baggage entirely lost. Antony now returned to his revels with his paramour, to whom he gave Cœlesyria, Judæa, and Cyprus for her empire, a thing which highly disgusted the Romans. To that kingdom, as the coins of Cleopatra show, the puzzling name of Chalcis is given, which I cannot account for in any way: it is certainly to be understood of this realm, and not of the tetrarchy of a later day.