XLVIII. Seleukus viewed all these proposals with suspicion, and offered to let him pass two months of the winter in Cataonia, but demanded his chief officers as hostages, and at the same time began to secure the passes leading into Syria. Demetrius, who was now shut up like a wild beast in a trap, was driven to use force, overran the country, and fought several slight actions successfully with Seleukus. On one occasion he withstood a charge of scythed chariots, and routed the enemy, and he also drove away the garrison of one of the passes, and gained the command of the road to Syria. He now became elated by success, and perceiving that his soldiers had recovered their confidence, he determined to fight Seleukus for his kingdom. Seleukus himself was now in difficulties. He had refused Lysimachus's offer of assistance, through suspicion, and he feared to engage with Demetrius in battle, dreading the effects of his despair and the sudden turns of his fortune. However, at this crisis Demetrius was seized by a disorder which nearly carried him off, and utterly ruined his prospects; for some of his soldiers deserted to the enemy, and some dispersed to their own homes. After forty days he was able to place himself at the head of the remaining troops, and with them marched so as to lead the enemy to suppose that he meant to return to Cilicia; but as soon as it was dark he started without any sound of trumpet in the opposite direction, crossed the pass of Amanus, and began to plunder the plain of Kyrrhestis.