Herod, in any case, returns in 38…

Parthian king Orodes, who is deeply afflicted by the death of his gallant son, Pacorus, appoints as his successor his son Phraates IV, who soon murders his father and all his thirty brothers.

The spoils from Pacorus’s invasion of Syria are immense, and put to good use: Phraates invests them in building up the village of Ctesiphon, located nearby Seleucia, the Hellenistic capital.

Venditius wins a decisive victory over the Parthians in 38 BCE at Mount Gindarus (northeast of Antioch), killing Pacorus in Syria during an attack on a Roman camp.

The Euphrates again becomes the border between the two nations.

This victory is the culmination of Ventidius' campaigns, which confine the Parthians within Media and Mesopotamia, and psychologically avenges the losses of Crassus, particularly at Carrhae.

Ventidius could pursue the Parthians even further, but does not want to incur Antony's jealousy, so he instead subdues those who have rebelled against Rome.

Antiochus of Commagene, whom Ventidius besieges in Samosata, is one such rebel against Rome.

Antiochus tries to make peace with Ventidius, but Ventidius tells him to approach Antony directly.

Wanting some of the glory for himself, Antony will not allow a treaty and proceeds to take over the siege.

Antony's siege proves to be less effective than that of Ventidius, and Antony makes peace.

Whereas the treaty Antiochus originally offered Ventidius contained an indemnity of one thousand talents, the final treaty with Antony has an indemnity of only three hundred talents.

After peace is concluded, Antony sends Ventidius back to Rome where he celebrated a triumph, the first and only person to triumph over the Parthians.

...Herod begins his campaign against Antigonus with the conquest of the Galilee, ...

…marches down the coast to take Jaffa, then …

…relieves Masada, where his family is still holed up.

Roman troops shortly afterward expel the Parthians, whose popularity in Palestine has been and subsequently remains considerable.

Herod now marches on Jerusalem, hoping to capture the city and bring a swift end to the war.

Faced, however, with corruption among his Roman officers, mutinous Roman troops and Antigonus's guerrillas, Herod is forced to abandon his siege of the city.

He operates in Judea, Samaria and the Galilee instead, fighting against both insurgents and bandits, while sending his brother Joseph to deal with Idumaea.

Reinforced by several Roman legions and having fought two years of counterinsurgency, Herod by late 38 BCE s finally able to pacify the Galilee and march south towards Jerusalem.

Antigonus attempts to face Herod in pitched battle, striking against both Jericho and Samaria, but both efforts are defeated.

Herod once again pitches camp outside Jerusalem, though the onset of winter brings military operations to a halt.

Sextus had soon became a serious force in the civil war following Caesar's death.

He has amassed a formidable army and a large fleet of warships.

Many slaves and friends of his father have joined his cause, hoping to preserve the Roman Republic, which is quickly turning into an empire.

The multitudes of slaves joining Sextus often come from the villas of patricians, and this desertion hurts the Romans so much that the Vestal Virgins pray for it to stop.

Meanwhile, many of the promises made by Octavian and Antony to Sextus have gone unfulfilled, and Octavian’s forces regain control of Sardinia in 38, rekindling the war between the two.

Once the blockade had ended (after a short and rocky peace), the Triumvirate, especially Octavian and his right-hand man Marcus Agrippa, are able to turn their energies to Sextus, and begin an aggressive offensive.

Octavian tries to invade Sicily in 38 BCE, but Sextus’s pirate navy thwarts Octavian’s attempt and a storm destroys his fleet.

Ventidius, relieved by Antony of his command because he had actually done too well, returns to Rome to celebrate a triumph, the only Roman general distinguished with such an honor against the Parthians.

Another of the loosely organized Korean tribal federations emerges, in 37, as the kingdom of Goguryeo, or Koguryo, based in southeast Manchuria in a region called Jolbon Buyeo, usually thought to be located in the middle Yalu and T'ung-chia river basin, overlapping the current China-North Korea border.

The Samguk Sagi, a twelfth century CE Goryeo text, indicates that Goguryeo was founded in 37 BCE by Jumong, a prince from Buyeo, although there is archaeological and textual evidence that suggests Goguryeo culture was in existence since the second century BCE around the fall of Gojoseon, an earlier kingdom that also occupied southern Manchuria and northern Korea.