Sulla

Upon these assurances Sulla sent him away, and then himself invaded the country of the Maedi, and after ravaging the most of it, turned back again into Macedonia, and received Archelaüs at Philippi. Archelaüs brought him word that all was well, but that Mithridates insisted on a conference with him.

Fimbria was chiefly responsible for this, who, after killing Flaccus, the consul of the opposite faction,[*](See chapter xii. 8 and note.) and overpowering the generals of Mithridates, was marching against the king himself. For this terrified Mithridates, and he chose rather to seek the friendship of Sulla.

They met, accordingly, at Dardanus, in the Troad, Mithridates having two hundred ships there, equipped with oars, twenty thousand men-at-arms from his infantry force, six thousand horse, and a throng of scythe-bearing chariots; Sulla, on the other hand, having four cohorts and two hundred horse. When Mithridates came towards him and put out his hand, Sulla asked him if he would put a stop to the war on the terms which Archelaüs had made, and as the king was silent, Sulla said: But surely it is the part of suppliants to speak first, while victors need only to be silent.

Then Mithridates began a defence of himself, and tried to shift the blame for the war partly upon the gods, and partly upon the Romans themselves. But Sulla cut him short, saying that he had long ago heard from others, but now knew of himself, that Mithridates was a very powerful orator, since he had not been at a loss for plausible arguments to defend such baseness and injustice as his.