Y.R. B. C. 671 so they at once returned to their allegiance. The king 83 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 temple, 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 of the temples, and he went into winter quarters in Cappadocia. 672 65. Mithridates sent an embassy to the Senate and to 82 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 VOL. I 2 B Y.R. B C. 672 open war had been ordered by the Romans, directed his 82 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. 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 Pasargada) 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 673 thought that it was not right to make war against Mithri- 81 dates 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 Y.R. B. C. 673 should excel in drinking, eating, jesting, singing, and so 81 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. 674 CHAPTER X New Troubles brewing - Mithridates forms an Alliance with Sertorius and prepares for War - Makes a Speech to his Troops - Invades Bithynia 67. As Mithridates was now at leisure he subdued the 80 tribes of the Bosporus and appointed Machares, one of his sons, king over them. Then he fell upon the Achæans 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. He did so, and then sent another embassy to sign the agreements. But now Sulla had just 676 died, and as the Senate was otherwise occupied the prætors 78 did not admit them. So Mithridates persuaded his son-inlaw, 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. 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 Y.R. 679 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. 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 medimni1 of corn along the coast. Besides his former forces he had for allies the Chalybes, Armenians, Scythians, Taurians, Achæans, 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 Basilidæ and the Jazyges, the Coralli, and those Thracians who dwelt along the Danube and on the Rhodope and Hamus mountains, and besides these the Bastarnæ, the 1 The medimnus=12 gallons. B. C. 75 Y.R. B. C. 679 bravest nation of all. Altogether Mithridates recruited a 75 fighting force of about 140,000 foot and 16,000 horse. A great crowd of road-makers, baggage-carriers, and sutlers followed. 680 70. At the beginning of spring Mithridates made trial 74 of his navy and sacrified 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?" He The Romans 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. fled to Chalcedon with what force he had. Thus Bithynia again passed under the rule of Mithridates. from all directions flocked to Cotta at Chalcedon. 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 When |