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Even before the assassination of Caesar (March of 44 BCE), Syria was divided between those who supported Caesar and those who opposed him. In 49 BCE, Pompey’s father-in-law, Metellus Scipio, had been given the government of Syria, which he pillaged in every possible way in order to outfit a fleet for the benefit of his son-in-law. After Pompey’s death (48 BCE), having resolved the situation in Egypt (the war in Alexandria where he received effective help from most of the Syrian client princes), Caesar crossed Syria to fight Mithridates VI Eupator’s son Pharnaces, who had taken up arms against Rome in Anatolia. Caesar took advantage of the opportunity to free Antioch (47 BCE) and bestow some gifts upon that city. Despite this, conflicts still arose between those who supported Caesar (Sextus Julius Caesar, governor of Syria, was assassinated and replaced by Cornelius Dolabella) and those who supported Pompey (Q. Caecilius Bassus). After Caesar’s death, one of the “Liberators,” C. Cassus Longinus, succeeded in establishing himself in Antioch and then controlling most of Syria. That allowed one of the conspirators, Labienus, to get help from the Parthians. When the Parthian troops finally arrived, the cause of the “liberators” was already lost since Cassius and Brutus had been routed at the battle of Philippi (42 BCE). Antony had just enough time to install a new governor, Decidius Saxa, launch a raid against Palmyra to plunder it (41 BCE), and designate – with permission from Octavian and the Senate – Herod as the new king of Judaea. Nevertheless, the Parthians invaded almost all of Syria again, finding allies particularly in Judaea where the son of Aristobulus II, Antigonus Mattathias, was trying to take over as king. Nevertheless, the Syrian governor P. Ventidius Bassus managed to drive out the Parthians and get rid of the last Hasmonean, Antigonus (39–37 BCE). Herod was finally able to take possession of his kingdom, which experienced various increases in South Lebanon and then South Syria (around 24–23 BCE), where he was charged specifically with ending banditry. Despite attempts by Cleopatra VII to get Antony to grant her the South Syrian territories that her ancestors had possessed, Antony had enough political intelligence to understand how much his allies, especially Herod, were indispensable to the Syrian government, and he limited himself to granting Cleopatra smaller portions (such as the balsam groves of Jericho). The fact remains that the province of Syria ended up exhausted from the constant developments of the Roman civil war taking place on its territory.