Antiochus Puts his Troops in Winter Quarters
Meanwhile Antiochus had been engaged in the
note
siege of Dura: note but the strength of the
place and the support given it by Nicolaus
prevented him from effecting anything; and as
the winter was closing in, he agreed with the ambassadors of
Ptolemy to a suspension of hostilities for four months, and
promised that he would discuss the whole question at issue in
a friendly spirit. But he was as far as possible from being
sincere in this negotiation: his real object was to avoid being
detained any length of time from his own country, and to be
able to place his troops in winter quarters in Seleucia; because
Achaeus was now notoriously plotting against him, and without
disguise co-operating with Ptolemy. So having come to this
agreement, Antiochus dismissed the ambassadors with injunctions to acquaint him as soon as possible with the decision of
Ptolemy, and to meet him at Seleucia. He then placed the
necessary guards in the various strongholds, committed to
-- 418 --
Theodotus the command-in-chief over them all, and returned
home. On his arrival at Seleucia he distributed his forces
into their winter quarters; and from that time forth took
no pains to keep the mass of his army under discipline, being
persuaded that the business would not call for any more
fighting; because he was already master of some portions of
Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, and expected to secure the rest by
voluntary submission or by diplomacy: for Ptolemy, he believed,
would not venture upon a general engagement. This opinion
was shared also by the ambassadors: because Sosibius fixing
his residence at Memphis conducted his negotiations with
them in a friendly manner; while he prevented those who went
back wards and forwards to Antiochus from ever becoming eyewitnesses of the preparations that were being carried on at
Alexandria. Nay, even by the time that the ambassadors
arrived, Sosibius was already prepared for every eventuality.
