Lucullus

These Syrians who were in possession of the city were descended, as it is said, from Syrus, the son of Apollo, and Sinopé, the daughter of Asopis. On hearing this, Lucullus called to mind the advice of Sulla, in his Memoirs, which was to think nothing so trustworthy and sure as that which is signified by dreams.

Being informed now that Mithridates and Tigranes were on the point of entering Lycaonia and Cilicia, with the purpose of invading Asia before war was actually declared, he was amazed that the Armenian, if he cherished the design of attacking the Romans, had not made use of Mithridates for this war when he was at the zenith of his power, nor joined forces with him when he was strong, but had allowed him to be crushed and ruined, and now began a war which offered only faint hopes of success, prostrating himself to the level of those who were unable to stand erect.

But when Machares also, the son of Mithridates, who held the Bosporus, sent Lucullus a crown valued at a thousand pieces of gold, begging to be included in the list of Rome’s friends and allies, Lucullus decided at once that the first war was finished. He therefore left Sornatius there as guardian of Pontus, with six thousand soldiers,

while he himself, with twelve thousand footmen and less than three thousand horse, set out for the second war.[*](69 B.C.) He seemed to be making a reckless attack, and one which admitted of no saving calculation, upon warlike nations, countless thousands of horsemen, and a boundless region surrounded by deep rivers and mountains covered with perpetual snow.

His soldiers, therefore, who were none too well disciplined in any case, followed him reluctantly and rebelliously, while the popular tribunes at Rome raised an outcry against him, and accused him of seeking one war after another, although the city had no need of them, that he might be in perpetual command and never lay down his arms or cease enriching himself from the public dangers.