  The PSR B1259--63 system contains a 47 ms radio pulsar in a highly eccentric
binary with a Be-star companion. Strongly time variable X-ray emission was
reported from this system as the pulsar was near apastron in 1992-early 1993.
The variability was primarily deduced from an apparent non-detection of the
\psr system during a first pre-apastron \ros observation in February~1992. We
have re-analyzed the \ros observations of the \psr system. Contrary to the
results of a previous analysis, we find that the \psr system was detected by
\ros during the first off-axis February~1992 observation. The intensity of the
soft X-ray emission of the \psr system before and after the 1992 apastron
appears to vary at most by a factor $\sim 2$. Our results sensibly constrain
theoretical models of X-ray emission from the \psr system.
