IN THE PROVINCES

The inevitable battle between Xabier and Titus Labienus proved to be not so inevitable. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Labienus was able to lure the Prince into a trap. As the rebels moved to engaged the Roman commander and his legion, reinforcements from the camps of Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Cnaeus Pompeius Minor arrived to encircle the advancing Xabier. Instead of meeting his end by charging the Roman positions, Xabier decided to fight another day and dispersed his army into the hills and forest of Hispania. Some 600 of his army were intercepted and captured at Pompaelo but the rest escaped without a chase.

Tired of waiting to be dealt with by Caesar, Lucius Cornelius Balbus Minor fled to Egypt where he is now acting as an emissary for Caesar but he will soon be sent home to answer for the trouble he caused.

In Africa, Caesar has sent two legions under Quintus Tullius Cicero to help/hinder the provincial governor, Attius Verrus. Once Quintus Cicero landed near Utica, Verrus came to meet him. The Republican governor refused the aid of Caesar's representative to fight the raids of the African province but was then expelled from the province with his small band of men and he now marches towards Cyrene, leaving Quintus in control of Africa.

Caesar's men have not been idle elsewhere. Two legions under Aulus Hirtius invaded and captured Thessalonica and Apollonia without opposition.

The Exiled Senate is in disarray with little or no action being taken. The only incident is the apparent defection by Cassius Longinus to Caesar and his attempts to get Brutus to come with him. Cato the Younger remains quiet about the whole situation in the East, but it is obvious that the Exiles situation is getting worse by the day.

Not only did they have to deal with the loss of Antioch and the destruction of three legions, the dictator Marcellus then mobilised the remaining three Exile legion and marched to face Orodes of Parthia. The two armies met at Anazarbos and it was a slaughter. The Exile legions were massacred to a man and instead of facing the humiliation of a retreat or capture, Marcellus took his own life.

It got worse still as not only have Macedonia, Thrace and Achaea been lost to Caesar, but there are rumblings that an heir to the throne of Mithridates has emerged and had himself declared King of Pontus with the lack of Roman military opposition. This Pharnaces has also been in contact with Artavasdes II, ruler of Armenia (a buffer kingdom of Parthia), about an alliance and both states are readying themselves for a bid for independence.

In the Levant, buoyed by his two massive victories over the Romans at Antioch and Anazarbos, Orodes of Parthia has returned to Damascus to deal with the one legion of Sextus Pompeius. Little does he know that Sextus Pompeius has gathered a force of comparable size to the Parthian army, with large units of Egyptians and Nabataeans. Malichus, King of Nabataea, was until recently a Parthian ally and Orodes still believes him to be one. Using this assumption to their advantage, Sextus Pompeius and Malichus have sent a scouting party disguised as a Nabataean trade mission under Shaquilat to Damascus to find out the Parthian King's plan regarding an invasion of Judaea and how many troops he has.

CAESAR'S PROVINCES

Transalpine Gaul/Gallia Caesaris (all of Gaul up to the English Channel)
Cisalpine Gaul
Provincia Romana
Italia
Illyria
Sardinia
Corsica
Sicily
Maecdonia
Thracia
Achaea
Africa Provincia

POMPEIAN PROVINCES
Hispania Ulterior
Hispania Citerior

REPUBLICAN PROVINCES

Asia Provinia
Bithynia
Cilicia
Cyrenaica et Crete

ROMAN CLIENT KINGDOMS

Numidia/Mauretania - Juba I
Egypt - Cleopatra VII
Judaea - Antipater the Idumaean
Nabataea - Malichus
Massilia - Leander
Rhodes
Colchis
Bosphorus


THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE AND HER CLIENT KINGDOMS

Palmyra
Edessa
Atropatene
Syria

INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS

Pontus
Armenia