Mithridatic Wars

[*](In all the codices Sec. 118 and 119 are placed at the beginning of the Mithridatic wars. Schweighäuser transferred them to this place.) 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, Phœnicia, Cœle-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.

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 the sea of Azov 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.

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 [*](Y.R. 707)[*](B.C. 47) 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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. Cæsar 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.[*](The text says, e)s to\n *po/nton, "to the Euxine," but Pharnaces, being at Sinope, was already at the Euxine. So Schweighäuser suggests e)s to\n *bospo/ron.) Here he collected a force of Scythians and Sarmatians and captured Theodosia and Panticapæum. 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.

Thus Pharnaces was cut off from his kingdom and Cæsar 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 prætor was sent by the Senate yearly to govern Pontus and Bithynia. Although Cæsar 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 Cæsar or Mark Antony had given to others, were made Roman provinces by Augustus Cæsar, 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 [*]( This is an anachronism. The title of Great was bestowed upon Pompey by Sulla, in consequence of Pompey's victory over the Marian faction in Africa, in the year 81 B.C. (Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 13).) As they held Africa also as far as Cyrene (for Apion, the king of that country, a bastard of the house of the Lagidæ, left Cyrene itself to the Romans in his will), Egypt alone was lacking to their grasp of the whole Mediterranean.