Publius Cornelius Dolabella at Caesar's death in 44 BCE had seized the insignia of the consulship (which had already been conditionally promised him) and, by making friends with Marcus Junius Brutus and the other assassins, had been confirmed in his office.

When, however, Mark Antony had offered him the command of the expedition against the Parthians and the province of Syria, he had changed sides at once.

His journey to the province is marked by plundering, extortion, and the murder of Gaius Trebonius, proconsul of Asia, who had refused to allow him to enter Smyrna.

Dolabella is thereupon declared a public enemy and superseded by Gaius Cassius Longinus, who had been a principal among Casear’s forty-odd assassins.

Cassius attacks Dolabella in Laodicea.

Strabo mentions that Dolabella, when he fled to Laodicea before Cassius, had distressed Laodicea greatly, and that, being besieged there until his death, he had destroyed many parts of the city with him.

When Cassius's troops capture the place, Dolabella orders one of his soldiers to kill him.

Cassius is now secure enough to march on Egypt, but Brutus requests his assistance upon the formation of the new triumvirate of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Mark Antony, and Octavian,.

Cassius quickly joins Brutus in Smyrna with most of his army, leaving his nephew behind to govern Syria.

The conspirators decide to attack the triumvir’s allies in Asia.