Y.R. B. C. 606 and his outrageous conduct toward everybody, and the 148 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. 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 Asia1 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 Nicæa. The Roman prætor, 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 prætor 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. 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 1 In Roman nomenclature Asia meant the proconsular province composed of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia. V.R. ers. B.C. 606 Romans (in reliance upon whom he had neglected to pro- 148 vide means for his own defence) he retired to Nicomedia in order to possess himself of the city and resist the invadThe 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. CHAPTER II Cappadocia in Ancient Times -The First Mithridates - Mithridates Eupator - His First Difficulty with the Romans - Sends an Ambassador to Them - His Dispute with Nicomedes - Duplicity of the Roman Legates 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 2 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 1 Literally: "If anybody wishes to know it all beforehand." 2 Hieronymus of Cardia accompanied Alexander in his campaign against Darius and wrote a history of it which has not come down to us. He is mentioned by Diodorus the Sicilian as a friend and fellowcitizen of Eumenes. After the death of Alexander he served under Eumenes and afterwards under Antigonus and the latter's son and grandson. His history embraced the successors of Alexander and was continued to the death of Pyrrhus. It is said that he lived to the age of 104. Y.R. B. C. 606 because he had revolted or in order to bring that country 148 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. 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. 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 662 Romans ordered him to restore Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, 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 664 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 90 Y. R. B.C. 664 was the son of Nicomedes the son of Prusias, who had re- 90 ceived 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. II. 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 coöperate 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 coöperate. 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 666 territory of Mithridates and plundered it as far as the city 88 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. 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 Y.R. B.C. 666 his own and his father's friendship and alliance, in return 88 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." 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 steersThese 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 men. |