§ 1.1  THE MITHRIDATIC WARS
THE Greeks think that the Thracians who marched to the Trojan War with Rhesus, who was killed by Diomedes in the night-time in the manner described in Homer's poems, fled to the outlet of the Euxine sea at the place where the crossing to Thrace is shortest. Some say that as they found no ships they remained there and possessed themselves of the country called Bebrycia. Others say that they crossed over to the country beyond Byzantium called Thracian Bithynia and settled along the river Bithya, but were forced by hunger to return to Bebrycia, to which they gave the name of Bithynia from the river where they had previously dwelt; or perhaps the name was changed by them insensibly with the lapse of time, as there is not much difference between Bithynia and Bebrycia. So some think. Others say that their first ruler was Bithys, the son of Zeus and Thrace, and that the two countries received their names from them.

§ 1.2  So much by way of preface concerning Bithynia. Of the forty-nine kings who successively ruled the country before the Romans, it does not concern me to make special mention in writing Roman history. Prusias, surnamed the Hunter, was the one to whom Perseus, king of Macedonia, gave his sister in marriage. When Perseus and the Romans, not long afterward, went to war with each other, Prusias did not take sides with either of them. When Perseus was taken prisoner Prusias went to meet the Roman generals, clad in a toga which they call the tebennus, shod in the Italian fashion, with his head shaved and wearing on it a pilleus in the manner of slaves who have been made free in their masters' wills, and making himself appear base and insignificant in other ways. When he met them he said in the Latin tongue, "I am the freedman of the Romans, which is to say 'emancipated.' "They laughed at him and sent him to Rome. As he appeared equally ridiculous there he obtained pardon.

§ 1.3  Some time later, being incensed against Attalus, king of the Asiatic country about Pergamus, Prusias ravaged his territory. When the Roman Senate learned of this they sent word to Prusias that he must not attack Attalus, who was their friend and ally. As he was slow in obeying, the ambassadors laid stern commands upon him to obey the orders of the Senate and to go with 1000 horse to the boundary line to negotiate a treaty with Attalus, who, they said, was awaiting him there with an equal number. Despising the handful of men with Attalus and hoping to ensnare him, Prusias sent the ambassadors in advance to say that he was following with 1000 men, but actually put his whole army in motion and advanced as if to battle. When Attalus and the ambassadors learned of this they took to promiscuous flight. Prusias seized the beasts of burden belonging to the Romans that had been left behind, captured and destroyed the stronghold of Nicephorium, burned the temples in it, and besieged Attalus, who had fled to Pergamus. When these things became known in Rome a fresh embassy was sent, ordering Prusias to make compensation to Attalus for the damage done to him. Then Prusias became alarmed, obeyed the order, and retired. The ambassadors decided that as a penalty he must transfer to Attalus twenty decked ships at once, and pay him 500 talents of silver within a certain time. Accordingly he gave up the ships and began to make the payments at the prescribed time.

§ 1.4  As Prusias was hated by his subjects on account of his extreme cruelty they became greatly attached to his son, Nicomedes. Thus the latter fell under the suspicion of Prusias, who sent him to live in Rome. Learning that he was much esteemed there also, Prusias directed him to (B.C. 148 petition the Senate to release him from the payment of the money still due to Attalus. He sent Menas as his fellow-ambassador, and told him if he should secure a remission of the payments to spare Nicomedes, but if not, to kill him at Rome. For this purpose he sent a number of small boats with him and 2000 soldiers. As the fine imposed on Prusias was not remitted (for Andronicus, who had been sent by Attalus to argue on the other side, showed that it was less in amount than the plunder), Menas, seeing that Nicomedes was an estimable and attractive young man, was at a loss to know what to do. He did not dare to kill him, nor to go back himself to Bithynia. The young man noticed his delay and sought a conference with him, which was just what he wanted. They formed a plot against Prusias and secured the cooperation of Andronicus, the legate of Attalus, that he should persuade Attalus to take back Nicomedes to Bithynia. They met by agreement at Bernice, a small town in Epirus, where they entered into a ship by night to confer as to what should be done, and separated before daylight.

§ 1.5  In the morning Nicomedes came out of the ship clad in the royal purple and wearing a diadem on his head. Andronicus met him, saluted him as king, and formed an escort for him with 500 soldiers that he had with him. Menas, pretending that he had then for the first time learned that Nicomedes was present, rushed to his 2000 men and exclaimed with assumed trepidation, "Since we have two kings, one at home and the other going there, we must look out for our own interests, and form a careful judgment of the future, because our safety lies in foreseeing correctly which of them will be the stronger. One of them is an old man, the other is young. The Bithynians are averse to Prusias; they are attached to Nicomedes. The leading Romans are fond of the young man, and Andronicus has already furnished him a guard, showing that Nicomedes is in alliance with Attalus, who rules an extensive dominion alongside the Bithynians and is an old enemy of Prusias." In addition to this he expatiated on the cruelty of Prusias and his outrageous conduct toward everybody, and the general hatred in which he was held by the Bithynians on this account. When he saw that the soldiers also abhorred the wickedness of Prusias he led them forthwith to Nicomedes and saluted him as king, just as Andronicus had done before, and formed a guard for him with his 2000 men.

§ 1.6  Attalus received the young man warmly and ordered Prusias to assign certain towns for his occupation, and territory to furnish him supplies. Prusias replied that he would presently give his son the whole kingdom of Attalus, which he had intended for Nicomedes when he invaded Asia before. After giving this answer he made a formal accusation at Rome against Nicomedes and Attalus and cited them to trial. The forces of Attalus at once made an incursion into Bithynia, the inhabitants of which gradually took sides with the invaders. Prusias, trusting nobody and hoping that the Romans would rescue him from the toils of the conspiracy, asked and obtained from his son-in-law, Diegylis, the Thracian, 500 men, and with these alone as a body-guard he took refuge in the citadel of Nictaea. The Roman praetor, in order to favor Attalus, delayed introducing the ambassadors of Prusias to the Senate at Rome. When he did introduce them, the Senate voted that the praetor himself should choose legates and send them to settle the difficulty. He selected three men, one of whom had once been struck on the head with a stone, from which he was badly scarred; another was a diseased cripple, and the third was considered almost a fool; wherefore Cato made the contemptuous remark concerning this embassy, that it had no understanding, no feet and no head.

§ 1.7  The legates proceeded to Bithynia and ordered that the war be discontinued. Nicomedes and Attalus pretended to acquiesce. The Bithynians had been instructed to say that they could no longer endure the cruelty of Prusias, especially after they had openly complained against him. On the pretext that these complaints were not yet known at Rome the legates adjourned, leaving the business unfinished. When Prusias despaired of assistance from the Romans (in reliance upon whom he had neglected to provide means for his own defence) he retired to Nicomedia in order to possess himself of the city and resist the invaders. The inhabitants, however, betrayed him and opened the gates, and Nicomedes entered with his army. Prusias fled to the temple of Zeus, where he was stabbed by some of the emissaries of Nicomedes. In this way Nicomedes succeeded Prusias as king of the Bithynians. At his death his son, Nicomedes, surnamed Philopator, succeeded him, the Senate confirming his ancestral authority. So much for Bithynia. To anticipate the sequel, another Nicomedes, grandson of this one, left the kingdom to the Romans in his will.

§ 2.8  Who were the rulers of Cappadocia before the Macedonians I am not able to say exactly — whether it had a government of its own or was subject to Darius. I judge that Alexander left behind him governors of the conquered nations to collect the tribute while he hastened after Darius. But it appears that he restored to Amisus, a city of Pontus, of Attic origin, its original democratic form of government. Yet Hieronymus says that he did not touch those nations at all, but that he went after Darius by another road, along the sea-coast of Pamphylia and Cilicia. But Perdiccas, who ruled the Macedonians after Alexander, captured and hanged Ariarthes, the governor of Cappadocia, either because he had revolted or in order to bring that country under Macedonian rule, and placed Eumenes of Cardia over these peoples. Eumenes was afterward adjudged an enemy of Macedonia and put to death, and Antipater, who succeeded Perdiccas as overseer of the territory of Alexander, appointed Nicanor satrap of Cappadocia.

§ 2.9  Not long afterward dissensions broke out among the Macedonians. Antigonus expelled Laomedon from Syria and assumed the government himself. He had with him one Mithridates, a scion of the royal house of Persia. Antigonus had a dream that he had sowed a field with gold, and that Mithridates reaped it and carried it off to Pontus. He accordingly arrested him, intending to put him to death, but Mithridates escaped with six horsemen, fortified himself in a stronghold of Cappadocia, where many joined him in consequence of the decay of the Macedonian power, and possessed himself of the whole of Cappadocia and of the neighboring countries along the Euxine. This great power, which he had built up, he left to his children. They reigned one after another until the sixth Mithridates in succession from the founder of the house, and he went to war with the Romans. Since there were kings of this house of both Cappadocia and Pontus, I judge that they divided the government, some ruling one country and some the other.

§ 2.10  At any rate a king of Pontus, the Mithridates surnamed Euergetes (the Benefactor), who was the first of them inscribed as a friend of the Roman people, and who even sent some ships and a small force of auxiliaries to aid them against the Carthaginians, invaded Cappadocia as though it were a foreign country. He was succeeded by his son, Mithridates, surnamed Dionysus, and also Eupator. The Romans ordered him to restore Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, (B.C. 92 who had fled to them and who seemed to have a better title to the government of that country than Mithridates; or perhaps they distrusted the growing power of that great monarchy and thought it would be better to have it divided into several parts. Mithridates obeyed the order, but he put an army at the service of Socrates, surnamed Chrestus, the brother of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who overthrew the latter and usurped the government. This Nicomedes was the son of Nicomedes the son of Prusias, who had received (B.C. 90 the kingdom of Bithynia as his patrimony at the hands of the Romans. Simultaneously Mithraas and Bagoas drove out Ariobarzanes, whom the Romans had confirmed as king of Cappadocia, and installed Ariarthes in his place.

§ 2.11  The Romans decided to restore Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes at the same time, each to his own kingdom, and sent thither for this purpose an embassy, of which Manius Aquilius was the chief, and ordered Lucius Cassius, who was in charge of the Asiatic country around Pergamus and had a small army under his command, to cooperate in their mission. Similar orders were sent to Mithridates Eupator himself. But the latter, being angry with the Romans on account of their interference in Cappadocia, and having been recently despoiled of Phrygia by them (as narrated in my Hellenic history), did not cooperate. Nevertheless Cassius and Manius, with the army of the former, and a large force collected from the Galatians and Phrygians, restored Nicomedes to Bithynia and Ariobarzanes to Cappadocia. They urged them at the same time, as they were neighbors of Mithridates, to make incursions into his territory and stir up a war, promising them the assistance of the Romans. Both of them hesitated to begin so important a war on their own border, because they feared the power of Mithridates. When the ambassadors insisted, Nicomedes, who had agreed to pay a large sum of money to the generals and ambassadors for restoring him to power, which he still owed, together with other large sums which he had borrowed on interest from the Romans in his country and for which they were dunning him, made an attack reluctantly on the territory of Mithridates and plundered it as far as the city of Amastris, meeting no resistance. Although Mithridates had his forces in readiness he retreated, because he wanted to have good and sufficient cause for war.

§ 2.12  Nicomedes returned with large booty and Mithridates sent Pelopidas to the Roman generals and ambassadors. He was not ignorant that they wanted to bring on a war, and that they had incited this attack upon him, but he dissembled in order to procure more and clearer causes for the coming war, for which reason he reminded them of his own and his father's friendship and alliance, in return for which Pelopidas said that Phrygia and Cappadocia had been wrested from him, of which Cappadocia had always belonged to his ancestors and had been left to him by his own father. "Phrygia," he continued, "was given to him by your own general as a reward for his victory over Aristonicus; nevertheless he paid a large sum of money to that same general for it. But now you allow Nicomedes even to close the mouth of the Euxine, and to overrun the country as far as Amastris, and you see him carrying off vast plunder with impunity. My king was not weak, he was not unprepared to defend himself, but he waited in order that you might be eye-witnesses of these transactions. Since you have seen all this, Mithridates, who is your friend and ally, calls upon you as friends and allies (for so the treaty reads) to defend us against the wrong-doing of Nicomedes, or to restrain the wrong-doer."

§ 2.13  When Pelopidas had finished speaking the ambassadors of Nicomedes, who were there to answer him, said: "Mithridates plotted against Nicomedes long ago and put Socrates on the throne by force and arms, though Socrates was of a quiet disposition and thought it right that his elder brother should reign. This was the act of Mithridates to Nicomedes whom you, Romans, had established on the throne of Bithynia — a blow which was evidently aimed as much at you as at us. In like manner after you had commanded the Asiatic kings not to molest Europe, he seized the greater part of Chersonesus. Let these acts stand as examples of his arrogance, his hostility, his disobedience towards yourselves. Look at his great preparations. He stands in complete readiness, as for a great and predetermined war, not merely with his own army, but with great force of allies, Thracians, Scythians, and many other neighboring peoples. He has formed a marriage alliance with Armenia, and has sent to Egypt and Syria to make friends with the kings of those countries. He has 300 ships of war and is still adding to the number. He has sent to Phoenicia and Egypt for naval officers and steersmen. These things, that Mithridates is collecting in such vast quantities, are not designed for Nicomedes, nay, O Romans, but for you. He is angry with you because, when he had bought Phrygia by a corrupt bargain from one of your generals, you ordered him to give up his ill-gotten gains. He is angry on account of Cappadocia, which was given by you to Ariobarzanes. He fears your increasing power. He is making preparations under pretence that they are intended for us, but he means to attack you if he can. It will be the part of wisdom not to wait till he declares war against you, but to look at his deeds rather than his words, and not give up true and tried friends for a hypocrite who offers you the fictitious name of friendship, nor allow your decision concerning our kingdom to be annulled by one who is equally the foe of both of us."

§ 2.14  After the ambassadors of Nicomedes had thus spoken Pelopidas again addressed the Roman assembly, saying that if Nicomedes was complaining of bygones, he accepted the decision of the Romans, but as to present matters which were transpiring under their eyes, the ravaging of Mithridates' territory, the closing of the sea, and the carrying away of such vast plunder, there was no need of discussion or adjudication. "We call upon you, Romans, again," he said, "either to prevent such outrages, or to assist Mithridates, who is their victim, or at all events to stand aside, allow him to defend himself, and not help either party." While Pelopidas was repeating his demand, though it had been determined by the Roman generals long before to help Nicomedes, they made a pretence of listening to the argument on the other side. Yet the words of Pelopidas and the alliance of Mithridates, which was still in force, put them to shame, and they were at a loss for some time what answer to make. Finally, after long thought, they made this artful reply, "We would not wish that Mithridates suffer harm at the hands of Nicomedes, nor can we allow war to be made against Nicomedes, because we do not think that it would be for the interest of Rome that he should be weakened." Having delivered this response they dismissed Pelopidas from the assembly, although he wanted to show the insufficiency of their answer.

§ 3.15  Mithridates, having been denied justice by the Romans in this public manner, sent his son Ariarthes with a large force to seize the kingdom of Cappadocia. Ariarthes speedily overpowered it and drove out Ariobarzanes. Then Pelopidas returned to the Roman generals and said: 'How patiently King Mithridates bore injury from you when he was deprived of Phrygia and Cappadocia not long ago you have been told already, O Romans. What injuries Nicomedes inflicted upon him you have seen — and have not heeded. And when we appealed to your friendship and alliance you answered as though we were not the accusers but the accused, saying that it would not be for your interest that harm should come to Nicomedes, as though he were the injured one. You therefore are accountable to the Roman republic for what has taken place in Cappadocia. Mithridates has done what he has done because you disdained us and mocked us in your answers. He intends to send an embassy to your Senate to complain against you. He summons you to defend yourselves there in person in order that ye may do nothing in haste, nor begin a war of such magnitude without the decree of Rome itself. You should bear in mind that Mithridates is ruling his ancestral domain, which is 2000 stades long, and that he has acquired many neighboring nations, the Colchians, a very warlike people, the Greeks bordering on the Euxine, and the barbarian tribes beyond them. He has allies also ready to obey his every command, Scythians, Taurians, Bastarnae, Thracians, Sarmatians, and all those who dwell in the region of the Tanais and Danube and the Maiotis. Tigranes of Armenia is his son-in-law and Arsaces of Parthia his ally. He has a large number of ships, some in readiness and others building, and apparatus of all kinds in abundance.

§ 3.16  "The Bithynians were not wrong in what they told you lately about the kings of Egypt and Syria. Not only are these likely to help us if war breaks out, but also your newly acquired province of Asia, and Greece, and Africa, and a considerable part of Italy itself, which even now wages implacable war against you because it cannot endure your greed. Before you are able to compose this strife you attack Mithridates and set Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes on him by turns, and you say, forsooth, that you are our friends and allies. You pretend to be so, and yet you act like enemies. Come now, if at last the consequences of your acts have put you in a better frame of mind, either restrain Nicomedes from injuring your friends and allies (in which case I promise that King Mithridates shall help you to put down the rebellion in Italy), or throw off the mask of friendship for us, or let us go to Rome and settle the dispute there." So spake Pelopidas. The Romans considered his speech insolent and ordered Mithridates to let Nicomedes and Cappadocia alone (for they had again restored Ariobarzanes to the latter). They also ordered Pelopidas to leave their camp immediately, and not to return unless the king obeyed their commands. Having given this answer they sent him away under guard lest he should inveigle some persons on the road.

§ 3.17  After they had finished speaking they did not wait to hear what the Senate and people of Rome would think about such a great war, but began to collect forces from Bithynia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the Galatians of Asia. As soon as Lucius Cassius, the governor of Asia, had his own army in readiness all the allied forces were assembled. Then they were put in separate divisions and sent into camp, Cassius on the boundary of Bithynia and Galatia, Manius on Mithridates' line of march to Bithynia, and Oppius, the third general, among the mountains of Cappadocia. Each of these had about 40,000 men, horse and foot together. They had also a fleet under command of Minucius Rufus and Gaius Popillius at Byzantium, guarding the mouth of the Euxine. Nicomedes was present with 50,000 foot and 6000 horse under his command. Such was the total strength of the forces brought together. Mithridates had in his own army 250,000 foot and 40,000 horse, 300 ships with decks, 100 with two banks of oars each, and other apparatus in proportion. He had for generals Neoptolemus and Archelaus, two brothers. The king took charge of the greater number in person. Of the allied forces Arcathias, the son of Mithridates, led 10,000 horse from Armenia Minor, and Doryalus commanded the phalanx. Craterus had charge of 130 war chariots. So great were the preparations on either side when the Romans and Mithridates first came in conflict with each other, about the 173rd Olympiad.

§ 3.18  When Nicomedes and the generals of Mithridates came in sight of each other in a wide plain bordered by the river Amnias they drew up their forces for battle. Nicomedes had his entire army in hand; Neoptolemus and Archelaus had only their light infantry and the cavalry of Arcathias and a few chariots; for the phalanx had not yet come up. They sent forward a small force to seize a rocky hill in the plain lest they should be surrounded by the Bithynians, who were much more numerous. When Neoptolemus saw his men driven from the hill he was still more in fear of being surrounded. He advanced with haste to their assistance, at the same time calling on Arcathias for help. When Nicomedes perceived the movement he sought to meet it by a similar one. Thereupon a severe and bloody struggle ensued. Nicomedes prevailed and put the Mithridateans to flight until Archelaus, advancing from the right flank, fell upon the pursuers, who were compelled to turn their attention to him. He yielded little by little in order that the forces of Neoptolemus might have a chance to rally. When he judged that they had done so sufficiently he advanced again. At the same time the scythe-bearing chariots made a charge on the Bithynians, cutting some of them in two, and tearing others to pieces. The army of Nicomedes was terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments and their parts hanging on the scythes. Overcome rather by the hideousness of the spectacle than by loss of the fight, fear took possession of their ranks. While they were thus thrown into confusion Archelaus attacked them in front, and Neoptolemus and Arcathias, who had turned about, assailed them in the rear. They fought a long time facing both ways. After the greater part of his men had fallen, Nicomedes fled with the remainder into Paphlagonia, although the Mithridatean phalanx had not come into the engagement at all. His camp was captured, together with a large sum of money and many prisoners. All these Mithridates treated kindly and sent to their homes with supplies for the journey, thus gaining a reputation for clemency among his enemies.

§ 3.19  This first engagement of the Mithridatic war alarmed the Roman generals, because they had kindled so great a strife precipitately, without good judgment, and without any public decree. A small number of soldiers had overcome a much larger one, not by having a better position, or through any blunder of the enemy, but by the valor of the generals and the fighting quality of the army. Nicomedes now encamped alongside of Manius. Mithridates ascended Mount Scoroba, which lies on the boundary between Bithynia and Pontus. A hundred Sarmatian horse of his advance-guard came upon 800 of the Nicomedean cavalry and took some of them prisoners. Mithridates dismissed these also to their homes and furnished them supplies. Neoptolemus, and Nemanes the Armenian, overtook Manius on his retreat at the castle of Protophachium about the seventh hour, while Nicomedes was moving away to join Cassius, and compelled him to fight. He had 4000 horse and ten times that number of foot. They killed 10,000000 of his men and took 300 prisoners. When they were brought to Mithridates he released them in like manner, thus winning the good opinion of his enemies. The camp of Manius was also captured. He fled to the river Sangarius, crossed it by night, and escaped to Pergamus. Cassius and Nicomedes and all the Roman ambassadors who were with the army decamped to a place called the Lion's Head, a very powerful stronghold in Phrygia, where they began to drill their newly collected mob of artisans, rustics, and other raw recruits, and made new levies among the Phrygians. Finding them worthless they abandoned the idea of fighting with such unwarlike men, dismissed them and retreated; Cassius with his own army to Apamea, Nicomedes to Pergamus, and Manius toward Rhodes. When those who were guarding the mouth of the Euxine learned these facts they scattered also and delivered the straits and all the ships they had to Mithridates.

§ 3.20  Having subverted the whole dominion of Nicomedes at one blow, Mithridates took possession of it and put the cities in order. Then he invaded Phrygia and lodged at an inn which had been occupied by Alexander the Great, thinking that it would bring him luck to halt where Alexander had once stopped. He overran the rest of Phrygia, together with Mysia and those parts of Asia which had been lately acquired by the Romans. Then he sent his officers to the adjoining provinces and subjugated Lycia, Pamphylia, and the rest as far as Ionia. To the Laodiceans on the river Lycus, who were still resisting (for the Roman general, Quintus Oppius, had arrived with his cavalry and certain mercenaries at their town and was defending it), he made this proclamation by herald before the walls, "King Mithridates promises that the Laodiceans shall suffer no injury if they will deliver Oppius to him." Upon this announcement they dismissed the mercenaries unharmed, but led Oppius himself to Mithridates with his lictors marching in front of him by way of ridicule. Mithridates did him no harm, but took him around with him unbound, exhibiting a Roman general as his prisoner.

§ 3.21  Not long afterward he captured Manius Aquilius, one of the ambassadors and the one who was most to blame for this war. Mithridates led him around, bound on an ass, and compelled him to introduce himself to the public as Manius. Finally, at Pergamus, Mithridates poured molten gold down his throat, thus rebuking the Romans for their bribe-taking. After appointing satraps over the various nations he proceeded to Magnesia, Ephesus, and Mitylene, all of which received him gladly. The Ephesians overthrew the Roman statues which had been erected in their cities — for which they paid the penalty not long afterward. On his return from Ionia Mithridates took the city of Stratonicea, imposed a pecuniary fine on it, and placed a garrison in it. Seeing a handsome virgin there he added her to his list of wives. Her name, if anybody wishes to know it, was Monima, the daughter of Philopoemen. Against those Magnesians, Paphlagonians, and Lycians who still opposed him he directed his generals to make war.

§ 4.22  Such was the state of affairs with Mithridates. As soon as his outbreak and invasion of Asia were known at Rome they declared war against him, although they were occupied with grievous dissensions in the city and a formidable Social war, almost all parts of Italy having revolted one after another. When the consuls cast lots, the government of Asia and the Mithridatic war fell to Cornelius Sulla. As they had no money to defray his expenses they voted to sell the treasures that King Numa Pompilius had set apart for sacrifices to the gods; so great was their want of means at that time and so great their ambition for the commonwealth. A part of these treasures, sold hastily, brought 90000 pounds' weight of gold and this was all they had to spend on so great a war. Moreover Sulla was detained a long time by the civil wars, as I have stated in my history of the same. In the meantime Mithridates built a large number of ships for an attack on Rhodes, and he wrote secretly to all his satraps and magistrates that on the thirtieth day thereafter they should set upon all Romans and Italians in their towns, and upon their wives and children and their domestics of Italian birth, kill them and throw their bodies out unburied, and share their goods with himself. He threatened to punish any who should bury the dead or conceal the living, and offered rewards to informers and to those who should kill persons in hiding, and freedom to slaves for betraying their masters. To debtors for killing money-lenders he offered release from one-half of their obligations. These secret orders Mithridates sent to all the cities at the same time. When the appointed day came calamities of various kinds befell the province of Asia, among which were the following:

§ 4.23  The Ephesians tore fugitives, who had taken refuge in the temple of Artemis, from the very images of the goddess and slew them. The Pergameans shot with arrows those who had fled to the temple of Aesculapius, while they were still clinging to his statues. The Adramytteans followed those who sought to escape by swimming, into the sea, and killed them and drowned their children. The Caunii, who had been made subject to Rhodes after the war against Antiochus and had been lately liberated by the Romans, pursued the Italians who had taken refuge about the Vesta statue of the senate-house, tore them from the shrine, killed children before their mothers' eyes, and then killed the mothers themselves and their husbands after them. The citizens of Tralles, in order to avoid the appearance of blood-guiltiness, hired a savage monster named Theophilus, of Paphlagonia, to do the work. He conducted the victims to the temple of Concord, and there murdered them, chopping off the hands of some who were embracing the sacred images. Such was the awful fate that befell the Romans and Italians throughout the province of Asia, men, women, and children, their freedmen and slaves, all who were of Italian blood; by which it was made very plain that it was quite as much hatred of the Romans as fear of Mithridates that impelled the Asiatics to commit these atrocities. But they paid a double penalty for their crime — one at the hands of Mithridates himself, who ill-treated them perfidiously not long afterward, and the other at the hands of Cornelius Sulla. In the meantime Mithridates crossed over to the island of Cos, where he was welcomed by the inhabitants and where he received, and afterward brought up in a royal way, a son of Alexander, the reigning sovereign of Egypt, who had been left there by his grand-mother, Cleopatra, together with a large sum of money. From the treasures of Cleopatra he sent vast wealth, works of art, precious stones, women's ornaments, and a great deal of money to Pontus.

§ 4.24  While these things were going on the Rhodians strengthened their walls and their harbor and erected engines of war everywhere, receiving some assistance from Telmessus and Lycia. All the Italians who escaped from Asia collected at Rhodes, among them Lucius Cassius, the proconsul of the province. When Mithridates approached with his fleet, the inhabitants destroyed the suburbs in order that they might not be of service to the enemy. Then they put to sea for a naval engagement with some of their ships ranged for an attack in front and some on the flank. Mithridates, who was sailing around in a quinquereme, ordered his ships to extend their wing out to sea and to quicken the rowing in order to surround the enemy, for they were fewer in number. The Rhodians were apprehensive of this manoeuvre and retired slowly. Finally they turned about and took refuge in the harbor, closed the gates, and fought Mithridates from the walls. He encamped near the city and continually tried to gain entrance to the harbor, but failing to do so he waited for the arrival of his infantry from Asia. In the meantime there was continual skirmishing going on among the soldiers in ambush around the walls. As the Rhodians had the best of it in these affairs, they gradually plucked up courage and kept their ships well in hand in order to dart upon the enemy whenever they should discover an opportunity.

§ 4.25  As one of the king's merchantmen was moving near them under sail a Rhodian two-bank ship advanced against it. Many on both sides hastened to the rescue and a severe naval engagement took place. Mithridates outweighed his antagonists both in fury and in the multitude of his fleet, but the Rhodians circled around and rammed his ships with such skill that they took one of his triremes in tow with its crew and tackle and much spoil, and brought it into the harbor. Another time, when one of their quinqueremes had been taken by the enemy, the Rhodians, not knowing this fact, sent out six of their swiftest ships to look for it, under command of their admiral, Demagoras. Mithridates despatched twenty-five of his against them. Demagoras retired before them until sunset. When it began to grow dark and the king's ships turned around to sail back, Demagoras fell upon them, sunk two, drove two others into Lycia, and returned home on the open sea by night. This was the result of the naval engagement, as unexpected to the Rhodians on account of the smallness of their force as to Mithridates on account of the largeness of his. In this engagement while the king was sailing about in his ship and urging on his men, an allied ship from Chios ran against his in the confusion with a severe shock. The king pretended not to mind it at the time, but later he punished the pilot and the lookout man, and conceived a hatred for all Chians.

§ 4.26  About the same time the land forces of Mithridates set sail in merchant vessels and triremes, and a storm, blowing from Caunus, drove them toward Rhodes. The Rhodians promptly sailed out to meet them, fell upon them while they were still scattered and suffering from the effects of the tempest, captured some, rammed others, and burned others, and took about 400 prisoners. Thereupon Mithridates prepared for another naval engagement and siege at the same time. He built a sambuca, an immense machine for scaling walls, and mounted it on two ships. Some deserters showed him a hill that was easy to climb, where the temple of Zeus Atabyrius was situated, surrounded by a low wall. He placed a part of his army in ships by night, distributed scaling ladders to others, and commanded both parties to move silently until they should see a fire signal given from Mount Atabyrius; and then to make the greatest possible uproar, and some to attack the harbor and others the wall. Accordingly they approached in profound silence. The Rhodian sentries knew what was going on and lighted a fire. The army of Mithridates, thinking that this was the fire signal from Atabyrius, broke the silence with a loud shout, the scaling party and the naval contingent shouting all together. The Rhodians, not at all dismayed, answered the shout and rushed to the walls in crowds. The king's forces accomplished nothing that night, and the next day they were beaten off.

§ 4.27  The Rhodians were most dismayed by the sambuca, which was moved against the wall where the temple of Isis stands. It was operating with weapons of various kinds, both rams and projectiles. Soldiers in numerous small boats circled around it with ladders, ready to mount the wall by means of it. Nevertheless the Rhodians awaited its attack with firmness. Finally the sambuca collapsed of its own weight, and an apparition of Isis was seen hurling a great mass of fire down upon it. Mithridates despaired of his undertaking and retired from Rhodes. He then laid siege to Patara and began to cut down a grove dedicated to Latona, to get material for his machines, until he was warned in a dream to spare the sacred trees. Leaving Pelopidas to continue the war against the Lycians he sent Archelaus to Greece to gain allies by persuasion or force according as he could. After this Mithridates committed most of his tasks to his generals, and applied himself to raising troops, making arms, and enjoying himself with his Stratonicean wife. He also held court to try those who were accused of conspiring against him, or of inciting revolution, or of favoring the Romans in any way.

§ 5.28  While Mithridates was thus occupied the following events took place in Greece: Archelaus, sailing thither with abundant supplies and a large fleet, possessed himself by force and violence of Delos and other strongholds which had revolted from the Athenians. He slew 20,000 men in these places, most of whom were Italians, and turned the strongholds over to the Athenians. In this way, and by boasting about Mithridates and extravagantly praising him, he brought the Athenians into alliance with him. Archelaus sent them the sacred treasure of Delos by the hands of Aristion, an Athenian citizen, attended by 2000 soldiers to guard the money. These soldiers Aristion made use of to make himself master of the country, putting to death immediately some of those who favored the Romans and sending others to Mithridates. And these things he did although he professed to be a philosopher of the school of Epicurus. Nor was it only in Athens that men played the part of tyrants as did he and before him Critias and his fellow-philosophers. But in Italy, too, some of the Pythagoreans and those known as the Seven Wise Men in other parts of the Grecian world, who undertook to manage public affairs, governed more cruelly, and made themselves greater tyrants than ordinary despots; whence arose doubt and suspicion concerning other philosophers, whether their discourses about wisdom proceeded from a love of virtue or as (B.C. 87 a comfort in their poverty and idleness. We see many of these now, obscure and poverty-stricken, wearing the garb of philosophy as a matter of necessity, and railing bitterly at the rich and powerful, not because they have any real contempt for riches and power, but from envy of the possessors of the same. Those whom they speak ill of have much better reason for despising them. These things the reader should consider as spoken against the philosopher Aristion, who is the cause of this digression.

§ 5.29  Archelaus brought over to the side of Mithridates the Achaeans, the Lacedaemonians, and all of Boeotia except Thespiae, to which he laid close siege. At the same time Metrophanes, who had been sent by Mithridates with another army, ravaged Euboea and the territory of Demetrias and Magnesia, which states refused to espouse his cause. Bruttius advanced against him with a small force from Macedonia, had a naval fight with him, sunk one large ship and one hemiolia, and killed all who were in them while Metrophanes was looking on. The latter fled in terror and, as he had a favorable wind, Bruttius could not overtake him, but stormed Sciathos, which was a storehouse of plunder for barbarians, and crucified some of them who were slaves and cut off the hands of the freemen. Then he turned against Boeotia, having received reenforcements of 1000 horse and foot from Macedonia. Near Chaeronea he was engaged in a fight of three days' duration with Archelaus and Aristion, which had an indecisive result. When the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans came to the aid of Archelaus and Aristion, Bruttius thought that he was not a match for all of them together and withdrew to the Piraeus until Archelaus came up with his fleet and seized that place also.

§ 5.30  Sulla, who had been appointed general of the Mithridatic war by the Romans, now for the first time passed over to Greece with five legions and a few cohorts and troops of horse and straightway called for money, reenforcements and provisions from Aetolia and Thessaly. As soon as he considered himself strong enough he crossed over to Attica to attack Archelaus. As he was passing through the country all Boeotia joined him except a few, and among others the great city of Thebes which had rather lightly taken sides with the Mithridateans against the Romans, but now even more nimbly changed from Archelaus to Sulla before coming to a trial of strength. When Sulla reached Attica he detached part of his army to lay siege to Aristion in Athens, and himself went down to attack the Piraeus, where Archelaus had taken shelter behind the wall with his forces. The height of the wall was about forty cubits and it was built of large square stones. It was the work of Pericles in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and as he rested his hope of victory on the Piraeus he made it as strong as possible. Notwithstanding the height of the walls Sulla planted his ladders against them at once. After inflicting and receiving much damage (for the Cappadocians bravely repelled his attack), he retired exhausted to Eleusis and Megara, where he built engines for a new attack upon the Piraeus and formed a plan for besieging it with mounds. Artifices and apparatus of all kinds, iron, catapults, and everything of that sort were supplied by Thebes. Sulla chopped down the grove of the Academy and constructed his largest engines there. He demolished the Long Walls, and used the stones, timber, and earth for building mounds.

§ 5.31  Two Athenian slaves in the Piraeus — either because they favored the Romans or were looking out for their own safety in an emergency — wrote down everything that took place there, enclosed their writing in leaden balls, and threw them over to the Romans with slings. As this was done continually it came to the knowledge of Sulla, who gave his attention to the missives and found one which said, "Tomorrow the infantry will make a sally in front upon your workers, and the cavalry will attack the Roman army on both flanks." Sulla placed an adequate force in ambush and when the enemy dashed out with the thought that their movement would completely surprise him he gave them a greater surprise with his concealed force, killing many and driving the rest into the sea. This was the end of that enterprise. When the mounds began to rise Archelaus erected opposing towers and placed the greatest quantity of missiles on them. He sent for reenforcements from Chalcis and the other islands and armed his oarsmen, for he considered himself in extreme danger. As his army was superior in number to that of Sulla before, it now became much more so by these reenforcements. He then darted out in the middle of the night with torches and burned one of the tortoises and the machines alongside of it; but Sulla made new ones in ten days' time and put them in the places of the former ones. Against these Archelaus established a tower on that part of the wall.

§ 5.32  Having received from Mithridates by sea a new army under command of Dromichaetes, Archelaus led all his troops out to battle. He distributed archers and slingers among them and ranged them close under the walls so that the guards above could reach the enemy with their missiles. Others were stationed around the gates with torches to watch their opportunity to make a sally. The battle remained doubtful a long time; each side yielding by turns. First the barbarians gave way until Archelaus rallied them and led them back. The Romans were so dismayed by this that they were put to flight next, until Murena ran up and rallied them. Just then another legion, which had returned from gathering wood, together with some soldiers who had been disgraced, finding a hot fight in progress, made a powerful charge on the Mithridateans killed about 2000 of them and drove the rest inside the walls. Archelaus tried to rally them again and stood his ground so long that he was shut out and had to be pulled up by ropes. In consideration of their splendid behavior Sulla removed the stigma from those who had been disgraced and gave large rewards to the others.

§ 5.33  Now winter came on and Sulla established his camp at Eleusis and protected it by a deep ditch, extending from the high ground to the sea so that the enemy's horse could not readily reach him. While he was prosecuting this work fighting took place daily, now at the ditch, now at the walls of the enemy, who frequently came out and assailed the Romans with stones, javelins, and leaden balls. Sulla, being in need of ships, sent to Rhodes to obtain them, but the Rhodians were not able to send them because Mithridates controlled the sea. He then ordered Lucullus, a distinguished Roman who later succeeded Sulla as commander in this war, to proceed secretly to Alexandria and Syria, and procure a fleet from those kings and cities that were skilled in nautical affairs, and to bring with it the Rhodian naval contingent also. Lucullus had no fear of the hostile fleet. He embarked in a fast sailing vessel and, by changing from one ship to another in order to conceal his movements, arrived at Alexandria.

§ 5.34  Meanwhile the traitors in the Piraeus threw another message over the walls, saying that Archelaus would on that very night send a convoy of soldiers with provisions to the city of Athens, which was suffering from hunger. Sulla laid a trap for them and captured both the provisions and the soldiers. On the same day, near Chalcis, Minutius wounded Neoptolemus, Mithridates' other general, killed 1500 of his men, and took a still larger number prisoners. Not long after, by night, while the guards on the walls of the Piraeus were asleep, the Romans took some ladders from the engines near by, mounted the walls, and killed the guards at that place. Thereupon some of the barbarians abandoned their posts and fled to the harbor, thinking that all the walls had been captured. Others, recovering their courage, slew the leader of the assailing party and hurled the remainder over the wall. Still others darted out through the gates and almost burned one of the two Roman towers, and would have burned it had not Sulla ridden up from the camp and saved it by a hard fight lasting all that night and the next day. Then the barbarians retired. Archelaus planted another great tower on the wall opposite the Roman tower and these two assailed each other, discharging all kinds of missiles constantly until Sulla, by means of his catapults, each of which discharged twenty of the heaviest leaden balls at one volley, had killed a large number of the enemy, and had so shaken the tower of Archelaus that it was rendered untenable, and the latter was compelled, by fear of its destruction, to draw it back with all speed.

§ 5.35  Meanwhile famine pressed more and more on the city of Athens, and the ball throwers in the Piraeus gave information that provisions would be sent thither by night. Archelaus suspected that some traitor was giving information to the enemy about his convoys. Accordingly, at the same time that he sent it, he stationed a force at the gates with torches to make an assault on the Roman works if Sulla should attack the provision train. So it turned out that Sulla captured the train and Archelaus burned some of the Roman works. At the same time Arcathias, the son of Mithridates, with another army invaded Macedonia and without difficulty overcame the small Roman force there, subjugated the whole country, appointed satraps to govern it, and advanced against Sulla, but was taken sick and died near Tisaeus. In the meantime the famine in Athens became very severe. Sulla built stockades around it to prevent anybody from going out so that, by reason of their numbers, the hunger should be more severe upon those who were shut in.

§ 5.36  When Sulla had raised his mound to the proper height at the Piraeus he planted his engines on it. But Archelaus undermined the mound and carried away the earth, the Romans for a long time suspecting nothing. Suddenly the mound sank down. Quickly understanding the state of things, the Romans withdrew their engines and filled up the mound, and, following the enemy's example, began in like manner to undermine the walls. The diggers met each other underground, and fought there with swords and spears as well as they could in the darkness. While this was going on, Sulla pounded the wall with rams erected on the tops of mounds until part of it fell down. Then he hastened to burn the neighboring tower, and discharged a large number of fire-bearing missiles against it, and ordered his bravest soldiers to mount the ladders. Both sides fought bravely, but the tower was burned. Another small part of the wall was thrown down also, over against which Sulla at once stationed a guard. Having now undermined a section of the wall, so that it was only sustained by wooden beams, he placed a great quantity of sulphur, hemp, and pitch under it, and set fire to the whole at once. The walls fell — now here, now there — carrying the defenders down with them. This great and unexpected crash demoralized the forces guarding the walls everywhere, as each one expected that the ground would sink under him next. Fear and loss of confidence kept them turning this way and that way, so that they offered only a feeble resistance to the enemy.

§ 5.37  Against the forces thus demoralized Sulla kept up an unceasing fight, continually changing the active part of his own army, bringing up fresh soldiers with ladders, one division after another, with shout and cheer, urging them forward with threats and encouragement at the same time, and telling them that victory would shortly be theirs. Archelaus, on the other hand, brought up new forces in place of his discouraged ones. He, too, changed their labor continually, cheering and urging them on, and telling them that their salvation would soon be secured. A high degree of zeal and courage was excited in both armies again and the fight became very severe, the slaughter being substantially equal on both sides. Finally Sulla, being the attacking party and therefore soonest exhausted, sounded a retreat and led his forces back, praising many of his men for their bravery. Archelaus forthwith repaired the damage to his wall by night, protecting a large part of it with a lunette curving inward. Sulla attacked this newly built wall at once with his whole army, thinking that as it was still moist and weak he could easily demolish it, but as he had to work in a narrow space and was exposed to missiles from above, both in front and flank, as is usual with crescent-shaped fortifications, he was again worn out. Then he abandoned all idea of taking the Piraeus by assault and established a siege around it in order to reduce it by famine.

§ 6.38  Knowing that the defenders of Athens were severely pressed by hunger, that they had devoured all their cattle, boiled the hides and skins, and licked what they could get therefrom, and that some had even partaken of human flesh, Sulla directed his soldiers to encircle the city with a ditch so that the inhabitants might not escape secretly, even one by one. This done, he brought up his ladders and at the same time began to break through the wall. The feeble defenders were soon put to flight, and the Romans rushed into the city. A great and pitiless slaughter ensued in Athens, the inhabitants, for want of nourishment, being too weak to fly. Sulla ordered an indiscriminate massacre, not sparing women or children. He was angry that they had so suddenly joined the barbarians without cause, and had displayed such violent animosity toward himself. Most of the Athenians when they heard the order given rushed upon the swords of the slayers voluntarily. A few had taken their feeble course to the Acropolis, among them Aristion, who had burned the Odeum, so that Sulla might not have the timber in it at hand for storming the Acropolis. Sulla forbade the burning of the city, but allowed the soldiers to plunder it. In many houses they found human flesh prepared for food. The next day Sulla sold the slaves at auction. To the freemen who had escaped the slaughter of the previous night, a very small number, he promised their liberty but took away their right as voters and electors because they had made war upon him. The same terms were extended to their offspring.

§ 6.39  In this way did Athens have her full of horrors. Sulla stationed a guard around the Acropolis, to whom Aristion and his company were soon compelled by hunger and thirst to surrender. Sulla inflicted the penalty of death on Aristion and his body-guard, and upon all who exercised any authority or who had done anything whatever contrary to the rules laid down for them after the first capture of Greece by the Romans. Sulla pardoned the rest and gave to all of them substantially the same laws that had been previously established for them by the Romans. About forty pounds of gold and 600 pounds of silver was obtained from the Acropolis, — but these events at the Acropolis took place somewhat later.

§ 6.40  As soon as Athens was taken Sulla, impatient at the long siege of the Piraeus, brought up rams, and projectiles of all kinds, and a large force of men, who battered the walls under the shelter of tortoises, and numerous cohorts who hurled javelins and shot arrows in vast numbers at the defenders on the walls in order to drive them back. He knocked down a part of the newly built lunette, which was still moist and weak. Archelaus had anticipated this from the first and had built several others like it inside, so that Sulla came upon one wall after another, and found his task endless. But he pushed on with tireless energy, he relieved his men often, he was ubiquitous among them, urging them on and showing them that their entire hope of reward for their labors depended on accomplishing this small remainder. The soldiers, too, believing that this would in fact be the end of their toils, and spurred to their work by the love of glory and the thought that it would be a splendid achievement to conquer such walls as these, pressed forward vigorously. Finally, Archelaus was dumbfounded by their senseless and mad persistence, and abandoned the walls to them and betook himself to that part of the Piraeus which was most strongly fortified and enclosed on all sides by the sea. As Sulla had no ships he could not attack it.

§ 6.41  Thence Archelaus withdrew to Thessaly by way of Boeotia and drew what was left of his entire forces together at Thermopyle, both his own and those brought by Dromichaetes. He also united with his command the army that had invaded Macedonia under Arcathias, the son of King Mithridates, which was fresh and at nearly its full strength, and had lately received recruits from Mithridates; for he never ceased sending forward reinforcements. While Archelaus was hastily gathering these forces Sulla burned the Piraeus, which had given him more trouble than the city of Athens, not sparing the arsenal, or the navy yard, or any other of its famous belongings. Then he marched against Archelaus, proceeding also by way of Boeotia. As they neared each other the forces of Archelaus just from Thermopyle advanced into Phocis, consisting of Thracian, Pontic, Scythian, Cappadocian, Bithynian, Galatian, and Phrygian troops, and others from Mithridates' newly acquired territory, in all 120,000 men. Each nationality had its own general, but Archelaus had supreme command over all. Sulla's forces were Italians and some Greeks and Macedonians, who had lately deserted Archelaus and come over to him, and a few others from the surrounding country, but they were not one-third the number of the enemy.

§ 6.42  When they had taken position opposite each other Archelaus repeatedly led out his forces and offered battle. Sulla hesitated on account of the nature of the ground and the numbers of the enemy. When Archelaus moved toward Chalcis Sulla followed him closely, watching for a favorable time and place. When he saw the enemy encamped in a rocky region near Chaeronea, where there was no chance of escape for the vanquished, he took possession of a broad plain near by and drew up his forces in such a way that he could compel Archelaus to fight whether he wanted to or not, and where the slope of the plain favored the Romans either in advancing or retreating. Archelaus was hedged in by rocks which, in a battle, would not allow his whole army to act in concert, as he could not bring them together by reason of the unevenness of the ground; and if they were routed their flight would be impeded by the rocks. Relying for these reasons on his advantage of position Sulla moved forward in such a way that the enemy's superiority of numbers should not be of any service to him. Archelaus did not dream of coming to an engagement at that time, for which reason he had been careless in choosing the place for his camp. Now that the Romans were advancing he perceived sorrowfully and too late the badness of his position, and he sent forward a detachment of horse to prevent the movement. The detachment was put to flight and shattered among the rocks. He next charged with sixty chariots, hoping to sever and break in pieces the formation of the legions by the shock. The Romans opened their ranks and the chariots were carried through by their own momentum to the rear, and before they could turn back they were surrounded and destroyed by the javelins of the rear guard.

§ 6.43  Although Archelaus might have fought safely from his fortified camp, where the crags would perhaps have defended him, he hastily led out his vast multitude of men who had not expected to fight here, and drew them up, in a place that had proved much too narrow, because Sulla was already approaching. He first made a powerful charge with his horse, cut the Roman formation in two, and, by reason of the smallness of their numbers, completely surrounded both parts. The Romans turned their faces to the enemy on all sides and fought bravely. The divisions of Galba and Hortensius suffered most since Archelaus led the battle against them in person, and the barbarians fighting under the eye of the commander were spurred by emulation to the highest pitch of valor. But Sulla moved to their aid with a large body of horse and Archelaus, feeling sure that it was Sulla who was approaching, for he saw the standards of the commander-in-chief, and a greater cloud of dust arising, released his grasp and began to resume his first position. Sulla, leading the best part of his horse and picking up two new cohorts that had been placed in reserve, struck the enemy before they had executed their manoeuvre and formed a solid front. He threw them into confusion, put them to flight, and pursued them. While victory was dawning on that side, Murena, who commanded the left wing, was not idle. Chiding his soldiers for their remissness he, too, dashed upon the enemy valiantly and put them to flight.

§ 6.44  When Archelaus' two wings gave way the centre no longer held its ground, but took to promiscuous flight. Then everything that Sulla had foreseen befell the enemy. Not having room to turn around, or an open country for flight, they were driven by their pursuers among the rocks. Some of them rushed into the hands of the Romans. Others with more wisdom fled toward their own camp. Archelaus placed himself in front of them and barred the entrance, and ordered them to turn and face the enemy, thus betraying the greatest inexperience of the exigencies of war. They obeyed him with alacrity, but as they no longer had either generals to lead, or officers to align them, or standards to show where they belonged, but were scattered in disorderly rout, and had no room either to fly or to fight, the pursuit having brought them into their very narrowest place, they were killed without resistance, some by the enemy, upon whom they could not retaliate, and others by their own friends in the jam and confusion. Again they fled toward the gates of the camp, around which they became congested. They up braided the gate-keepers. They appealed to them in the name of their country's gods and their common relationship, and reproached them that they were slaughtered not so much by the swords of the enemy as by the indifference of their friends. Finally Archelaus, after more delay than was necessary, opened the gates and received the disorganized runaways. When the Romans observed this they gave a great cheer, burst into the camp with the fugitives, and made their victory complete.

§ 6.45  Archelaus and the rest, who made their escape singly, came together at Chalcis. Not more than 10,000 of the 120,000 remained. The Roman loss was only fifteen, and two of these turned up afterward. Such was the result of the battle of Chaeronea between Sulla and Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, to which the sagacity of Sulla and the blundering of Archelaus contributed in equal measure. Sulla captured a large number of prisoners and a great quantity of arms and spoils, the useless part of which he put in a heap. Then he girded himself according to the Roman custom and burned it as a sacrifice to the gods of war. After giving his army a short rest he hastened with his best troops after Archelaus, but as the Romans had no ships the latter sailed securely among the islands and ravaged the coasts. He landed at Zacynthus and laid siege to it, but being attacked in the night by a party of Romans who were sojourning there he reembarked in a hurry and returned to Chalcis more like a robber than a warrior.

§ 7.46  When Mithridates heard of this great disaster he was astonished and terror-stricken, as was natural. Nevertheless, he proceeded with all haste to collect a new army from all his subject nations. Thinking that certain persons would be likely to turn against him on account of his defeat, either now or later, if they should find a good chance, he arrested all suspects before the war should become sharper. First, he put to death the tetrarchs of Galatia with their wives and children, not only those who were united with him as friends, but those who were not his subjects — all except three who escaped. Some of these he took by stratagem, the others he slew one night at a banquet. He believed that none of them would be faithful to him if Sulla should come near. He confiscated their property, established garrisons in their towns, and appointed Eumachus satrap of the nation. But the tetrarchs who had escaped raised an army from the country people forthwith, expelled him and his garrisons, and drove them out of Galatia, so that Mithridates had nothing left of that country except the money he had seized. Being angry with the inhabitants of Chios, one of whose vessels had accidentally run against the royal ship in the naval battle near Rhodes, he first confiscated the goods of all Chians who had fled to Sulla, and then sent persons to inquire what property in Chios belonged to Romans. For a third move, his general, Zenobius, who was conducting an army to Greece, seized the walls of Chios and all the fortified places by night, stationed guards at the gates, and made proclamation that all strangers should remain quiet, and that the Chians should repair to the assembly so that he might give them a message from the king. When they had come together he said that the king was suspicious of the city on account of the Roman faction in it, but that he would be satisfied if they would deliver up their arms and give the children of their principal families as hostages. Seeing that their city was already in his hands they gave both. Zenobius sent them to Erythrae and told the Chians that the king would write to them directly.

§ 7.47  A letter came from Mithridates of the following tenor: "You favor the Romans even now, and many of your citizens are still sojourning with them. You are reaping the fruits of Roman property of which you do not make returns to us. Your trireme ran against and shook my ship in the battle before Rhodes. I willingly imputed that fault to the pilots alone, hoping that you would observe the rules of safety and remain my submissive subjects. Now you have secretly sent your chief men to Sulla, and you have never proved or declared that this was done without public authority, as was the duty of those who were not cooperating with them. Although my friends consider that those who conspire against my government, and who intend to conspire against my person, ought to suffer death, I will let you off with a fine of 2000 talents." Such was the purport of the letter. The Chians wanted to send legates to the king, but Zenobius would not allow it. As they were disarmed and had given up the children of their principal families, and a large barbarian army was in possession of the city, they groaned aloud, but they collected the temple ornaments and the women's jewellery to the full amount of 2000 talents. When this sum had been made up Zenobius accused them of giving him short weight and summoned them to the theatre. Then he stationed his army with drawn swords around the theatre itself and along the streets leading from it to the sea. Then he led the Chians one by one out of the theatre and put them in ships, the men separate from the women and children, and all treated with indignity by their barbarian captors. In this way they were dragged to Mithridates, who packed them off to Pontus on the Euxine. Such was the calamity that befell the citizens of Chios.

§ 7.48  When Zenobius approached Ephesus with his army, the citizens ordered him to leave his arms at the gates and come in with only a few attendants. He obeyed the order and made a visit to Philopoemen (the father of Monima, the favorite wife of Mithridates), whom the latter had appointed overseer of Ephesus, and summoned the Ephesians to the assembly. They expected nothing good from him, and adjourned the meeting till the next day. During the night, however, they met for mutual consultation and encouragement, after which they cast Zenobius into prison and put him to death. They then manned the walls, put the citizens in training, brought in supplies from the country, and put the city in a state of complete defence. When the people of Tralles, Hypaepa, Metropolis, and several other towns heard of this they feared lest they should meet the fate of Chios, and followed the example of Ephesus. Mithridates sent an army against the revolters and inflicted terrible punishments on those whom he captured, but as he feared other defections, he gave freedom to the Greek cities, proclaimed the cancelling of debts, gave the right of citizenship to all sojourners therein, and freed the slaves. He did this hoping (as indeed it turned out) that the debtors, sojourners, and slaves would consider their new privileges secure only under the rule of Mithridates, and would therefore be well disposed toward him. In the meantime Mynnio and Philotimus of Smyrna, Cleisthenes and Asclepiodotus of Lesbos, all of them the king's intimates (Asclepiodotus had once entertained him as a guest) joined in a conspiracy against Mithridates. Of this conspiracy Asclepiodotus himself became the informer, and in order to confirm his story he arranged that the king should conceal himself under a couch and hear what Mynnio said. The plot being thus revealed the conspirators were put to death with torture, and many others suffered from suspicion of similar designs. Thus eighty citizens of Pergamus were caught taking counsel together to like purpose, and others in other cities. The king sent spies everywhere who denounced their own enemies, and in this way about 1500 men lost their lives. Some of these accusers were captured by Sulla a little later and put to death, others committed suicide, and still others took refuge with Mithridates himself in Pontus.

§ 7.49  While these events were taking place in Asia, Mithridates assembled an army of 80,000 men, which Dorylaus led to Archelaus in Greece, who still had 10,000 of his former force remaining. Sulla had taken a position against Archelaus near Orchomenus. When he saw the great number of the enemy's horse coming up, he dug a number of ditches through the plain ten feet wide, and drew up his army to meet Archelaus when the latter advanced. The Romans fought badly because they were in terror of the enemy's cavalry. Sulla rode hither and thither a long time, encouraging and threatening his men. Failing to bring them up to their duty in this way, he leaped from his horse, seized a standard, ran out between the two armies with his shield-bearers, exclaiming, "If you are ever asked, Romans, where you abandoned Sulla, your general, say that it was at the battle of Orchomenus." When the officers saw his peril they darted from their own ranks to his aid, and the troops, moved by the sense of shame, followed and drove the enemy back in their turn. This was the beginning of the victory. Sulla again leaped upon his horse and rode among his troops praising and encouraging them until the end of the battle. The enemy lost 15,000 men, about 10,000 of whom were cavalry, and among them Diogenes, the son of Archelaus. The infantry fled to their camps.

§ 7.50  Sulla feared lest Archelaus should escape him again, because he had no ships, and take refuge in Chalcis as before. Accordingly he stationed night watchmen at intervals over the whole plain, and the next day he enclosed Archelaus with a ditch at a distance of less than 600 feet from his camp, to prevent his escape. Then he appealed to his army to finish the small remainder of the war, since the enemy were no longer even making show of resistance; and so he led them against the camp of Archelaus. Like scenes transpired among the enemy, with a change of feeling necessarily, the officers hurrying hither and thither, representing the imminent danger, and upbraiding the men if they should not be able to defend the camp against assailants inferior in numbers. There was a rush and a shout on each side, followed by many valiant deeds on the part of both. The Romans, protected by their shields, were demolishing a certain angle of the camp when the barbarians leaped down from the parapet inside and took their stand around this corner with drawn swords to ward off the invaders. No one dared to enter until the military tribune, Basillus, first leaped over and killed the man in front of him. Then the whole army dashed after him. The flight and slaughter of the barbarians followed. Some were captured and others driven into the neighboring lake, and, not knowing how to swim, perished while begging for mercy in barbarian speech, not understood by their slayers. Archelaus hid in a marsh, where he found a small boat by which he reached Chalcis. Whatever remained of the Mithridatean forces in separate detachments he summoned thither with all speed.

§ 8.51  The next day Sulla decorated the tribune, Basillus, and gave rewards for valor to others. He ravaged Boeotia which was continually changing from one side to the other, and then moved to Thessaly and went into winter quarters, and waited for Lucullus and his fleet. As he had no tidings of Lucullus he began to build ships for himself. At this juncture Cornelius Cinna and Gaius Marius, his rivals at home, caused him to be declared an enemy of the Roman people, destroyed his houses in the city and the country, and murdered his friends. This, however, did not weaken him in the least, since he had a zealous and devoted army. Cinna sent Flaccus, whom he had caused to be chosen as his colleague in the consulship, to Asia with two legions to take charge of that province and of the Mithridatic war in place of Sulla, who was now declared a public enemy. As Flaccus was inexperienced in the art of war, a man of senatorial rank named Fimbria, who was skilled in military affairs, accompanied him as a volunteer. As they were sailing from Brundusium many of their ships were destroyed by a tempest, and some that had gone in advance were burned by a new army that had been sent forward by Mithridates. Moreover, Flaccus was a rascal, and, being severe in punishments and greedy of gain, was hated by the whole army. Accordingly, a part of them who had been sent ahead into Thessaly went over to Sulla, but Fimbria kept the rest of them from deserting, because they considered him more humane and a better general than Flaccus.

§ 8.52  Once while he was at an inn he had a dispute with the quaestor about their lodgings. Flaccus, who acted as arbiter between them, showed little consideration for Fimbria, and the latter was vexed and threatened to go back to Rome. Accordingly Flaccus appointed a successor to perform the duties which he then had charge of. Fimbria watched his opportunity, and when Flaccus had sailed for Chalcedon he first took the fasces away from Thermus, whom Flaccus had left as his praetor, as though the army had conferred the command upon himself, and when Flaccus returned soon afterward and was angry with him, Fimbria compelled him to fly. Flaccus took refuge in a certain house and in the night-time climbed over the wall and fled first to Chalcedon and afterward to Nicomedia, and closed the gates of the city. Fimbria overcame the place, found him concealed in a well, and killed him, although he was a Roman consul and the commanding officer of this war, and Fimbria himself was only a private citizen who had gone with him as an invited friend. Fimbria cut off his head and flung it into the sea, and left the remainder of his body unburied. Then he appointed himself commander of the army and fought several successful battles with the son of Mithridates. He drove the king himself into Pergamus. The latter escaped from Pergamus to Pitane. Fimbria followed him and began to enclose the place with a ditch. Then the king fled to Mitylene on a ship.

§ 8.53  Fimbria traversed the province of Asia, punished the Cappadocian faction, and devastated the territory of the towns that did not open their gates to him. The inhabitants of Ilium, who were besieged by Fimbria, appealed to Sulla for aid. The latter said that he would come, and told them to say to Fimbria meanwhile that they had intrusted themselves to Sulla. Fimbria, when he heard this, congratulated them on being already friends of the Roman people, and ordered them to admit him within their walls because he also was a Roman. He spoke in an ironical way also of the relationship existing between Ilium and Rome. When he was admitted he made an indiscriminate slaughter and burned the whole town. Those who had been in communication with Sulla he tortured in various ways. He spared neither the sacred objects nor the persons who had fled to the temple of Athena, but burned them with the temple itself. He demolished the walls, and the next day made a search to see whether anything of the place was left standing. So much worse was the city now treated by one of its relations than it had been by Agamemnon, that not a house, not a temple, not a statue was left. Some say that the image of Athena, called the Palladium, which was supposed to have fallen from heaven, was then found unbroken, the falling walls having formed an arch over it; and this may be true unless Diomedes and Ulysses carried it away from Ilium during the Trojan War. Thus was Ilium destroyed by Fimbria at the close of the 173rd Olympiad. Some people think that 1050 years had intervened between this calamity and that which it suffered at the hands of Agamemnon.

§ 8.54  When Mithridates heard of his defeat at Orchomenus he reflected on the immense number of men he had sent into Greece from the beginning, and the continual and swift disaster that had overtaken them. Accordingly, he sent word to Archelaus to make peace on the best terms possible. The latter had an interview with Sulla in which he said, "King Mithridates was your father's friend, O Sulla. He became involved in this war through the rapacity of other Roman generals. He will avail himself of your virtuous character to make peace, if you will grant him fair terms." As Sulla had no ships; as his enemies at Rome had sent him no money, nor anything else, but had declared him an outlaw; as he had already spent the money which he had taken from the Pythian, Olympian, and Epidauric temples, in return for which he had assigned to them half of the territory of Thebes on account of its frequent defections; and because he was in a hurry to lead his army fresh and unimpaired against the hostile faction at home, he assented to the proposal, and said, "If injustice was done to Mithridates, O Archelaus, he ought to have sent an embassy to show how he was wronged, instead of which he put himself in the wrong by overrunning such a vast territory belonging to others, killing such a vast number of people, seizing the public and sacred funds of cities, and confiscating the private property of those whom he destroyed. He has been just as perfidious to his own friends as to us, many of whom he has put to death, including the tetrarchs whom he had brought together at a banquet, and their wives and children, although they had committed no hostile act. Toward us he was moved by an inborn enmity rather than by any necessity for war, visiting every possible calamity upon the Italians throughout Asia, torturing and murdering all of our race, together with their wives, children, and servants. Such hatred did this man bear toward Italy, who now pretends friendship for my father! — a friendship which ye did not call to mind until I had destroyed 160,000 of your troops.

§ 8.55  "Instead of treating for peace we ought to be absolutely implacable toward him, but for your sake I will undertake to obtain his pardon from Rome if he actually repents. But if he is playing the hypocrite again, I advise you, Archelaus, to look out for yourself. Consider how matters stand at present between you and him. Bear in mind how he has treated his other friends and how we treated Eumenes and Masinissa." While he was yet speaking, Archelaus rejected the offer with indignation, saying that he would never betray one who had put an army under his command. "I hope," he said, "to come to an agreement with you if you offer moderate terms." After a short interval Sulla said, "If Mithridates will deliver to us the entire fleet in your possession; if he will surrender our generals and ambassadors and all prisoners, deserters, and runaway slaves, and send back to their homes the people of Chios and all others whom he has dragged off to Pontus; if he will remove his garrison from all places except those that he held before the outbreak of hostilities; if he will pay the cost of the war incurred on his account, and remain content with his ancestral dominions, — I shall hope to persuade the Romans not to remember the injuries he has done them." Such were the terms which he offered. Archelaus at once withdrew his garrison from all the places he held and referred the other conditions to the king. In order to make use of his leisure in the meantime, Sulla marched against the Eneti, the Dardani, and the Sinti, tribes on the border of Macedonia, who were continually invading that country, and devastated their territory. In this way he exercised his soldiers and enriched them at the same time.

§ 8.56  The ambassadors of Mithridates returned with ratifications of all the terms except those relating to Paphlagonia, and they added that Mithridates could obtain better conditions, "if he should negotiate with your other general, Fimbria." Sulla was indignant that he should be brought into such comparison and said that he would bring Fimbria to punishment, and would go himself to Asia and see whether Mithridates wanted peace or war. Having spoken thus he marched through Thrace to Cypsella after having sent Lucullus forward to Abydus, for Lucullus had arrived at last, having run the risk of capture by pirates several times. He had collected a sort of a fleet composed of ships from Cyprus, Phoenicia, Rhodes, and Pamphylia, and had ravaged much of the enemy's coast, and had skirmished with the ships of Mithridates on the way. Then Sulla advanced from Cypsella and Mithridates from Pergamus, and they met in a conference. Each went with a small force to a plain in sight of the two armies. Mithridates began by discoursing of his own and his father's friendship and alliance with the Romans. Then he accused the Roman ambassadors, committeemen, and generals of doing him injuries by putting Ariobarzanes on the throne of Cappadocia, depriving him of Phrygia, and allowing Nicomedes to wrong him. "And all this," he said, "they did for money, taking it from me and from them by turns; for there is nothing of which most of you are so liable to accusation, O Romans, as the love of lucre. When war had broken out through the acts of your generals all that I did was in self-defence, and was the result of necessity rather than of intention."

§ 8.57  When Mithridates had ceased speaking Sulla replied: "Although you called us here," he said, "for a different purpose, namely, to accept our terms of peace, I shall not refuse to speak briefly of those matters. I restored Ariobarzanes to the throne of Cappadocia by decree of the Senate when I was governor in Cilicia, and you obeyed the decree. You ought to have opposed it and given your reasons then, or forever after held your peace. Manius gave Phrygia to you for a bribe, which was a crime on the part of both of you. By the very fact of your getting it by bribery you confess that you had no right to it. Manius was tried at Rome for other acts that he had done for money and the Senate annulled them all. For this reason they decided, not that Phrygia, which had been given to you wrongfully, should be made tributary to Rome, but should be free. If we who had taken it by war did not think best to govern it, by what right could you hold it? Nicomedes charges that you sent against him an assassin named Alexander, and then Socrates Chrestus, a rival claimant of the kingdom, and that it was to avenge these wrongs that he invaded your territory. However, if he wronged you, you ought to have sent an embassy to Rome and waited for an answer. But although you took swift vengeance on Nicomedes, why did you attack Ariobarzanes, who had not harmed you? When you drove him out of his kingdom you imposed upon the Romans, who were there, the necessity of putting him back. By preventing them from doing so you brought on the war. You had meditated war a long time, because you hoped to rule the whole world if you could conquer the Romans, and the reasons you tell of were mere pretexts to cover your real intent. The proof of this is that you, although not yet at war with any nation, sought the alliance of the Thracians, Sarmatians, and Scythians, sought aid from the neighboring kings, built a navy, and enlisted pilots and helmsmen.

§ 8.58  "The time you chose convicts you of treachery most of all. When you heard that Italy had revolted from us you seized the occasion when we were occupied to fall upon Ariobarzanes, Nicomedes, Galatia, and Paphlagonia, and finally upon our Asiatic province. When you had taken them you committed all sorts of outrages on the cities, appointing slaves and debtors to rule over some of them, and freeing slaves and cancelling debts in others. In the Greek cities you destroyed 1600 men on one false accusation. You brought the tetrarchs of Galatia together at a banquet and slew them. You butchered or drowned all residents of Italian blood in one day, including mothers and babes, not sparing even those who had fled to the temples. What cruelty, what impiety, what boundless hate did you exhibit toward us! After you had confiscated the property of all your victims you crossed over to Europe with great armies, although we had forbidden the invasion of Europe to all the kings of Asia. You overran our province of Macedonia and deprived the Greeks of their freedom. Nor did you begin to repent and tell Archelaus to intercede for you, until I had recovered Macedonia and delivered Greece from your grasp, and destroyed 160,000 of your soldiers, and taken your camps with all their belongings. I am astonished that you should now seek to justify the acts for which you asked pardon through Archelaus. If you feared me at a distance, do you think that I have come into your neighborhood to have a debate with you? The time for that passed by when you took up arms against us, and we vigorously repelled your assaults and repelled them to the end." While Sulla was still speaking with vehemence the king yielded to his fears and consented to the terms that had been offered through Archelaus. He delivered up the ships and everything else that had been required, and went back to his paternal kingdom of Pontus as his sole possession. And thus the first war between Mithridates and the Romans came to an end.

§ 9.59  Sulla now advanced within two stades of Fimbria and ordered him to deliver up his army since he held the command contrary to law. Fimbria replied jestingly that Sulla himself did not now hold a lawful command. Sulla drew a line of circumvallation around Fimbria, and many of the latter's soldiers deserted openly. Fimbria called the rest of them together and urged them to stand by him. When they refused to fight against their fellow-citizens he rent his garments and besought them man by man. As they still turned away from him, and still more of them deserted, he went around among the tents of the tribunes, bought some of them with money, called these to the assembly again, and got them to swear that they would stand by him. Those who had been suborned exclaimed that all ought to be called up by name to take the oath. He summoned those who were under obligations to him for past favors. The first name called was that of Nonius, who had been his close companion. When even he refused to take the oath Fimbria drew his sword and threatened to kill him, and would have done so had he not been alarmed by the outcry of the others and compelled to desist. Then he hired a slave, with money and the promise of freedom, to go to Sulla as a pretended deserter and assassinate him. As the slave was nearing his task he became frightened, and thus fell under suspicion; was arrested and confessed. Sulla's soldiers who were stationed around Fimbria's camp were filled with anger and contempt for him. They reviled him and nicknamed him Athenio — a man who was once a king of fugitive slaves in Sicily for a few days.

§ 9.60  Thereupon Fimbria in despair went to the line of circumvallation and asked for a colloquy with Sulla. The latter sent Rutilius instead. Fimbria was disappointed at the outset that he was not deemed worthy of an interview, although it had been given to the enemy. When he begged pardon for an offence due to his youth, Rutilius promised that Sulla would allow him to go away in safety by sea if he would take ship from the province of Asia, of which Sulla was proconsul. Fimbria said that he had another and better route. He went to Pergamus, entered into the sanctuary of Aesculapius, and stabbed himself with his sword. As the wound was not mortal he ordered a slave to drive the weapon in. The latter killed his master and then himself. So perished Fimbria, who next to Mithridates had most sorely afflicted Asia. Sulla gave his body to his freedmen for burial, adding that he would not imitate Cinna and Marius, who had deprived many in Rome of their lives and of burial after death. The army of Fimbria came over to him, and he exchanged pledges with it and joined it with his own. Then he directed Curio to restore Nicomedes to Bithynia and Ariobarzanes to Cappadocia and reported everything to the Senate, ignoring the fact that he had been voted an enemy.

§ 9.61  Having settled the affairs of Asia, Sulla bestowed freedom on the inhabitants of Ilium, Chios, Lycia, Rhodes, Magnesia, and some others, either as a reward for their cooperation, or a recompense for what they had bravely suffered on his account, and inscribed them as friends of the Roman people. Then he distributed his army among the remaining towns and issued a proclamation that the slaves who had been freed by Mithridates should at once return to their masters. As many disobeyed and some of the cities revolted, several massacres ensued, of both free men and slaves, on various pretexts. The walls of many towns were demolished. Many others were plundered and their inhabitants sold into slavery. The Cappadocian faction, both men and cities, were severely punished, and especially the Ephesians, who, with servile adulation of the king, had treated the Roman offerings in their temples with indignity. After this a proclamation was sent around commanding the principal citizens to come to Ephesus on a certain day to meet Sulla. When they had assembled Sulla addressed them from the tribune as follows: —

§ 9.62  "We first came to Asia with an army when Antiochus, king of Syria, was despoiling you. We drove him out and fixed the boundaries of his dominions beyond the river Halys and Mount Taurus. We did not retain possession of you when we had delivered you from him, but set you free, except that we awarded a few places to Eumenes and the Rhodians, our allies in the war, not as tributaries, but as clients. The proof of this is that when the Lycians complained of the Rhodians we deprived them of their authority. Such was our conduct toward you. You, on the other hand, when Attalus Philometor had left his kingdom to us in his will, gave aid to Aristonicus against us for four years. When he was captured most of you, under the impulse of necessity and fear, returned to your duty. Notwithstanding all this, after a period of twenty-four years, during which you had attained to great prosperity and embellishment, public and private, you again became puffed up by ease and luxury and took the opportunity, while we were preoccupied in Italy, some of you to call in Mithridates and others to join him when he came. Most infamous of all, you obeyed the order he gave to kill all the Italians in your communities, including women and children, in one day. You did not even spare those who fled to the temples dedicated to your own gods. You have received some punishment for this crime from Mithridates himself, who broke faith with you and gave you your fill of rapine and slaughter, redistributed your lands, cancelled debts, freed your slaves, appointed tyrants over some of you, and committed robberies everywhere by land and sea; so that you learned immediately by experiment and comparison what kind of defender you chose instead of your former ones. The instigators of these crimes paid some penalty to us also. It is necessary, too, that some penalty should be inflicted upon you in common, as you have been guilty in common, and something corresponding to your deserts. But may the Romans never even conceive of impious slaughter, indiscriminate confiscation, servile insurrections, or other acts of barbarism. I shall spare even now the Greek race and name so celebrated throughout Asia, and for the sake of that fair repute that is ever dear to the Romans I shall only impose upon you the taxes of five years, to be paid at once, together with the cost of the war expended by me, and whatever else may be spent in settling the affairs of the province. I will apportion these charges to each of you according to cities, and will fix the time of payment. Upon the disobedient I shall visit punishment as upon enemies."

§ 9.63  After he had thus spoken Sulla apportioned the fine to the delegates and sent men to collect the money. The cities, oppressed by poverty, borrowed it at high rates of interest and mortgaged their theatres, their gymnasiums, their walls, their harbors, and every other scrap of public property, being urged on by the soldiers with contumely. Thus was the money collected and brought to Sulla. The province of Asia had her fill of misery. She was assailed openly by a vast number of pirates, resembling regular fleets rather than robber bands. Mithridates had first fitted them out at the time when he was ravaging all the coasts, thinking he could not long hold these regions. Their numbers had then greatly increased, and they did not confine themselves to ships alone, but openly attacked harbors, castles, and cities. They captured Iassus, Samos, Clazomenae, and Samothrace, while Sulla was still present, and it was said that they robbed the sanctuary at that place of ornaments valued at 1000 talents. Sulla, willing perhaps that those who had offended him should be maltreated, or because he was in haste to put down the hostile faction in Rome, left them and sailed for Greece, and thence passed on to Italy with the greater part of his army. What he did there I have related in my history of the civil wars.

§ 9.64  The second Mithridatic war began in this way. Murena, who had been left by Sulla with Fimbria's two legions to settle affairs of the rest of Asia, sought trifling pretexts for war, being ambitious of a triumph. Mithridates, after his return to Pontus, went to war with the Colchians and the tribes around the Cimmerian Bosporus who had revolted from him. The Colchians asked him to give them his son, Mithridates, as their ruler, and when he did so they at once returned to their allegiance. The king suspected that this was brought about by his son through his own ambition to be king. Accordingly he sent for him and first bound him with golden fetters, and soon afterward put him to death, although he had served him well in Asia in the battles with Fimbria. Against the tribes of the Bosporus he built a fleet and fitted out a large army. The magnitude of his preparations gave rise to the belief that they were made not against those tribes, but against the Romans, for he had not yet restored the whole of Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, but still retained a part of it. He also had suspicions of Archelaus. He thought that the latter had yielded more than was necessary to Sulla in his negotiations in Greece. When Archelaus heard of this he became alarmed and fled to Murena, and by working on him persuaded him to anticipate Mithridates in beginning hostilities. Murena marched suddenly through Cappadocia and attacked Comana, a very large country town belonging to Mithridates, with a rich and renowned sanctuary, and killed some of the king's cavalry. When the king's ambassadors appealed to the treaty he replied that he saw no treaty; for Sulla had not written it out, but had gone away after the terms had been fulfilled by acts. When Murena had delivered his answer he began robbing forthwith, not sparing the money in the sanctuaries, and he went into winter quarters in Cappadocia.

§ 9.65  Mithridates sent an embassy to the Senate and to Sulla to complain of the acts of Murena. The latter, meantime, had passed over the river Halys, which was then swollen by rains and very difficult to cross. He captured 400 villages belonging to Mithridates. The king offered no opposition, but waited for the return of his embassy. Murena returned to Phrygia and Galatia loaded down with plunder. There he met Calidius, who had been sent from Rome on account of the complaints of Mithridates. Calidius did not bring a decree of the Senate, but he declared in the hearing of all that the Senate ordered him not to molest the king, as he had not broken the treaty. After he had thus spoken he was seen talking to Murena alone. Murena abated nothing of his violence, but again invaded the territory of Mithridates. The latter, thinking that open war had been ordered by the Romans, directed his general, Gordius, to retaliate on their villages. Gordius straightway seized and carried off a large number of animals and other property and men, both private citizens and soldiers, and took position against Murena himself, with a river flowing between them. Neither of them began the fight until Mithridates came up with a larger army, when a severe engagement immediately took place on the banks of the river. Mithridates prevailed, crossed the river, and got the better of Murena decidedly. The latter retreated to a strong hill where the king attacked him. After losing many men Murena fled over the mountains to Phrygia by a pathless route, severely harassed by the missiles of the enemy.

§ 9.66  The news of this brilliant and decisive victory spread quickly and caused many to change sides to Mithridates. The latter drove all of Murena's garrisons out of Cappadocia and offered sacrifice to Zeus Stratius on a lofty pile of wood on a high hill, according to the fashion of his country, which is as follows. First, the kings themselves carry wood to the heap. Then they make a smaller pile encircling the other one, on which they pour milk, honey, wine, oil, and various kinds of incense. A banquet is spread on the ground for those present (as at the sacrifices of the Persian kings at Pasargadae) and then they set fire to the wood. The height of the flame is such that it can be seen at a distance of 1000 stades from the sea, and they say that nobody can come near it for several days on account of the heat. Mithridates performed a sacrifice of this kind according to the custom of his country. Sulla thought that it was not right to make war against Mithridates when he had not violated the treaty. Accordingly, Aulus Gabinius was sent to tell Murena that the former order, that he should not fight Mithridates, was to be taken seriously, and to reconcile Mithridates and Ariobarzanes with each other. At a conference between them Mithridates betrothed his little daughter, four years old, to Ariobarzanes, and improved the occasion to stipulate that he should not only retain that part of Cappadocia which he then held, but have another part in addition. Then he gave a banquet to all, with prizes of gold for those who should excel in drinking, eating, jesting, singing, and so forth, as was customary, in which Gabinius was the only one who did not engage. Thus the second war between Mithridates and the Romans, lasting about three years, came to an end.

§ 10.67  As Mithridates was now at leisure he subdued the tribes of the Bosporus and appointed Machares, one of his sons, king over them. Then he fell upon the Achaeans beyond Colchis (who are supposed to be descended from those who lost their way when returning from the Trojan War), but lost two divisions of his army, partly by open war, partly by the severity of the climate, and partly by stratagem. When he returned home he sent ambassadors to Rome to sign the agreements. At the same time Ariobarzanes, either of his own notion or at the prompting of others, sent thither to complain that Cappadocia had not been delivered up to him, but that a greater part of it was yet retained by Mithridates. Sulla commanded Mithridates to give up Cappadocia. (B.C. 78) He did so, and then sent another embassy to sign the agreements. But now Sulla had just died, and as the Senate was otherwise occupied the praetors did not admit them. So Mithridates persuaded his son-in-law, Tigranes, to make an incursion into Cappadocia as though it were on his own account. This artifice did not deceive the Romans. The Armenian king threw, as it were, a drag net around Cappadocia and made a haul of about 300,000 people, whom he carried off to his own country and settled them, with others, in a certain place where he had first assumed the diadem of Armenia and which he had called after himself, Tigranocerta, or the city of Tigranes.

§ 10.68  While these things were taking place in Asia Sertorius, the governor of Spain, incited that province and all the neighboring country to rebel against the Romans, and selected from his associates a senate in imitation of that of Rome. Two members of his faction, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, proposed to Mithridates to ally himself with Sertorius, holding out the hope that he would acquire a large part of the province of Asia and of the neighboring nations. Mithridates fell in with this suggestion and sent ambassadors to Sertorius. The latter introduced them to his senate and felicitated himself that his fame had extended to Pontus, and that he could now besiege the Roman power in both the Orient and the Occident. So he made a treaty with Mithridates to give him Asia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia, and sent Marcus Varius to him as a general and the two Luciuses, Magius and Fannius, as counsellors. With their assistance Mithridates began his third and last war against the Romans, in the course of which he lost his entire kingdom, and Sertorius lost his life in Spain. Two generals were sent against Mithridates from Rome; the first, Lucullus, the same who had served as prefect of the fleet under Sulla; the second, Pompey, by whom the whole of his dominions, and the adjoining territory as far as the river Euphrates, under the pretext and impetus of the Mithridatic war, were brought under Roman sway.

§ 10.69  Mithridates had been in collision with the Romans so often that he knew that this war, so inexcusably and hastily begun, would be an implacable one. He made every preparation with the thought that all was at stake. The remainder of the summer and the whole of the winter he spent in cutting timber, building ships, and making arms. He distributed 2,000,000 medimni of corn along the coast. Besides his former forces he had for allies the Chalybes, Armenians, Scythians, Taurians, Achaeans, Heniochi, Leucosyrians, and those who occupy the territory about the river Thermodon, called the country of the Amazons. These additions to his former strength were from Asia. From Europe he drew of the Sarmatian tribes, both the Basilidae and the Jazyges, the Coralli, and those Thracians who dwelt along the Danube and on the Rhodope and Haemus mountains, and besides these the Bastarnae, the bravest nation of all. Altogether Mithridates recruited a fighting force of about 140,000 foot and 16,000 horse. A great crowd of road-makers, baggage-carriers, and sutlers followed.

§ 10.70  At the beginning of spring Mithridates made trial of his navy and sacrificed to Zeus Stratius in the customary manner, and also to Poseidon by plunging a chariot with white horses into the sea. Then he hastened against Paphlagonia with his two generals, Taxiles and Hermocrates, in command of his army. When he arrived there he made a speech to his soldiers, eulogistic of his ancestors and still more so of himself, showing how his kingdom had grown to greatness from small beginnings, and how his army had never been defeated by the Romans when he was present. He accused the Romans of avarice and lust of power "to such an extent," he said, "that they had enslaved Italy and Rome itself." He accused them of bad faith respecting the last and still existing treaty, saying that they were not willing to sign it because they were watching for an opportunity to violate it again. After thus setting forth the cause of the war he dwelt upon the composition of his army and his apparatus, upon the preoccupation of the Romans, who were waging a difficult war with Sertorius in Spain, and were torn with civil dissensions throughout Italy, "for which reason," he said, "they have allowed the sea to be overrun by pirates a long time, and have not a single ally, nor any subjects who still obey them willingly. Do you not see," he added, "some of their noblest citizens (pointing to Varius and the two Luciuses) at war with their own country and allied with us? "

§ 10.71  When he had finished speaking and exciting his army, he invaded Bithynia. Nicomedes had lately died childless and bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans. Cotta, its governor, was a man altogether unwarlike. He fled to Chalcedon with what force he had. Thus Bithynia again passed under the rule of Mithridates. The Romans from all directions flocked to Cotta at Chalcedon. When Mithridates advanced to that place Cotta did not go out to meet him because he was inexperienced in military affairs, but his naval prefect, Nudus, with a part of the army occupied a very strong position on the plain. He was driven out of it, however, and fled to the gates of Chalcedon over many walls which greatly obstructed his movement. There was a struggle at the gates among those trying to gain entrance simultaneously, for which reason no missile cast by the pursuers missed its mark. The guards at the gates, fearing for the city, let down the gate from the machine. Nudus and some of the other officers were drawn up by ropes. The remainder perished between their friends and their foes, holding out their hands in entreaty to each. Mithridates made good use of his success. He moved his ships up to the harbor the same day, broke the brazen chain that closed the entrance, burned four of the enemy's ships, and towed the remaining sixty away. Nudus offered no resistance, nor Cotta, for they remained shut up inside the walls. The Roman loss was about 3000, including Lucius Manlius, a man of senatorial rank. Mithridates lost twenty of his Bastarnae, who were the first to break into the harbor.

§ 11.72  Lucius Lucullus, who had been chosen consul and general for this war, led one legion of soldiers from Rome, joined with it the two of Fimbria, and added two others, making in all 30,000 foot and 1600 horse, with which he pitched his camp near that of Mithridates at Cyzicus. When he learned from deserters that the king's army contained about 300,000 men and that all his supplies were furnished by foragers or came by sea, he said to those around him that he would presently reduce the enemy without fighting, and he told them to remember his promise. Seeing a mountain well suited for a camp, where he could readily obtain supplies, and could cut off those of the enemy, he moved forward to occupy it in order to gain a victory by that means without danger. There was only one narrow pass leading to it, and Mithridates held it by a strong guard. He had been advised to do so by Taxiles and his other officers. Lucius Magius, who had brought about the alliance between Sertorius and Mithridates, now that Sertorius was dead, opened secret communications with Lucullus, and having secured pledges from him persuaded Mithridates to allow the Romans to pass through and encamp where they pleased. "The two legions of Fimbria," he said, "want to desert, and will come over to you directly. What is the use of a battle and bloodshed when you can conquer the enemy without fighting?" Mithridates assented to this advice heedlessly and without suspicion. He allowed the Romans to go through the pass unmolested and to fortify the great hill on his front. When they had possessed themselves of it they were able to draw supplies from their rear without difficulty. Mithridates, on the other hand, was cut off by a lake, by mountains, and by rivers, from all provisions on the landward side, except an occasional supply secured with difficulty; he had no easy way out and he could not overcome Lucullus on account of the difficulty of the ground, which he had disregarded when he himself had the advantage. Moreover, winter was now approaching and would soon interrupt his supplies by sea. As Lucullus looked over the situation he reminded his friends of his promise, and showed them that his prediction was practically accomplished.

§ 11.73  Although Mithridates might perhaps even now have been able to break through the enemy's lines by force of numbers, he neglected to do so, but pressed the siege of Cyzicus with the apparatus he had prepared, thinking that he should find a remedy in this way both for the badness of his position and for his want of supplies. As he had plenty of soldiers he pushed the siege in every possible way. He blockaded the harbor with a double sea wall and drew a line of circumvallation around the rest of the city. He raised mounds, built machines, towers, and rams protected by tortoises. He constructed a siege engine 100 cubits high, from which rose another tower furnished with catapults discharging stones and various kinds of missiles. Two quinqueremes joined together carried another tower against the port, from which a bridge could be projected by a mechanical device when brought near the wall. When all was in readiness he first sent against the city on ships 3000 inhabitants of Cyzicus whom he had taken prisoners. These raised their hands toward the wall in supplication and besought their fellow-citizens to spare them in their dangerous position, but Pisistratus, the Cyzicean general, proclaimed from the walls that as they were in the enemy's hands they must meet their fate bravely.

§ 11.74  When this attempt had failed Mithridates brought up the machine erected on the ships and suddenly projected the bridge upon the wall and four of his men ran across. The Cyziceans were at first dumbfounded by the novelty of the device and gave way somewhat, but as the rest of the enemy were slow in following, they plucked up courage and thrust the four over the wall. Then they poured burning pitch on the ships and compelled them to back out stern foremost with the machine. In this way the Cyziceans beat off the invaders by sea. Three times on the same day all the machines on the landward side were massed against the toiling citizens, who flew this way and that way to meet the constantly renewed assault. They broke the rams with stones, or turned them aside with nooses, or deadened their blows with baskets of wool. They extinguished the enemy's fire-bearing missiles with water and vinegar, and broke the force of others by means of garments suspended or linen cloth stretched before them. In short, they left nothing untried that was within the compass of human zeal. Although they toiled most perseveringly, yet a portion of the wall, that had been weakened by fire, gave way toward evening; but on account of the heat nobody was in a hurry to dash in. The Cyziceans built another wall around it that night, and about this time a tremendous wind came and smashed the rest of the king's machines.

§ 11.75  It is said that the city of Cyzicus was given by Zeus to Proserpina by way of dowry, and that of all the gods the inhabitants have most veneration for her. Her festival now came around, on which they are accustomed to sacrifice a black heifer to her, and as they had none they made one of paste. Just then a black heifer swam to them from the sea, dived under the chain at the mouth of the harbor, walked into the city, found her own way to the temple, and took her place by the altar. The Cyziceans sacrificed her with joyful hopes. Thereupon the friends of Mithridates advised him to sail away from the place since it was sacred, but he would not do so. He ascended Mount Dindymus, which overhung the city, and built a mound extending from it to the city walls, on which he constructed towers, and, at the same time, undermined the wall with tunnels. As his horses were not useful here, and were weak for want of food and had sore hoofs, he sent them by a roundabout way to Bithynia. Lucullus fell upon them as they were crossing the river Rhyndacus, killed a large number, and captured 15,000 men, 6000 horses, and a large amount of baggage. While these things were transpiring at Cyzicus, Eumachus, one of Mithridates' generals, overran Phrygia and killed a great many Romans, with their wives and children, subjugated the Pisidians and the Isaurians and also Cilicia. Finally Deiotarus, one of the tetrarchs of Galatia, drove the marauder away and slew many of his men. Such was the course of events in and around Phrygia.

§ 11.76  When winter came Mithridates was deprived of his supplies by sea, if he had any, so that his whole army suffered from hunger, and many of them died. There were some who ate the entrails according to a barbarian custom. Others were made sick by subsisting on herbs. Moreover the corpses that were thrown out in the neighborhood unburied brought on a plague in addition to that caused by famine. Nevertheless Mithridates continued his efforts, hoping still to capture Cyzicus by means of the mounds extending from Mount Dindymus. But when the Cyziceans undermined them and burned the machines on them, and made frequent sallies upon his forces, knowing that they were weakened by want of food, Mithridates began to think of flight. He fled by night, going himself with his fleet to Parium, and his army by land to Lampsacus. Many lost their lives in crossing the river Aesepus, which was then greatly swollen, and where Lucullus attacked them. Thus the Cyziceans escaped the vast siege preparations of the king by means of their own bravery and of the famine that Lucullus brought upon the enemy. They instituted games in his honor, which they celebrate to this day, called the Lucullean games. Mithridates sent ships for those who had taken refuge in Lampsacus, where they were besieged by Lucullus, and carried them away, together with the Lampsaceans themselves. Leaving 10,000 picked men and fifty ships under Varius (the general sent to him by Sertorius), and Alexander the Paphlagonian, and Dionysius the eunuch, he sailed with the bulk of his force for Nicomedia. A storm came up in which many of both divisions perished.

§ 11.77  When Lucullus had accomplished this result on land by starving his enemies, he collected a fleet from the Asiatic province and distributed it to the generals serving under him. Trirarius sailed to Apamea, captured it, and slew a great many of the inhabitants who had taken refuge in the temples. Barba took Prusias, situated at the base of a mountain, and occupied Nicaea, which had been abandoned by the Mithridatic garrison. At the harbor of the Achaeans Lucullus captured thirteen of the enemy's ships. He overtook Varius and Alexander and Dionysius on a barren island near Lemnos (where the altar of Philoctetes is shown with the brazen serpent, the bows, and the breastplate bound with fillets, to remind us of the sufferings of that hero), and dashed at them in a contemptuous manner. They stoutly held their ground. He checked his oarsmen and sent his ships toward them by twos in order to entice them out to sea. As they declined the challenge, but continued to defend themselves on land, he sent a part of his fleet around to another side of the island, disembarked a force of infantry, and drove the enemy to their ships. Still they did not venture out to sea, but hugged the shore, because they were afraid of the army of Lucullus. Thus they were exposed to missiles on both sides, landward and seaward, and received a great many wounds, and after heavy slaughter took to flight. Varius, Alexander, and Dionysius the eunuch were captured in a cave where they had concealed themselves. Dionysius drank poison which he had with him and immediately expired. Lucullus gave orders that Varius be put to death, since he did not want to have his triumph graced by a Roman senator, but he kept Alexander for that purpose. Lucullus sent letters wreathed with laurel to Rome, as is the custom of victors, and then pressed forward to Bithynia.

§ 11.78  As Mithridates was sailing to Pontus a second tempest overtook him and he lost about 10,000 men and sixty ships, and the remainder were scattered wherever the wind blew them. His own ship sprang a leak and he went aboard a small piratical craft although his friends tried to dissuade him. The pirates landed him safely at Sinope. From that place he was towed to Amisus, whence he sent appeals to his son-in-law, Tigranes the Armenian, and his son, Machares, the ruler of the Cimmerian Bosporus, that they should hasten to his assistance. He ordered Diocles to take a large quantity of gold and other presents to the neighboring Scythians, but Diocles took the gold and the presents and deserted to Lucullus. Lucullus moved to the front with the prestige of victory, subduing everything in his path and subsisting on the country. Presently he came to a rich district, exempt from the ravages of war, where a slave was sold for four drachmas, an ox for one, and goats, sheep, clothing, and other things in proportion. Lucullus laid siege to Amisus and also to Eupatoria, which Mithridates had built alongside of Amisus and named after himself and where he had fixed the royal residence. With another army he besieged Themiscyra, which is named after one of the Amazons and is situated on the river Thermodon. The besiegers of this place brought up towers, built mounds, and dug tunnels so large that great subterranean battles could be fought in them. The inhabitants cut openings into these tunnels from above and thrust bears and other wild animals and swarms of bees into them against the workers. Those who were besieging Amisus suffered in other ways. The inhabitants repelled them bravely, made frequent sallies, and often challenged them to single combat. Mithridates sent them plenty of supplies and arms and soldiers from Cabira, where he wintered and collected a new army. Here he brought together about 40,000 foot and 4000 horse.

§ 12.79  When spring came Lucullus marched over the mountains against Mithridates, who had stationed advanced posts to hinder his approach, and to start signal fires whenever anything important should happen. He appointed a member of the royal family, named Phoenix, commander of this advance guard. When Lucullus drew near, Phoenix gave the fire-signal to Mithridates and then deserted to Lucullus with his forces. Lucullus now passed over the mountains without difficulty and came down to Cabira, but was beaten by Mithridates in a cavalry engagement and retreated again to the mountain. Pomponius, his master of horse, was wounded and taken prisoner and brought to the presence of Mithridates. The king asked him what favor he (Pomponius) could render him for sparing his life. Pomponius replied, "A great one if you make peace with Lucullus, but if you continue his enemy I will not even consider your question." The barbarians wanted to put him to death, but the king said that he would not do violence to bravery overtaken by misfortune. He drew out his forces for battle several days in succession, but Lucullus would not come down and fight; so he looked about for some way to come at him by ascending the mountain. At this juncture a Scythian, named Olcaba, who had deserted to Lucullus sometime before and had saved the lives of many in the recent cavalry fight, and for that reason was deemed worthy to share Lucullus' table, his confidence, and his secrets, came to his tent while he was taking his noonday rest and tried to force his way in. He was wearing a short dagger in his belt as was his custom. When he was prevented from entering he became angry and said that there was a pressing necessity that the general should be aroused. The servants replied that there was nothing more useful to Lucullus than his safety. Thereupon the Scythian mounted his horse and went immediately to Mithridates, either because he had plotted against Lucullus and now thought that he was suspected, or because he considered himself insulted and was angry on that account. He exposed to Mithridates another Scythian, named Sobdacus, who was about to desert to Lucullus. Sobdacus was accordingly arrested.

§ 12.80  Lucullus hesitated about going down directly to the plain since the enemy was so much superior in horse, nor could he discover any way around, but he found a hunter in a cave who was familiar with the mountain paths. With him for a guide he made a circuitous descent by rugged paths over Mithridates' head. He avoided the plain on account of the cavalry, and came down and chose a place for his camp where he had a mountain stream on his front. As he was short of supplies he sent to Cappadocia for corn, and in the meantime had frequent skirmishes with the enemy. Once when the royal forces were put to flight Mithridates came running to them from his camp and, with reproachful words, rallied them to such good purpose that the Romans became terrified in turn and fled up the mountain side with such swiftness that they did not know for a long time that the hostile force had desisted from the pursuit, but each one thought that the fleeing comrade behind him was an enemy, so great was the panic that had overtaken them. Mithridates sent bulletins everywhere announcing this victory. He then sent a detachment composed of the bravest of his horse to intercept the convoy that was bringing supplies from Cappadocia to Lucullus, hoping to bring upon him the same scarcity of provisions from which he had himself suffered at Cyzicus.

§ 12.81  It was his great object to cut off Lucullus' supplies, which were drawn from Cappadocia alone, but when his cavalry came upon the advance guard of the convoy in a narrow defile, they did not wait till their enemies had reached the open country. Consequently their horses were useless in the narrow space, where the Romans hastily put themselves in line of battle across the road. Aided, as foot-soldiers would naturally be, by the difficulties of the ground, they killed some of the king's troops, drove others over precipices, and scattered the rest in flight. A few of them arrived at their camp by night, and said that they were the only survivors, so that rumor magnified the calamity which was indeed sufficiently great. Mithridates heard of this affair before Lucullus did, and he expected that Lucullus would take advantage of so great a slaughter of his horsemen to attack him forthwith. Accordingly he fell into a panic and contemplated flight, and at once communicated his purpose to his friends in his tent. They did not wait for the signal to be given, but while it was still night each one sent his own baggage out of the camp, which made a great crush of pack animals around the gates. When the soldiers perceived the commotion, and saw what the baggage-carriers were doing, they imagined every sort of absurdity. Filled with terror, mingled with anger that the signal had not been given to them also, they demolished and ran over their own fortification and scattered in every direction over the plain, helter-skelter, without orders from the commanding general or any other officer. When Mithridates heard the disorderly rush he dashed out of his tent among them and attempted to say something, but nobody would listen to him. He was caught in the crowd and knocked from his horse, but remounted and was borne to the mountains with a few followers.

§ 12.82  When Lucullus heard of the success of his provision train and observed the enemy's flight, he sent out a large force of cavalry in pursuit of the fugitives. Those who were still collecting baggage in the camp he surrounded with his infantry, whom he ordered for the time to abstain from plunder, but to kill indiscriminately. But the soldiers, seeing vessels of gold and of silver in abundance and much costly clothing, disregarded the order. Those who overtook Mithridates himself cut open the pack saddle of a mule that was loaded with gold, which fell out, and while they were busy with it they allowed him to escape to Comona. From thence he fled to Tigranes with 2000 horsemen. Tigranes did not admit him to his presence, but ordered that royal entertainment be provided for him on his estates. Mithridates, in utter despair of his kingdom, sent the eunuch Bacchus to his palace to put his sisters, wives, and concubines to death as he could. These, with wonderful devotion, destroyed themselves with daggers, poison, and ropes. When the garrison commanders of Mithridates saw these things they went over to Lucullus in crowds, all but a few. Lucullus marched among the others and regulated them. He also sent his fleet among the cities on the Pontic coast and captured Amastris, Heraclea, and some others.

§ 12.83  Sinope continued to resist him vigorously, and the inhabitants fought him on the water not without success, but when they were besieged they burned their heavier ships, embarked on the lighter ones, and went away. Lucullus at once made it a free city, being moved thereto by the following dream. It is said that Autolycus, the companion of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons, was driven by a tempest into Sinope and made himself master of the place, and that his consecrated statue gave oracles to the Sinopeans. As they were hastening their flight they could not embark it on shipboard, but wrapped it up with linen cloths and ropes. Nobody told Lucullus of this beforehand and he knew nothing about it, but he dreamed that he saw Autolycus calling him, and the following day, when some men passed him carrying the image wrapped up, he ordered them to take off the covering and then he saw what he thought he had seen in the night. This was the kind of dream he had. After Sinope Lucullus restored to their homes the citizens of Amisus, who had fled by sea in like manner, because he learned that they had been settled there by Athens when she held the empire of the sea; that they had had a democratic form of government at first, and afterward had been subject for a long time to the kings of Persia; that their democracy had been restored to them by decree of Alexander; and that they had finally been compelled to serve the kings of Pontus. Lucullus sympathized with them, and in emulation of the favor shown to the Attic race by Alexander he gave the city its freedom and recalled the citizens with all haste. Thus did Lucullus desolate and repeople both Sinope and Amisus. He entered into friendly relations with Machares, the son of Mithridates and ruler of the Bosporus, who sent him a crown of gold. He demanded the surrender of Mithridates from Tigranes. Then he went back to the province of Asia. When the instalment of tribute imposed by Sulla became due he levied upon one-fourth of the harvest, and imposed a house-tax and a slave-tax. He offered a triumphal sacrifice to the gods for the successful termination of the war.

§ 12.84  After the sacrifices had been performed he marched with two legions and 500 horse against Tigranes, who had refused to surrender Mithridates to him. He crossed the Euphrates, but he required the barbarians, through whose territory he passed, to furnish only necessary supplies since they did not want to fight, or to expose themselves to suffering by taking sides in the quarrel between Lucullus and Tigranes. No one told Tigranes that Lucullus was advancing, for the first man who brought this news he hanged, considering him a disturber of the good order of the cities. When he learned that it was true, he sent Mithrobarzanes forward with 2000 horse to hinder Lucullus' march. He intrusted to Mancaeus the defence of Tigranocerta, which city, as I have already said, the king had built in this region in honor of himself, and to which he had summoned the principal inhabitants of the country under penalty of confiscation of all of their goods that they did not transfer to it. He surrounded it with walls fifty cubits high and wide enough to contain stables for horses. In the suburbs he built a palace and laid out large parks, enclosures for wild animals, and fish-ponds. He also erected a strong tower near by. All these he put in charge of Mancaeus, and then he went through the country to collect an army. Lucullus, at his first encounter with Mithrobarzanes, defeated him and put him to flight. Sextilius shut up Mancaeus in Tigranocerta, plundered the palace outside the walls, drew a ditch around the city and tower, moved machines against them, and undermined the wall.

§ 12.85  While Sextilius was doing this Tigranes brought together some 250,000 foot and 50,000 horse. He sent about 6000 of the latter to Tigranocerta, who broke through the Roman line to the tower, and seized and brought away the king's concubines. With the rest of his army Tigranes marched against Lucullus. Mithridates, who was now for the first time admitted to his presence, advised him not to come to close quarters with the Romans, but to circle around them with his horse only, to devastate the country, and reduce them by famine if possible, in the same way that he had been served by Lucullus at Cyzicus, where he lost his army without fighting. Tigranes derided such generalship and advanced and made preparations for battle. When he saw how small the Roman force was, he said jestingly, "If they are here as ambassadors they are too many; if as enemies, altogether too few." Lucullus saw a hill favorably situated in the rear of Tigranes. He pushed his horse forward from his own front to worry the enemy and draw them upon himself, retiring as they came up, so that the barbarians should break their own ranks in the pursuit. Then he sent his own infantry around to the hill and took possession of it unobserved. When he saw the enemy pursuing as though they had won the fight, and scattered in all directions, with their entire baggage-train lying at the foot of the hill, he exclaimed, "Soldiers, we are victorious," and dashed first upon their baggage-carriers. These immediately fled in confusion and ran against their own infantry, and the infantry against the cavalry. Presently the rout was complete. Those who had been drawn a long distance in pursuit of the Roman horse, the latter turned upon and destroyed. The baggage-train came into collision with others tumultuously. They were all packed together in such a crowd that nobody could see clearly from what quarter their discomfiture proceeded. There was a great slaughter. Nobody stopped to plunder, for Lucullus had forbidden it with threats of punishment, so that they passed by bracelets and necklaces on the road, and continued killing for a distance of 120 stades until nightfall. Then they betook themselves to plunder with the permission of Lucullus.

§ 12.86  When Mancaeus beheld this defeat from Tigranocerta he disarmed all of his Greek mercenaries because he suspected them. They, in fear of arrest, walked abroad or rested only in a body, and with clubs in their hands. Mancaeus set upon them with his armed barbarians. They wound their clothing around their left arms, to serve as shields, and fought their assailants courageously, killed some, and shared their arms with each other. When they were sufficiently provided with weapons they seized some of the towers, called to the Romans outside, and admitted them when they came up. In this way was Tigranocerta taken, and the immense wealth, appertaining to a newly built and nobly peopled city, plundered.

§ 13.87  Now Tigranes and Mithridates traversed the country collecting a new army, the command of which was committed to Mithridates, because Tigranes thought that his disasters must have taught him some lessons. They also sent messengers to Parthia to solicit aid from that quarter. Lucullus sent opposing legates asking that the Parthians should either help him or remain neutral. Their king made secret agreements with both, but was in no haste to help either of them. Mithridates manufactured arms in every town. The soldiers he recruited were almost wholly Armenians. From these he selected the bravest to the number of about 70,000 foot and half that number of horse and dismissed the rest. He divided them into companies and cohorts as nearly as possible according to the Italian system, and turned them over to Pontic officers to be trained. When Lucullus moved toward them Mithridates, with all the foot-soldiers and a part of the horse, held his forces together on a hill. Tigranes, with the rest of the horse, attacked the Roman foragers and was beaten, for which reason the Romans foraged more freely afterward even in the vicinity of Mithridates himself, and encamped near him. Again a great dust arose indicating the approach of Tigranes. The two kings had resolved to surround Lucullus. The latter perceived their movement and sent forward the best of his horse to engage Tigranes at as great a distance as possible, and prevent him from deploying from his line of march into order of battle. He also challenged Mithridates to fight. He began to surround him with a ditch, but could not draw him out. Finally, winter came on and interrupted the work on both sides.

§ 13.88  Tigranes now withdrew into the interior of Armenia and Mithridates hastened to what was left of his own kingdom of Pontus, taking with him 4000 of his own troops and as many more that he had received from Tigranes. Lucullus slowly followed him, but was obliged to turn back frequently for want of provisions. Mithridates made haste and attacked Fabius, who had been left in command by Lucullus, put him to flight, and killed 500 of his men. Fabius freed the slaves who had been in his camp and fought again an entire day, but the battle was going against him until Mithridates was struck by a stone on the knee and wounded by a dart under the eye, and was hastily carried out of the fight. For many days thereafter his forces were alarmed for his safety, and the Romans were quiet on account of the great number of wounds they had received. Mithridates was cured by the Agari, a Scythian tribe, who make use of the poison of serpents as remedies. Some of this tribe always accompanied the king as physicians. Triarius, the other general of Lucullus, now came with his own army to the assistance of Fabius and received from the latter his forces and authority. He and Mithridates not long afterward joined battle, during which a tempest of wind, the like of which had not been known in the memory of man, tore down the tents of both, swept away their beasts of burden, and even dashed some of their men over precipices. Both sides then retreated.

§ 13.89  News having been received that Lucullus was corning, Triarius hastened to anticipate his action and made a night attack upon the outposts of Mithridates. The fight continued for a long time doubtful, until the king made a powerful charge on that division of the enemy that was opposed to him and decided the battle. He broke through their ranks and drove their infantry into a muddy trench, where they were unable to stand and were slaughtered. He pursued their horse over the plain and made the most spirited use of the stroke of good luck until a certain Roman centurion, who was riding with him in the guise of an attendant, gave him a severe wound with a sword in the thigh, as he could not expect to pierce his back through his corselet. Those who were near immediately cut the centurion in pieces. Mithridates was carried to the rear and his friends recalled the army, by a hasty signal, from their splendid victory. Confusion befell them by reason of the unexpectedness of the signal, and fear lest some disaster had happened elsewhere. When they learned what it was they gathered around the person of the king on the plain in consternation, until Timotheus, his physician, had stanched the blood and lifted the king up so that he could be seen. In like manner in India, when Alexander was cured, he showed himself on a ship to the Macedonians, who were alarmed about him. As soon as Mithridates came to himself he reproved those who had recalled the army from the fight, and led his men again the same day against the camp of the Romans. But they had already fled from it in terror. In stripping the dead there were found 24 tribunes and 150 centurions. So great a number of officers had seldom fallen in any single Roman defeat.

§ 13.90  Mithridates withdrew into the country which the Romans now call Lesser Armenia, taking all the provisions he could and spoiling what he could not carry, so as to prevent Lucullus from getting any on his march. At this juncture a certain Roman of senatorial rank, named Attidius, a fugitive from justice, who had been with Mithridates a long time and had enjoyed his friendship, was detected in a conspiracy against him. The king condemned him to death, but not to torture, because he had once been a Roman senator. His fellow-conspirators were subjected to dreadful tortures. The freedmen who were cognizant of the designs of Attidius he dismissed unharmed, because they were under obligations to their patron. When Lucullus was already encamped near Mithridates, the proconsul of Asia sent heralds to proclaim that Rome had accused Lucullus of unnecessarily prolonging the war, and had ordered that the soldiers under him be dismissed, and that the property of those who did not obey this order should be confiscated. When this information was received the army disbanded at once, all but a few, who remained with Lucullus because they were very poor and did not fear the penalty.

§ 14.91  So it turned out that the Mithridatic war under Lucullus came to no fixed and definite conclusion. The Romans, torn by revolts in Italy and threatened with famine by pirates on the sea, considered it inopportune to undertake another war of this magnitude until their present troubles were ended. When Mithridates perceived this he again invaded Cappadocia and fortified his own kingdom. The Romans overlooked these transactions while they were clearing the sea. When this was accomplished, and while Pompey, the destroyer of the pirates, was still in Asia, the Mithridatic war was at once resumed and the command of it given to Pompey. Since the campaign at sea was a part of the operations under his command, which was begun before his Mithridatic war, and has not found proper mention elsewhere in my history, it seems well to introduce it here and to run over the events as they occurred.

§ 14.92  When Mithridates first went to war with the Romans (B.C. 88) and subdued the province of Asia (Sulla being then in difficulties respecting Greece), he thought that he should not hold the province long, and accordingly plundered it in all sorts of ways, as I have mentioned above, and sent out pirates on the sea. In the beginning they prowled around with a few small boats worrying the inhabitants like robbers. As the war lengthened they became more numerous and navigated larger ships. Relishing their large gains, they did not desist when Mithridates was defeated, made peace, and retired. Having lost both livelihood and country by reason of the war and fallen into extreme destitution, they harvested the sea instead of the land, at first with pinnaces and hemiolii, then with two-bank and three-bank ships, sailing in squadrons under pirate chiefs, who were like generals of an army. They fell upon unfortified towns. (B.C. 85) They undermined or battered down the walls of others, or captured them by regular siege and plundered them. They carried off the wealthier citizens to their haven of refuge and held them for ransom. They scorned the name of robbers and called their takings the prize of warfare. They had artisans chained to their tasks and were continually bringing in materials of timber, brass, and iron. Being elated by their gains and determined not to change their mode of life yet, they likened themselves to kings, rulers, and great armies, and thought that if they should all come together in the same place they would be invincible. They built ships and made all kinds of arms. Their chief seat was at a place called the Crags in Cilicia, which they had chosen as their common anchorage and encampment. They had castles and towers and desert islands and retreats everywhere. They chose for their principal rendezvous the coast of Cilicia where it was rough and harborless and rose in high mountain peaks, for which reason they were all called by the common name of Cilicians. Perhaps this evil had its beginning among the men of the Crags of Cilicia, but thither also men of Syrian, Cyprian, Pamphylian, and Pontic origin and those of almost all the Eastern nations had congregated, who, on account of the long continuance of the Mithridatic war, preferred to do wrong rather than to suffer it, and for this purpose chose the sea instead of the land.

§ 14.93  Thus, in a very short time, they increased in number to tens of thousands. They dominated now not only the Eastern waters, but the whole Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules. They vanquished some of the Roman praetors in naval engagements, and among others the praetor of Sicily on the Sicilian coast itself. No sea could be navigated in safety, and land remained untilled for want of commercial intercourse. The city of Rome felt this evil most keenly, her subjects being distressed and herself suffering grievously from hunger by reason of her very greatness. It appeared to them to be a great and difficult task to destroy so large a force of seafaring men scattered everywhither on land and sea, and so nimble of flight, sallying out from no particular country or any known places, having no habitation or anything of their own, but only what they might chance to light upon. Thus both the greatness and the unexampled nature of this war, which was subject to no laws and had nothing tangible or visible about it, caused perplexity and fear on all sides. Murena had attacked them, but accomplished nothing worth mention, nor had Servilius Isauricus, who succeeded him. And now the pirates contemptuously assailed the coasts of Italy, around Brundusium and Etruria, and seized and carried off some women of noble families who were travelling, and also two praetors with their very insignia of office.

§ 14.94  When the Romans could no longer endure the damage and disgrace they made Gnaeus Pompey, who was then their man of greatest reputation, commander by law for three years, with absolute power over the whole sea within the Pillars of Hercules, and of the land for a distance of 400 stades from the coast. They sent letters to all kings, rulers, peoples, and cities, that they should aid Pompey in all ways. They gave him power to raise troops and to collect money from the provinces, and they furnished a large army from their own enrolment, and all the ships they had, and money to the amount of 6000 Attic talents, — so great and difficult did they consider the task of overcoming such great forces, dispersed over so wide a sea, hiding easily in so many nooks, retreating quickly and darting out again unexpectedly. Never did any man before Pompey set forth with so great authority conferred upon him by the Romans. Presently he had an army of 120,000 foot and 4000 horse, and 270 ships, including hemiolii. He had twenty-five assistants of senatorial rank, whom they call lieutenant-generals, among whom he divided the sea, giving ships, cavalry, and infantry to each, and investing them with the insignia of praetors, in order that each one might have absolute authority over the part intrusted to him, while he, Pompey, like a king of kings, should course among them to see that they remained where they were stationed, lest, while he was pursuing the pirates in one place, he should be drawn to something else before his work was finished, and so that there might be forces to encounter them everywhere and to prevent them from forming junctions with each other.

§ 14.95  Pompey disposed of the whole in the following manner. He put Tiberius Nero and Manlius Torquatus in command of Spain and the Straits of Hercules. He assigned Marcus Pomponius to the Gallic and Ligurian waters. Africa, Sardinia, Corsica, and the neighboring islands were committed to Lentulus Marcellinus and Publius Atilius, and the coast of Italy itself to Lucius Gellius and Gnaeus Lentulus. Sicily and the Adriatic as far as Acarnania were assigned to Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro; the Peloponnesus, Attica, Euboea, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Boeotia to Lucius Sisenna; the Greek islands, the whole Aegean sea, and the Hellespont in addition, to Lucius Lollius; Bithynia, Thrace, the Propontis, and the mouth of the Euxine to Publius Piso; Lycia, Pamphylia, Cyprus, and Phoenicia to Metellus Nepos. Thus were the commands of the praetors arranged for the purpose of attacking, defending, and guarding their respective assignments, so that each might catch the pirates put to flight by others, and not be drawn a long distance from their own stations by the pursuit, nor carried round and round as in a race, and the time for doing the work protracted. Pompey himself made a tour of the whole. He first inspected the western stations, accomplishing the task in forty days, and passing through Rome on his return. Thence he went to Brundusium and, proceeding from this place, he occupied an equal time in visiting the eastern stations. He astonished all by the rapidity of his movement, the magnitude of his preparations, and his formidable reputation, so that the pirates, who had expected to attack him first, or at least to show that the task he had undertaken against them was no easy one, became straightway alarmed, abandoned their assaults upon the towns they were besieging, and fled to their accustomed citadels and inlets. Thus the sea was cleared by Pompey forthwith and without a fight, and the pirates were everywhere subdued by the praetors at their several stations.

§ 14.96  Pompey himself hastened to Cilicia with forces of various kinds and many engines, as he expected that there would be need of every kind of fighting and every kind of siege against the rock-bound citadels; but he needed nothing. The terror of his name and the greatness of his preparations had produced a panic among the robbers. They hoped that if they did not resist they might receive lenient treatment. First, those who held Cragus and Anticragus, their largest citadels, surrendered themselves, and after them the mountaineers of Cilicia, and, finally, all, one after another. They gave up at the same time a great quantity of arms, some completed, others in the workshops; also their ships, some still on the stocks, others already afloat; also brass and iron collected for building them, and sailcloth, rope, and various kinds of materials; and finally a multitude of captives either held for ransom or chained to their tasks. Pompey burned the materials, carried away the ships, and sent the captives back to their respective countries. Many of them there found their own cenotaphs, for they were supposed to be dead. Those pirates who had evidently fallen into this way of life not from wickedness, but from poverty consequent upon the war, Pompey settled in Mallos, Adana, and Epiphanea, or any other uninhabited or thinly peopled town in Rough Cilicia. Some of them he sent to Dyme in Achaia. Thus the war against the pirates, which it was supposed would prove very difficult, was brought to an end by Pompey in a few days. He took seventy-one ships by capture and 306 by surrender from the pirates, and 120 of their towns, castles, and other places of rendezvous. About 10,000 of the pirates were slain in battles.

§ 15.97  For this victory, so swiftly and unexpectedly gained, the Romans extolled Pompey beyond measure; and while he was still in Cilicia they chose him commander of the war against Mithridates, giving him the same unlimited powers as before, to make war and peace as he liked, and to proclaim nations friends or enemies according to his own judgment. They gave him command of all the forces beyond the borders of Italy. All these powers had never been given to any one general before. This was perhaps the reason why they gave him the title of Pompey the Great, for the Mithridatic war had been successfully prosecuted by other generals before him. He accordingly collected his army and marched to the territory of Mithridates. The latter had an army selected from his own forces, of 30,000 foot and 3000 horse, stationed on his frontier; but since Lucullus had lately devastated that region there was a scant supply of provisions, and for this reason many of his men deserted. The deserters whom he caught he crucified, or put out their eyes, or burned them alive. But while the fear of punishment lessened the number of deserters, the scarcity of provisions weakened him.

§ 15.98  Mithridates sent envoys to Pompey asking on what terms he could obtain peace. Pompey replied, "By delivering up our deserters and surrendering at discretion." When Mithridates was made acquainted with these terms he communicated them to the deserters, and when he observed their consternation he swore that on account of the cupidity of the Romans he would never make peace with them, nor would he give up anybody to them, nor would he ever do anything that was not for the common advantage of all. So spake Mithridates. Then Pompey placed a cavalry force in ambush, and sent forward others to harass the king's outposts openly, and ordered them to provoke the enemy and then retreat, as though vanquished. This was done until those in ambush took their enemy in the rear and put them to flight. The Romans might have broken into the enemy's camp along with the fugitives had not the king, apprehending this danger, led forward his infantry. Then the Romans retired. This was the result of the first trial of arms and cavalry engagement between Pompey and Mithridates.

§ 15.99  The king, being short of provisions, retreated reluctantly and allowed Pompey to enter his territory, expecting that he also would suffer from scarcity when encamped in the devastated region. But Pompey had arranged to have his supplies sent after him. He passed around to the eastward of Mithridates, established a series of fortified posts (B.C. 66 and camps extending a distance of 150 stades, and drew a line of circumvallation around him which made foraging still difficult for him. The king did not oppose this work, being either afraid or mentally paralyzed, as often happens on the approach of calamity. Being again pressed for supplies he slaughtered his pack animals, keeping only his horses. When he had scarcely fifty days' provisions left he fled by night, in profound silence, by bad roads. Pompey overtook him with difficulty in the daytime and assailed his rear guard. The king's friends then urged him to prepare for battle, but he would not fight. He merely drove back the assailants with his horse and retired into the thick woods in the evening. The following day he took up a strong position defended by rocks, to which there was access by only one road, which he held with an advance guard of four cohorts. The Romans put an opposing force on guard there to prevent Mithridates from escaping.

§ 15.100  At daybreak both commanders put their forces under arms. The outposts began skirmishing along the defile, and some of the king's horsemen, without their horses and without orders, went to the assistance of their advance guard. A larger number of the Roman cavalry came up against them, and the horseless Mithridateans rushed back to their camp to mount their horses and thus to make themselves a more equal match for the advancing Romans. When those who were still arming on the higher ground looked down and saw their own men running toward them with haste and outcries, but did not know the reason, they thought that they had been put to flight. They threw down their arms and fled as though their own camp had already been captured on the other side. As there was no road out of the place they fell foul of each other in the confusion, until finally they leaped down the precipices. Thus the army of Mithridates perished through the rashness of those who caused a panic by going to the assistance of the advance guard without orders. The remainder of Pompey's task was easy, in the way of killing and capturing men not yet armed and shut up in a rocky defile. About 10,000 were slain and the camp with all its apparatus was taken.

§ 15.101  Mithridates made his escape through the cliffs with his attendants only, and fled. He fell in with a troop of mercenary horse and about 3000 foot who accompanied him directly to the castle of Simorex, where he had accumulated a large sum of money. Here he gave rewards and a year's pay to those who had fled with him. Taking 6000 talents he hastened to the head waters of the Euphrates, intending to proceed thence to Colchis. As his march was uninterrupted, he crossed the Euphrates on the fourth day. Three days later he put in order and armed the forces that had accompanied or joined him, and entered Chotene in Armenia. There the Choteneans and Iberians tried with darts and slings to prevent him from coming in, but he advanced and proceeded to the river Apsarus. Some people think that the Iberians of Asia were the ancestors of the Iberians of Europe; others think that the former emigrated from the latter; still others think they merely have the same name, as their customs and languages are not similar. Mithridates wintered at Dioscurias in Colchis, which city, the Colchians think, preserves the remembrance of the sojourn there of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, with the Argonautic expedition. Mithridates here made no small plans, nor yet plans suitable for a fugitive, but conceived the idea of making the circuit of the whole Pontic coast, passing from Pontus to the Scythians around Maiotis and thus arriving at the Bosporus. He intended to take away the kingdom of Machares, his ungrateful son, and confront the Romans once more; wage war against them from the side of Europe while they were in Asia, and to put between them as a dividing line the strait which is believed to have been called the Bosporus because 10 swam across it when she was changed into a cow and fled from the jealousy of Hera.

§ 15.102  Such was the chimerical undertaking that Mithridates now set about. He imagined, nevertheless, that he should accomplish it. He pushed on through strange and warlike Scythian tribes, partly by permission, partly by force, for although a fugitive and in misfortune he was still respected and feared. He passed through the country of the Heniochi, who received him willingly. The Achaeans, who resisted him, he put to flight. These, it is said, when returning from the siege of Troy, were driven by a storm (B.C. 65 into the Euxine sea and underwent great sufferings there at the hands of the barbarians because they were Greeks; and when they sent to their home for ships and their request was disregarded, they conceived such a hatred for the Grecian race that whenever they captured any Greeks they immolated them, Scythian fashion. At first in their anger they served all in this way, afterwards only the handsomest ones, and finally a few chosen by lot. So much for the Achaeans of Scythia. Mithridates finally reached the Maiotis country, of which there were many princes, all of whom received him, escorted him, and exchanged presents with him, on account of the fame of his deeds, his empire, and his power, which were still not to be despised. He formed alliances with them in contemplation of other and more novel exploits, such as marching through Thrace to Macedonia, through Macedonia to Pannonia, and passing over the Alps into Italy. With the more powerful of these princes he cemented the alliance by giving his daughters in marriage. When his son, Machares, learned that he had made such a journey in so short a time among savage tribes, and through the so-called Scythian Gates, which had never been passed by any one before, he sent envoys to him to defend himself, saying that he was under the necessity of conciliating the Romans. But, knowing his father's in. exorable temper, he fled to the Pontic Chersonesus, burning the ships to prevent his father from pursuing him. When the latter procured other ships and sent them after him, he anticipated his fate by killing himself. Mithridates put to death all of his own friends whom he had left here in places of authority when he went away, but those of his son he dismissed unharmed, as they had acted under the obligations of private friendship. This was the state of things with Mithridates.

§ 15.103  Pompey pursued Mithridates in his flight as far as Colchis, but he thought that his foe would never get around to Pontus or Maiotis, or undertake anything great even if he should escape. He advanced to Colchis in order to gain knowledge of the country visited by the Argonauts, Castor and Pollux, and Hercules, and especially he desired to see the place where they say that Prometheus was fastened to Mount Caucasus. Many streams issue from Caucasus bearing gold-dust so fine as to be invisible. The inhabitants put sheepskins with shaggy fleece into the stream and thus collect the floating particles. Perhaps the Golden Fleece of Aetes was of this kind. All the neighboring tribes accompanied Pompey on his exploring expedition. Only Oroeses, king of the Albanians, and Artoces king of the Iberians, placed 70,000 men in ambush for him at the river Cyrtus, which empties into the Caspian sea by twelve navigable mouths, receiving the waters of several large streams, the greatest of which is the Araxes. Pompey, gaining knowledge of the ambush, bridged the river and drove the barbarians into a dense forest. These people are terrible forest fighters, hiding in the woods and darting out unexpectedly. Pompey surrounded this forest with his army, set it on fire, and pursued the fugitives when they ran out, until they all surrendered and brought him hostages and presents. Pompey was afterward awarded one of his triumphs at Rome for these exploits. Among the hostages and prisoners many women were found, who had suffered wounds no less than the men. These were supposed to be Amazons, but whether the Amazons are a neighboring nation, who were called to their aid at that time, or whether certain warlike women are called Amazons by the barbarians there, is not known.

§ 15.104  On his return from that quarter Pompey marched against Armenia, making it a cause of war against Tigranes that he had assisted Mithridates. He was now not far from the royal residence, Artaxata. Tigranes was resolved to fight no longer. He had had three sons by the daughter of Mithridates, two of whom he had himself killed, — one in battle, where the son was fighting against the father, and the other in the hunting-field because he had neglected to assist his father who had been thrown, but had put the diadem on his own head while the father was lying on the ground. The third one, whose name was Tigranes, had seemed to be much distressed by his father's hunting accident, and had received a crown from him, but, nevertheless, he also deserted him after a short interval, waged war against him, was defeated, and fled to Phraates, king of the Parthians, who had lately succeeded his father Sintricus, in the government of that country. As Pompey drew near, this young Tigranes, after communicating his intentions to Phraates and receiving his approval (for Phraates also desired Pompey's friendship), took refuge with Pompey as a suppliant; and this although he was a grandson of Mithridates. Pompey's reputation among the barbarians for justice and good faith was great. Tigranes the father, trusting to it, came to Pompey unheralded to submit all his affairs to the latter's decision and to make complaint against his son. Pompey ordered tribunes and prefects of horse to meet him on the road, as an act of courtesy, but those who accompanied Tigranes feared to advance without the sanction of a herald and fled to the rear. Tigranes came forward, however, and prostrated himself before Pompey as his superior, in barbarian fashion. There are those who relate that he was led up by lictors when sent for by Pompey. However that may be, he came and made explanations of the past, and gave to Pompey for himself 6000 talents, and for the army fifty drachmas to each soldier, 1000 to each centurion, and 10,000 to each tribune.

§ 15.105  Pompey pardoned him for the past, reconciled him with his son, and decided that the latter should rule Sophene and Gordyene (which are now called Lesser Armenia), and the father the rest of Armenia, and that at his death the son should succeed him in that also. He required that Tigranes should at once give up the territory that he had gained by war. Accordingly he gave up the whole of Syria from the Euphrates to the sea; for he held that and a part of Cilicia, which he had taken from Antiochus, surnamed Pius. Those Armenians who deserted Tigranes on the road, when he was going to Pompey, because they were afraid, persuaded his son, who was still with Pompey, to make an attempt upon his father. Pompey seized him and put him in chains. As he still tried to stir up the Parthians against Pompey, he was led in the latter's triumph and afterward put to death. And now Pompey, thinking that the whole war was at an end, founded a city on the place where he had overcome Mithridates in battle, which is called Nicopolis (the city of victory) from that affair, and is situated in Lesser Armenia. To Ariobarzanes he gave back the kingdom of Cappadocia and added to it Sophene and Gordyene, which he had partitioned (B.C. 65 to the son of Tigranes, and which are now administered as parts of Cappadocia. He gave him also the city of Castabala and some others in Cilicia. Ariobarzanes entrusted his whole kingdom to his son while he was still living. Many changes took place until the time of Caesar Augustus, under whom this kingdom, like many others, became a Roman province.

§ 16.106  Pompey then passed over Mount Taurus and made (B.C. 64 war against Antiochus, the king of Commagene, until the latter entered into friendly relations with him. He also fought against Darius the Mede, and put him to flight, either because he had helped Antiochus, or Tigranes before him. He made war against the Arabs of Nabathaei, whose king was Aretas, and against the Jews (whose king, Aristobulus, had revolted), until he had captured their holiest city, Jerusalem. He advanced against, and brought under Roman rule without fighting, those parts of Cilicia that were not yet subject to it, and the remainder of Syria which lies along the Euphrates, and the countries called Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, also Idumea and Ituraea, and the other parts of Syria by whatever name called; not that he had any complaint against Antiochus, the son of Antiochus Pius, who was present and asked for his paternal kingdom, but because he thought that since he (Pompey) had dispossessed Tigranes, the conqueror of Antiochus, it belonged to the Romans by the law of war. While he was settling these affairs ambassadors came to him from Phraates and Tigranes, who had gone to war with each other. Those of Tigranes asked the aid of Pompey as an ally, while those of the Parthian sought to secure for him the friendship of the Roman people. As Pompey did not think it best to fight the Parthians without a decree of the Senate, he sent mediators to compose their differences.

§ 16.107  While Pompey was about this business Mithridates had completed his circuit of the Euxine and occupied Panticapaeum, a European market-town at the outlet of that sea. There at the Bosporus he put to death Xiphares, one of his sons, on account of the following fault of his mother. Mithridates had a castle where, in a secret underground treasury, a great deal of money lay concealed in numerous iron-bound brazen vessels. Stratonice, one of the king's concubines or wives, had been put in charge of this castle, and while he was still making his journey around the Euxine she delivered it up to Pompey and revealed to him the secret treasures, on the sole condition that he should spare her son, Xiphares, if he should capture him. Pompey took the money and promised her that he would spare Xiphares, and allowed her to take away her own things. When Mithridates learned these facts he killed Xiphares at the straits, while his mother was looking on from the opposite shore, and cast his body out unburied, thus wreaking his spite on the son in order to grieve the mother who had offended him. And now he sent ambassadors to Pompey, who was still in Syria and who did not know that the king was at that place. They promised that the king would pay tribute to the Romans if they would let him have his paternal kingdom. When Pompey required that Mithridates should come himself and make his petition as Tigranes had done, he said that as long as he was Mithridates he would never agree to that, but that he would send some of his sons and his friends to do so. Even while he was saying these things he was levying an army of freemen and slaves promiscuously, manufacturing arms, projectiles, and machines, helping himself to timber, and killing plough-oxen for the sake of their sinews. He levied tribute on all, even those of the slenderest means. His ministers made these exactions with harshness to many, without his knowledge, for he had fallen sick with ulcers on his face and allowed himself to be seen only by three eunuchs, who cured him.

§ 16.108  When he had recovered from his illness and his army was collected (it consisted of sixty picked cohorts of 6000 men each and a great multitude of other troops, besides ships and strongholds that had been captured by his generals while he was sick) he sent a part of it across the strait to Phanagoria, another trading-place at the mouth of the sea, in order to possess himself of the passage on either side while Pompey was still in Syria. Castor of Phanagoria, who had once been maltreated by Trypho, the king's eunuch, fell upon the latter as he was entering the town, killed him, and summoned the citizens to revolt. Although the citadel was already held by Artaphernes and other sons of Mithridates, the inhabitants piled wood around it and set it on fire, in consequence of which Artaphernes, Darius, Xerxes, and Oxathres, sons, and Eupatra, a daughter, of Mithridates, in fear of the fire, surrendered themselves and were led into captivity. Of these Artaphernes alone was about forty years of age; the others were handsome children. Cleopatra, another daughter, resisted. Her father, in admiration of her courageous spirit, sent a number of row-boats and rescued her. All the neighboring castles that had been lately occupied by Mithridates now revolted from him in emulation of the Phanagoreans, namely, Chersonesus, Theodosia, Nymphaeum, and others around the Euxine which were well situated for purposes of war. Mithridates, observing these frequent defections, and having suspicions of the army itself, lest it should fail him because the service was compulsory and the taxes very heavy, and because soldiers always lack confidence in unlucky commanders, sent some of his daughters in charge of eunuchs to be married to the Scythian princes, asking them at the same time to send him reenforcements as quickly as possible. Five hundred soldiers accompanied them from his own army. Soon after they left the presence of Mithridates they killed the eunuchs who were leading them (for they always hated these persons, who were all-powerful with Mithridates) and conducted the young women to Pompey.

§ 16.109  Although bereft of so many children and castles and of his whole kingdom, and in no way fit for war, and although he could not expect any aid from the Scythians, still no inferior position, none corresponding to his present misfortunes, even then found a place in his mind. He proposed to turn his course to the Gauls, whose friendship he had cultivated a long time for this purpose, and with them to invade Italy, hoping that many of the Italians themselves would join him on account of their hatred of the Romans; for he had heard that such had been Hannibal's policy after the Romans had waged war against him in Spain, and that he had become in this way an object of the greatest terror to them. He knew that almost all of Italy had lately revolted from the Romans by reason of their hatred and had waged war against them for a very long time, and had sustained Spartacus, the gladiator, against them, although he was a man of no repute. Filled with these ideas he was for hastening to the Gauls, but his soldiers, though the very bold enterprise might be attractive, were deterred chiefly by its magnitude, and by the long distance of the expedition in foreign territory, against men whom they could not overcome even in their own country. They thought also that Mithridates, in utter despair, wanted to end his life in a valiant and kingly way rather than in idleness. So they tolerated him and remained silent, for there was nothing mean or contemptible about him even in his misfortunes.

§ 16.110  While affairs were in this plight Pharnaces, the son whom he was most fond of and whom he had often designated as his successor, either alarmed about the expedition and the kingdom (for he still had hopes of pardon from the Romans, but reckoned that he should lose everything completely if his father should invade Italy), or spurred by other motives, formed a conspiracy against his father. His fellow-conspirators were captured and put to the torture, but Menophanes persuaded the king that it would not be seemly, just as he was starting on his expedition, to put to death the son who had been until then the dearest to him. People were liable to such turns, he said, in time of war, and when they came to an end things quieted down again. In this way Mithridates was persuaded to pardon his son, but the latter, still fearing his father's anger, and knowing that the army shrank from the expedition, went by night to the leading Roman deserters who were encamped very near the king, and by representing to them in its true light, and as they well knew it, the danger of their advancing against Italy, and by making them many promises if they would refuse to go, induced them to desert from his father. After Pharnaces had persuaded them he sent emissaries the same night to other camps near by and won them over. Early in the morning the first deserters raised a shout, and those next to them repeated it, and so on. Even the naval force joined in the cry, not all of them having been advised beforehand perhaps, but eager for a change, despising failure, and always ready to attach themselves to a new hope. Others, who were ignorant of the conspiracy, thought that all had been corrupted, and that if they remained alone they would be scorned by the majority, and so from fear and necessity rather than inclination joined in the shouting. Mithridates, being awakened by the noise, sent messengers out to inquire what the shouters wanted. The latter made no concealment, but said, "We want your son to be king; we want a young man instead of an old one who is ruled by eunuchs, the slayer of so many of his sons, his generals, and his friends."

§ 16.111  When Mithridates heard this he went out to reason with them. A part of his own guard then ran to join the deserters, but the latter refused to admit them unless they would do some irreparable deed as a proof of their fidelity, pointing at the same time to Mithridates. So they hastened to kill his horse, for he himself had fled, and at the same time saluted Pharnaces as king, as though the rebels were already victorious, and one of them brought a broad papyrus leaf from a temple and crowned him with it in place of a diadem. The king saw these things from a high portico, and he sent messenger after messenger to Pharnaces asking permission to fly in safety. When none of his messengers returned, fearing lest he should be delivered up to the Romans, he praised the body-guards and friends who had been faithful to him and sent them to the new king, but the army killed some of them under a misapprehension as they were approaching. Mithridates then took out some poison that he always carried next to his sword, and mixed it. There two of his daughters, who were still girls growing up together, named Mithridatis and Nyssa, who had been betrothed to the kings of Egypt and of Cyprus, asked him to let them have some of the poison first, and insisted strenuously and prevented him from drinking it until they had taken some and swallowed it. The drug took effect on them at once; but upon Mithridates, although he walked around rapidly to hasten its action, it had no effect, because he had accustomed himself to other drugs by continually trying them as a means of protection against poisoners. These are still called the Mithridatic drugs. Seeing a certain Bituitus there, an officer of the Gauls, he said to him, "I have profited much from your right arm against my enemies. I shall profit from it most of all if you will kill me, and save from the danger of being led in a Roman triumph one who has been an autocrat so many years, and the ruler of so great a kingdom, but who is now unable to die by poison because, like a fool, he has fortified himself against the poison of others. Although I have kept watch and ward against all the poisons that one takes with his food, I have not provided against that domestic poison, always the most dangerous to kings, the treachery of army, children, and friends." Bituitus, thus appealed to, rendered the king the service that he desired.

§ 16.112  So died Mithridates, who was the sixteenth in descent from Darius, the son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians, and the eighth from that Mithridates who left the Macedonians and acquired the kingdom of Pontus. He lived sixty-eight or sixty-nine years, and of these he reigned fifty-seven, for the kingdom came to him when he was an orphan. He subdued the neighboring barbarians and many of the Scythians, and waged a formidable war against the Romans for forty years, during which he frequently conquered Bithynia and Cappadocia, besides making incursions into the Roman province of Asia and into Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, and Macedonia. He invaded Greece, where he performed many remarkable exploits, and ruled the sea from Cilicia to the Adriatic until Sulla confined him again to his paternal kingdom after destroying 160,000 of his soldiers. Notwithstanding these great losses he renewed the war without difficulty. He fought with the greatest generals of his time. He was vanquished by Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey, although several times he got the better of them also. Lucius Cassius, Quintus Oppius, and Manius Aquilius he took prisoners and carried them around with him. The last he killed because he was the cause of the war. The others he surrendered to Sulla. He defeated Fimbria, Murena, the consul Cotta, Fabius, and Triarius. He was always high-spirited and indomitable even in misfortunes. Until finally overthrown he left no avenue of attack against the Romans untried. He made alliances with the Samnites and the Gauls, and he sent legates to Sertorius in Spain. He was often wounded by enemies and by conspirators, but he never desisted from anything on that account, even when he was an old man. None of the conspiracies ever escaped his detection, not even the last one, but he voluntarily overlooked it and perished in consequence of it — so ungrateful is the wickedness that has been once pardoned. He was bloodthirsty and cruel to all — the slayer of his mother, his brother, three sons, and three daughters. He had a large frame, as his armor, which he sent to Nemea and to Delphi, shows, and was so strong that he rode horseback and hurled the javelin to the last, and could ride 1000 stades in one day, changing horses at intervals. He used to drive a chariot with sixteen horses at once. He cultivated Greek learning, and thus became acquainted with the religious cult of Greece, and was fond of music. He was abstemious and patient of labor for the most part, and yielded only to pleasures with women.

§ 16.113  Such was the end of Mithridates, who bore the surnames of Eupator and Dionysus. When the Romans heard of his death they held a festival because they were delivered from a troublesome enemy. Pharnaces sent his father's corpse to Pompey at Sinope in a trireme, together with the persons who captured Manius, and many hostages, both Greek and barbarian, and asked that he should be allowed to rule either his paternal kingdom, or Bosporus alone, which his brother, Machares, had received from Mithridates. Pompey provided for the expenses of the funeral of Mithridates and directed his servants to give his remains a royal interment, and to place them in the tombs of the kings in Sinope, because he admired his great achievements and considered him the first of the kings of his time. Pharnaces, for delivering Italy from much trouble, was inscribed as a friend and ally of the Romans, and was given Bosporus as his kingdom, except Phanagoria, whose inhabitants were made free and independent because they were the first to resist Mithridates when he was recovering his strength, collecting ships, creating a new army and military posts, and because they led others to revolt and were the cause of his final collapse.

§ 17.114  Pompey, having cleaned out the robber dens, and prostrated the greatest king then living, in one and the same war, and having fought successful battles, besides those of the Pontic war, with Colchians, Albanians, Iberians, Armenians, Medes, Arabs, Jews, and other Eastern nations, extended the Roman sway as far as Egypt. But he did not advance into Egypt, although the king of that country invited him there to suppress a sedition, and sent gifts to himself and money and clothing for his whole army. He either feared the greatness of this still prosperous kingdom, or wished to guard against the envy of his enemies, or the warning voice of oracles, or for other reasons which I will publish in my Egyptian history. He let some of the subjugated nations go free and made them allies. Others he placed at once under Roman rule, and others he distributed to kings — to Tigranes, Armenia; to Pharnaces, Bosporus; to Ariobarzanes, Cappadocia and the other provinces before mentioned. To Antiochus of Commagene he turned over Seleucia and the parts of Mesopotamia that he conquered. He made Deiotarus and others tetrarchs of the Gallograecians, who are now the Galatians bordering on Cappadocia. He made Attalus prince of Paphlagonia and Aristarchus prince of Colchis. He also appointed Archelaus to the priesthood of the goddess worshipped at Comana, which is a royal prerogative. Castor of Phanagoria was inscribed as a friend of the Roman people. Much territory and money were bestowed upon others.

§ 17.115  He founded cities also, — in Lesser Armenia Nicopolis, named for his victory; in Pontus Eupatoria, which Mithridates Eupator had built and named after himself, but destroyed because it had received the Romans. Pompey rebuilt it and named it Magnopolis. In Cappadocia he rebuilt Mazaca, which had been completely ruined by the war. He restored other towns in many places, that had been destroyed or damaged, in Pontus, Palestine, Coele-Syria, and Cilicia, in which he had settled the greater part of the pirates, and where the city formerly called Soli is now known as Pompeiopolis. The city of Talauri Mithridates used as a storehouse of furniture. Here were found 2000 drinking-cups made of onyx welded with gold, and many cups, wine-coolers, and drinking-horns, also ornamental couches and chairs, bridles for horses, and trappings for their breasts and shoulders, all ornamented in like manner with precious stones and gold. The quantity of this store was so great that the inventory of it occupied thirty days. Some of these things had been inherited from Darius, the son of Hystaspes; others came from the kingdom of the Ptolemies, having been deposited by Cleopatra at the island of Cos and given by the inhabitants to Mithridates; still others had been made or collected by Mithridates himself, as he was a lover of the beautiful in furniture as well as in other things.

§ 17.116  At the end of the winter Pompey distributed rewards to the army; 1500 Attic drachmas to each soldier and in like proportion to the officers, the whole, it was said, amounting to 16,000 talents. Then he marched to Ephesus, embarked for Italy, and hastened to Rome, having dismissed his soldiers at Brundusium to their homes, by which act his popularity was greatly increased among the Romans. As he approached the city he was met by successive processions, first of youths, farthest from the city, then bands of men of different ages came out as far as they severally could walk; last of all came the Senate, which was lost in wonder at his exploits, for no one had ever before vanquished so powerful an enemy, and at the same time brought so many great nations under subjection and extended the Roman rule to the Euphrates. He was awarded a triumph exceeding in brilliancy any that had gone before, being now only thirty-five years of age. It occupied two successive days, and many nations were represented in the procession from Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, all the peoples of Syria, besides Albanians, Heniochi, Achaeans, Scythians, and Eastern Iberians. Seven hundred complete ships were brought into the harbor. In the triumphal procession were two-horse carriages and litters laden with gold or with other ornaments of various kinds, also the couch of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the throne and sceptre of Mithridates Eupator himself, and his image, eight cubits high, made of solid gold, and 75,100,000 drachmas of silver coin. The number of wagons carrying arms was infinite, and the number of the beaks of ships. After these came the multitude of captives and pirates, none of them bound, but all arrayed in their native costumes.

§ 17.117  Before Pompey himself were led the satraps, sons, and generals of the kings against whom he had fought, who were present (some having been captured and others given as hostages) to the number of 324. Among them were Tigranes, the son of Tigranes, and five sons of Mithridates, namely, Artaphernes, Cyrus, Oxathres, Darius, and Xerxes, also his daughters, Orsabaris and Eupatra. Olthaces, chief of the Colchians, was also led in the procession, and Aristobulus, king of the Jews, the tyrants of the Cilicians, and the female rulers of the Scythians, three chiefs of the Iberians, two of the Albanians, and Menander the Laodicean, who had been chief of cavalry to Mithridates. There were carried in the procession images of those who were not present, of Tigranes and of Mithridates, representing them as fighting, as vanquished, and as fleeing. Even the besieging of Mithridates and his silent flight by night were represented. Finally it was shown how he died, and the daughters who perished with him were pictured also, and there were figures of the sons and daughters who died before him, and images of the barbarian gods decked out in the fashion of their countries. A tablet was borne also with this inscription: "Ships with brazen beaks captured, 800; cities founded in Cappadocia, 8; in Cilicia and Coele-Syria, 20; in Palestine the one which is now Seleucis. Kings conquered: Tigranes the Armenian, Artoces the Iberian, Oroezes the Albanian, Darius the Mede, Aretas the Nabataean, Antiochus of Commagene." These were the facts recorded on the inscription. Pompey himself was borne in a chariot studded with gems, wearing, it was said, a cloak of Alexander the Great, if any one can believe that. This was supposed to have been found among the possessions of Mithridates that the inhabitants of Cos had received from Cleopatra. His chariot was followed by the officers who had shared the campaigns with him, some on horseback and others on foot. When he arrived at the Capitol he did not put any of the prisoners to death as had been the custom at other triumphs, but sent them all home at the public expense, except the kings. Of these Aristobulus alone was shortly put to death and Tigranes somewhat later. Such was the character of Pompey's triumph.

§ 17.118  Thus the Romans, having conquered King Mithridates at the end of forty-two years, reduced to subjection Bithynia, Cappadocia, and other neighboring peoples dwelling near the Euxine sea. In this same war that part of Cilicia which was not yet subject to them, together with the Syrian countries, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, Palestine, and the territory lying between them and the river Euphrates, although they did not belong to Mithridates, were gained by the impetus of the victory over him and were required to pay tribute, some immediately and others later. Paphlagonia, Galatia, Phrygia, and the part of Mysia adjoining Phrygia, and in addition Lydia, Caria, Ionia, and all the rest of Asia Minor formerly belonging to Pergamus, together with old Greece and Macedonia, that Mithridates had drawn away from them, were completely recovered. Many of these peoples, who did not pay them tribute before, were now subjected to it. For these reasons I think they especially considered this a great war and called the victory which ended it the Great Victory and gave the title of Great to Pompey who gained it for them (by which peculiar appellation he is called to this day); on account of the great number of nations recovered or added to their dominion, the length of time (forty years) that the war had lasted, and the courage and endurance that Mithridates had shown himself capable of in all emergencies.

§ 17.119  Many times he had over 400 ships of his own, 50,0000 cavalry, and 250,000 infantry, with engines and arms in proportion. For allies he had the king of Armenia and the princes of the Scythian tribes around the Euxine and Maiotis and beyond, as far as the Thracian Bosporus. He held communications with the leaders of the Roman civil wars, which were then fiercely raging, and with those who were inciting insurrection in Spain. He established friendly relations with the Gauls for the purpose of invading Italy. From Cilicia to the Pillars of Hercules he filled the sea with pirates, who stopped all commerce and navigation between cities and caused severe famine for a long time. In short, he left nothing within the power of man undone or untried to start the greatest possible movement, extending from the Orient to the Occident, to vex, so to speak, the whole world, which was warred upon, tangled in alliances, harassed by pirates, or vexed by the neighborhood of the warfare. Such and so diversified was this one war, but in the end it brought the greatest gains to the Romans, for it pushed the boundaries of their dominion from the setting of the sun to the river Euphrates. It has been impossible to distinguish all these exploits by nations, since they were performed at the same time and were complicated with each other. Those which could be separated I have arranged each by itself.

§ 17.120  Pharnaces besieged the Phanagoreans and the towns neighboring to the Bosporus until the former were compelled by hunger to come out and fight, when he overcame them in battle; yet he did them no other harm, but made friends with them, took hostages, and withdrew. Not long afterward he took Sinope and had a mind to take Amisus also, for which reason he made war against Calvinus, the Roman commander, at the time when Pompey and Caesar were contending against each other, until Asander, an enemy of his own, drew him away from Asia, while the Romans were still preoccupied. Afterward he fought with Caesar himself (when the latter had overthrown Pompey and returned from Egypt), near Mount Scotius, where his father had defeated the Romans under Triarius. He was beaten and fled to Sinope with 1000 cavalry. Caesar was too busy to follow him, but sent Domitius against him. He surrendered Sinope to Domitius, who agreed to let him go away with his cavalry. He killed his horses, though his men were extremely dissatisfied at this, then took ship and fled to the Bosporus.18 Here he collected a force of Scythians and Sarmatians and captured Theodosia and Panticapaeum. His enemy, Asander, attacked him again, and his men were defeated for want of horses, and because they were not accustomed to fighting on foot. Pharnaces alone fought valiantly until he died of his wounds, being then fifty years of age and having been king of Bosporus fifteen years.

§ 17.121  Thus Pharnaces was cut off from his kingdom and Caesar bestowed it upon Mithridates of Pergamus, who had rendered him very important help in Egypt. But the people of Bosporus now had rulers of their own and a praetor was sent by the Senate yearly to govern Pontus and Bithynia. Although Caesar was offended with the other rulers who held their possessions as gifts from Pompey, since they had aided Pompey against him, nevertheless he confirmed their titles, except the priesthood of Comana which he took from Archelaus and gave to Lycomedes. Not long after, all these countries, and those which Gaius Caesar or Mark Antony had given to others, were made Roman provinces by Augustus Caesar, after he had taken Egypt, as the Romans needed only the slightest pretext in each case. Thus, since their dominion had been advanced in consequence of the Mithridatic war, from Spain and the Pillars of Hercules to the Euxine sea, and the sands which border Egypt, and the river Euphrates, it was fitting that this victory should be called the great one, and that Pompey, who commanded the army, should be styled the Great. As they held Africa also as far as Cyrene (for Apion, the king of that country, a bastard of the house of the Lagidae, left Cyrene itself to the Romans in his will), Egypt alone was lacking to their grasp of the whole Mediterranean.