"Nothing was more novel or peculiar in the legislation of Karl
[Charlemagne] than his institution of imperial deputies,
called Missi Dominici, who were regularly sent forth from the
palace to oversee and inspect the various local
administrations. Consisting of a body of two or three officers
each, one of whom was always a prelate, they visited the
counties every three months, and held there the local assizes,
or 'placita minores.' … Even religion and morals were not
exempted from this scrutiny."
P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 17.
See, also, PALATINE, COUNTS.
MISSIONARY RIDGE:
Its position, and the battle fought on it.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE);
and (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).
----------MISSISSIPPI: Start--------
MISSISSIPPI:
The aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY, and CHEROKEES.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1629.
Embraced in the Carolina grant to Sir Robert Heath.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1629.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1663.
Embraced in the Carolina grant to Monk, Chesterfield, and others.
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1663-1670.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1732.
Mostly embraced in the new province of Georgia.
See GEORGIA: A. D. 1732-1739.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1763.
Partly embraced in West Florida, ceded to Great Britain.
See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES;
FLORIDA: A. D. 1763;
and NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1763.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1779-1781.
Reconquest of West Florida by the Spaniards.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1779-1781.
{2189}
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1783.
Mostly covered by the English cession to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783 (SEPTEMBER).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1783-1787.
Partly in dispute with Spain.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1783-1787.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1798-1804.
The Territory constituted and organized.
"The territory heretofore surrendered by the Spanish
authorities, and lying north of the 31st degree of latitude,
with the consent and approbation of the State of Georgia, was
erected into a territory of the United States by act of
Congress, approved April 7th, 1798, entitled 'an act for the
amicable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and
authorizing the establishment of a government in the
Mississippi Territory. The territory comprised in the new
organization, or the original Mississippi Territory, embraced
that portion of country between the Spanish line of
demarkation and a line drawn due east from the mouth of the
Yazoo to the Chattahoochy River. The Mississippi River was its
western limit and the Chattahoochy its eastern. The
organization of a territorial government by the United States
was in no wise to impair the rights of Georgia to the soil,
which was left open for future negotiation between the State
of Georgia and the United States." In 1802 the State of
Georgia ceded to the United States all her claim to lands
south of the State of Tennessee, stipulating to receive
$1,250,000" out of the first nett proceeds of lands lying in
said ceded territory." In 1804 "the whole of the extensive
territory ceded by Georgia, lying north of the Mississippi
Territory, and south of Tennessee, was … annexed to the
Mississippi Territory, and was subsequently included within
its limits and jurisdiction. The boundaries of the Mississippi
Territory, consequently, were the 31st degree on the south,
and the 35th degree on the north, extending from the
Mississippi River to the western limits of Georgia, and
comprised the whole territory now embraced in the States of
Alabama and Mississippi, excepting the small Florida District
between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers. Four fifths of this
extensive territory were in the possession of the four great
southern Indian confederacies, the Choctâs, the Chickasâs, the
Creeks, and the Cherokees, comprising an aggregate of about
75,000 souls, and at least 10,000 warriors. The only portions
of this territory to which the Indian title had been
extinguished was a narrow strip from 15 to 50 miles in width,
on the east side of the Mississippi, and about 70 miles in
length, and a small district on the Tombigby."
_J. W. Monette,
Discovery and Settlement of the
Valley of the Mississippi,
book 5, chapter 13 (volume 2)._
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1803.
Portion acquired by the Louisiana Purchase.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1812-1813.
Spanish West Florida annexed to Mississippi Territory
and possession taken.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1810-1813.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1813-1814.
The Creek War.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1813-1814 (AUGUST-APRIL).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1817.
Constitution as a State and admission into the Union.
The sixth and seventh of the new States added to the original
Union of thirteen were Indiana and Mississippi. "These last
almost simultaneously found representation in the Fifteenth
Congress; and of them Indiana, not without an internal
struggle, held steadfastly to the fundamental Ordinance of
1787 under which it was settled, having adopted its free State
constitution in June, 1816; Mississippi, which followed on the
slave side, agreeing upon a constitution, in August, 1817,
which the new Congress, at its earliest opportunity [December
10, 1817] after assembling, pronounced republican in form, and
satisfactory."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 3, page 100._
At the same time, the part of Mississippi Territory which
forms the present State of Alabama was detached and erected
into the Territory of Alabama.
See ALABAMA: A. D. 1817-1819.
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1861 (January).
Secession from the Union.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (April-May).
The taking of Corinth by the Union forces.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (APRIL-MAY: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (May-July).
First Union attempts against Vicksburg.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1862 (September-October).
The battles of Iuka and Corinth.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (April-May).
Grierson's raid.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL-MAY: MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (April-July).
Federal siege and capture of Vicksburg.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL-JULY).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1863 (July).
Capture and destruction of Jackson.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1864 (February).
Sherman's raid to Meridian.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-APRIL: TENNESSEE—MISSISSIPPI).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865 (March-April).
Wilson's raid.
The end of the Rebellion.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL-MAY).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865 (June).
Provisional government set up under
President Johnson's plan of Reconstruction.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1865-1870.
State reconstruction.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.
----------MISSISSIPPI: End--------
----------MISSISSIPPI RIVER: Start--------
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1519.
Discovery of the mouth by Pineda, for Garay.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1519-1525.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1528-1542.
Crossed by Cabeça de Vaca, and by Hernando de Soto.
Descended by the survivors of De Soto's company.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1528-1542.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1673.
Discovery by Joliet and Marquette.
See CANADA: A. D. 1634-1673.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1682.
Exploration to the mouth by La Salle.
See CANADA: A. D. 1669-1687.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1712.
Called the River St. Louis by the French.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1783-1803.
The question of the Right of Navigation
disputed between Spain and the United States.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1783-1787;
and LOUISIANA: A. D. 1785-1800, and 1798-1803.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: A. D. 1861-1863.
Battles and Sieges of the Civil War.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER: ON THE MISSISSIPPI), Belmont;
1862 (MARCH-APRIL), NEW
Madrid and Island No. 10;
1862 (APRIL), New Orleans;
1862 (MAY-JULY), First Vicksburg attack;
1862 (JUNE), Memphis;
1862 (DECEMBER), Second Vicksburg attack;
1863 (JANUARY-APRIL), and (APRIL-JULY),
Siege and capture of Vicksburg;
1863 (MAY-JULY), Port Hudson and the clear opening of the River.
----------MISSISSIPPI RIVER: End--------
{2190}
MISSISSIPPI SCHEME, John Law's.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720;
and LOUISIANA: A. D. 1717-1718.
----------MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: Start--------
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: A. D. 1763.
Cession of the eastern side of the river to Great Britain.
See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: A. D. 1803.
Purchase of the western side by the United States.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
----------MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: End--------
MISSOLONGHI, Siege and capture of (1825-1826).
See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.
----------MISSOURI: Start--------
MISSOURI: A. D. 1719-1732.
First development of lead mines by the French.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1763-1765.
French withdrawal to the West of the Mississippi.
The founding of St. Louis.
See ILLINOIS: A. D. 1765.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1803.
Embraced in the Louisiana Purchase.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1804-1812.
Upper Louisiana organized as the Territory of Louisiana.
The changing of its name to Missouri.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1804-1812.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1819.
Arkansas detached.
See ARKANSAS: A. D. 1819-1836.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1821.
Admission to the Union.
The Compromise concerning Slavery.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1854-1859.
The Kansas Struggle.
See KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859.
MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (February-July).
The baffling of the Secessionists.
Blair, Lyon and the Home Guards of St. Louis.
The capture of Camp Jackson.
Battle of Boonville.
A loyal State Government organized.
The seizure of arsenals and arms by the secessionists of the
Atlantic and Gulf States "naturally, directed the attention of
the leaders of the different political parties in Missouri to
the arsenal in St. Louis, and set them to work planning how
they might get control of the 40,000 muskets and other
munitions of war which it was known to contain. …
Satisfied that movements were on foot among irresponsible
parties, Unionist as well as Secessionist, to take possession
of this post, General D. M. Frost, of the Missouri state
militia, a graduate of West Point and a thorough soldier, is
said to have called Governor Jackson's attention to the
necessity of 'looking after' it. … Jackson, however, needed
no prompting. … He did not hesitate to give Frost authority
to seize the arsenal, whenever in his judgment it might become
necessary to do so. Meanwhile he was to assist in protecting
it against mob violence of any kind or from any source. …
Frost, however, was not the only person in St. Louis who had
his eyes fixed upon the arsenal and its contents. Frank Blair
was looking longingly in the same direction, and was already
busily engaged in organizing the bands which, supplied with
guns from this very storehouse, enabled him, some four months
later, to lay such a heavy hand upon Missouri. Just then, it
is true, he could not arm them, … but he did not permit this
to interfere with the work of recruiting and drilling. That
went on steadily, and as a consequence, when the moment came
for action, Blair was able to appear at the decisive point
with a well-armed force, ten times as numerous as that which
his opponents could bring against him. In the mean time,
whilst these two, or rather three, parties (for Frost can
hardly be termed a secessionist, though as an officer in the
service of the State he was willing to obey the orders of his
commander) were watching each other, the federal government
awoke from its lethargy, and began to concentrate troops in
St. Louis for the protection of its property. … By the 18th
of February, the day of the election of delegates to the
convention which pronounced so decidedly against secession,
there were between four and five hundred men behind the
arsenal walls. … General Harney, who was in command of the
department and presumably familiar with its condition, under
date of February 19, notified the authorities at Washington
that there was no danger of an attack, and never had been. …
Such was not the opinion of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who had
arrived at the arsenal on the 6th of February, and who was
destined, in the short space of the coming six months, to
write his name indelibly in the history of the State. …
Under the stimulating influence of two such spirits as Blair
and … [Lyon] the work of preparation went bravely on. By the
middle of April, four regiments had been enlisted, and Lyon,
who was now in command of the arsenal, though not of the
department, proceeded to arm them in accordance with an order
which Blair had procured from Washington. Backed by this
force, Blair felt strong enough to set up an opposition to the
state government, and accordingly, when Jackson refused to
furnish the quota of troops assigned to Missouri under
President Lincoln's call of April 15, 1861 [see UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL)], he telegraphed to Washington
that if an order to muster the men into the service was sent
to Captain Lyon 'the requisition would be filled in two days.'
The order was duly forwarded, and five regiments having been
sworn in instead of four, as called for, Blair was offered the
command. This he declined, and, on his recommendation, Lyon
was elected in his place. On the 7th and 8th of May another
brigade was organized. … This made ten regiments of
volunteers, besides several companies of regulars and a
battery of artillery, that were now ready for service; and as
General Harney, whose relatives and associates were suspected
of disloyalty, had been ordered to Washington to explain his
position, Lyon was virtually in command of the department. …
Jackson, … though possessed of but little actual power, was
unwilling to give up the contest without an effort. He did not
accept the decision of the February election as final. …
Repairing to St. Louis, as soon as the adjournment of the
General Assembly had left him free, he began at once, in
conjunction with certain leading secessionists, to concert
measures for arming the militia of the State. …
{2191}
To this end, the seizure of the arsenal was held to be a
prerequisite, and General Frost was preparing a memorial
showing how this could best be done, when the surrender of
Fort Sumter and the President's consequent call for troops
hurried Jackson into a position of antagonism to the federal
government. … He sent messengers to the Confederate
authorities at Montgomery, Alabama, asking them to supply him
with the guns that were needed for the proposed attack on the
arsenal; and he summoned the General Assembly to meet at
Jefferson City on the 2d of May, to deliberate upon such
measures as might be deemed necessary for placing the State in
a position to defend herself. He also ordered, as he was
authorized to do under the law, the commanders of the several
military districts to hold the regular yearly encampments for
the purpose of instructing their men in drill and discipline.
… Practically its effect was limited to the first or Frost's
brigade, as that was the only one that had been organized
under the law. On the 3d of May, this little band, numbering
less than 700 men, pitched their tents in a wooded valley in
the outskirts of the city of St. Louis, and named it Camp
Jackson, in honor of the governor. It is described as being
surrounded on all sides, at short range, by commanding hills;
it was, moreover, open to a charge of cavalry in any and every
direction, and the men were supplied with but five rounds of
ammunition each, hardly enough for guard purposes. In a word,
it was defenseless, and this fact is believed to be conclusive
in regard to the peaceful character of the camp as it was
organized. … Lyon … announced his intention of seizing the
entire force at the camp, without any ceremony other than a
demand for its surrender. … Putting his troops in motion
early in the morning of the 10th of May; he surrounded Camp
Jackson and demanded its surrender. As Frost could make no
defense against the overwhelming odds brought against him, he
was of course obliged to comply; and his men, having been
disarmed, were marched to the arsenal, where they were
paroled. … After the surrender, and whilst the prisoners
were standing in line, waiting for the order to march, a crowd
of men, women and children collected and began to abuse the
home guards, attacking them with stones and other missiles. It
is even said that several shots were fired at them, but this
lacks confirmation. According to Frost, who was at the head of
the column of prisoners, the first intimation of firing was
given by a single shot, followed almost immediately by volley
firing, which is said to have been executed with precision
considering the rawness of the troops. When the fusillade was
checked, it was found that 28 persons had been killed or
mortally wounded, among whom were three of the prisoners, two
women, and one child. … Judging this action by the reasons
assigned for it, and by its effect throughout the State, it
must be pronounced a blunder. So far from intimidating the
secessionists, it served only to exasperate them; and it drove
not a few Union men, among them General Sterling Price, into
the ranks of the opposition and ultimately into the
Confederate army."
_L. Carr,
Missouri,
chapter 14._
When news of the capture of Camp Jackson reached Jefferson
City, where the legislature was in session, Governor Jackson
at once ordered a bridge on the railroad from St. Louis to be
destroyed, and the legislature made haste to pass several
bills in the interest of the rebellion, including one which
placed the whole military power of the State in the hands of
the Governor. Armed with this authority, Jackson proceeded to
organize the Militia of Missouri as a secession army. Meantime
Captain Lyon had been superseded in command by the arrival at
St. Louis of General Harney, and the latter introduced a total
change of policy at once. He was trapped into an agreement
with Governor Jackson and Sterling Price, now general-in-chief
of the Missouri forces, which tied his hands, while the
cunning rebel leaders were rapidly placing the State in active
insurrection. But the eyes of the authorities at Washington
were opened by Blair; Harney was soon displaced and Lyon
restored to command. This occurred May 30th. On the 15th of
June Lyon took possession of the capital of the State,
Jefferson City, the Governor and other State officers taking
flight to Boonville, where their forces were being gathered.
Lyon promptly followed, routing and dispersing them at
Boonville on the 17th. The State Convention which had taken a
recess in March was now called together by a committee that
had been empowered to do so before the convention separated,
and a provisional State government was organized (July 31)
with a loyal governor, Hamilton R. Gamble, at its head.
_J. G. Nicolay,
The Outbreak of the Rebellion,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_T. L. Snead,
The Fight for Missouri._
_J. Peckham,
General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861._
MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (July-September).
Sigel's retreat from Carthage.
Death of Lyon at Wilson's Creek.
Siege of Lexington.
Fremont in command.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI).
A. D. 1861 (August-October).
Fremont in command.
His premature proclamation of freedom to the Slaves of rebels.
His quarrel with Frank P. Blair.
The change in command.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: MISSOURI).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (January-March).
Price and the Rebel forces driven into Arkansas.
Battle of Pea Ridge.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-MARCH: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (July-September).
Organization of the loyal Militia of the state.
Warfare with Rebel guerrillas.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1862 (September-December).
Social effects of the Civil War.
The Battle of Prairie Grove.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1863 (August).
Quantrell's guerrilla raid to Lawrence, Kansas.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST: MISSOURI-KANSAS).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1863 (October).
Cabell's invasion.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).
MISSOURI: A. D. 1864 (September-October).
Price's raid.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).
----------MISSOURI: End--------
MISSOURI COMPROMISE, The.
Its Repeal, and the decision of the Supreme Court against it.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1818-1821; 1854; and 1857.
{2192}
MISSOURI RIVER:
Called the River St. Philip by the French (1712).
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.
MISSOURIS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
MITCHELL, General Ormsby M.:
Expedition into Alabama.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862(APRIL-MAY: ALABAMA);
and (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).
MITHRIDATIC WARS, The.
A somewhat vaguely defined part of eastern Asia Minor, between
Armenia, Phrygia, Cilicia and the Euxine, was called
Cappadocia in times anterior to 363 B. C. Like its neighbors,
it had fallen under the rule of the Persians and formed a
province of their empire, ruled by hereditary satraps. In the
year above named, the then reigning satrap, Ariobarzanes,
rebelled and made himself king of the northern coast district
of Cappadocia, while the southern and inland part was retained
under Persian rule. The kingdom founded by Ariobarzanes took
the name of Pontus, from the sea on which it bordered. It was
reduced to submission by Alexander the Great, but regained
independence during the wars between Alexander's successors
(see MACEDONIA: B. C. 310-301; and SELEUCIDÆ: B. C. 281-224),
and extended its limits towards the west and south. The
kingdom of Pontus, however, only rose to importance in history
under the powerful sovereignty of Mithridates V. who took the
title of Eupator and is often called Mithridates the Great. He
ascended the throne while a child, B. C. 120, but received,
notwithstanding, a wonderful education and training. At the
age of twenty (B. C. 112) he entered upon a career of
conquest, which was intended to strengthen his power for the
struggle with Rome, which he saw to be inevitable. Within a
period of about seven years he extended his dominions around
the nearly complete circuit of the Euxine, through Armenia,
Colchis, and along the northern coasts westward to the Crimea
and the Dniester; while at the same time he formed alliances
with the barbarous tribes on the Danube, with which he hoped
to threaten Italy.
_G. Rawlinson,
Manual of Ancient History,
book 4, period 3, part 4._
"He [Mithridates] rivalled Hannibal in his unquenchable hatred
to Rome. This hatred had its origin in the revocation of a
district of Phrygia which the Senate had granted to his
father. … To his banner clustered a quarter of a million of
the fierce warriors of the Caucasus and the Scythian steppes
and of his own Hellenized Pontic soldiers; Greek captains, in
whom he had a confidence unshaken by disaster—Archelaus,
Neoptolemus, Dorilaus—gave tactical strength to his forces.
He was allied, too, with the Armenian king, Tigranes; and he
now turned his thoughts to Numidia, Syria, and Egypt with the
intention of forming a coalition against his foe on the Tiber.
A coin has been found which commemorated an alliance proposed
between the Pontic king and the Italian rebels. … The
imperious folly of M'. Aquillius, the Roman envoy in the East,
precipitated the intentions of the king; instead of contending
for the princedom of Bithynia and Cappadocia, he suddenly
appealed to the disaffected in the Roman province. The fierce
white fire of Asiatic hate shot out simultaneously through the
length and breadth of the country [B. C. 88]; and the awful
news came to distracted Rome that 80,000 Italians had fallen
victims to the vengeance of the provincials. Terror-stricken
publicani were chased from Adramyttium and Ephesus into the
sea, their only refuge, and there cut down by their pursuers;
the Mæander was rolling along the corpses of the Italians of
Tralles; in Caria the refined cruelty of the oppressed people
was butchering the children before the eyes of father and
mother, then the mother before the eyes of her husband, and
giving to the man death as the crown and the relief of his
torture. … Asia was lost to Rome; only Rhodes, which had
retained her independence, remained faithful to her great
ally. The Pontic fleet, under Archelaus, appeared at Delos,
and carried thence 2,000 talents to Athens, offering to that
imperial city the government of her ancient tributary. This
politic measure awaked hopes of independence in Greece.
Aristion, an Epicurean philosopher, seized the reins of power
in Athens, and Archelaus repaired the crumbling battlements of
the Piræus. The wave of eastern conquest was rolling on
towards Italy itself. The proconsul Sulla marched to
Brundisium, and, undeterred by the ominous news that his
consular colleague, Q. Rufus, had been murdered in Picenum, or
by the sinister attitude of the new consul Cinna, he crossed
over to Greece with five legions to stem the advancing wave.
History knows no more magnificent illustration of cool,
self-restrained determination than the action of Sulla during
these three years." He left Rome to his enemies, the fierce
faction of Marius, who were prompt to seize the city and to
fill it with "wailing for the dead, or with the more terrible
silence which followed a complete massacre" [see ROME: B. C.
88-78]. "The news of this carnival of democracy reached the
camp of Sulla along with innumerable noble fugitives who had
escaped the Marian terror. The proconsul was unmoved; with
unexampled self-confidence he began to assume that he and his
constituted Rome, while the Forum and Curia were filled with
lawless anarchists, who would soon have to be dealt with. He
carried Athens by assault, and slew the whole population, with
their tyrant Aristion [see ATHENS: B. C. 87-86], but he
counted it among the favours of the goddess of Fortune that
he, man of culture as he was, was able to save the immemorial
buildings of the city from the fate of Syracuse or Corinth.
Archelaus, in Piræus, offered the most heroic resistance. …
With the spring Sulla heard of the approach of the main army
from Pontus, under the command of Taxiles. 120,000 men, and
ninety scythed chariots, were pouring over Mount Œta to
overwhelm him. With wonderful rapidity he marched northwards
through friendly Thebes, and drew up his little army on a
slope near Chæronea, digging trenches on his left and right to
save his flank from being turned. He showed himself every inch
a general, he compelled the enemy to meet him on this ground
of his own choice, and the day did not close before 110,000 of
the enemy were captured or slain, and the camp of Archelaus,
who had hastened from Athens to take the command, was carried
by assault. We have before us still, in the pages of Plutarch,
Sulla's own memoirs. If we may believe him, he lost only
fifteen men in the battle. By this brilliant engagement he had
restored Greece to her allegiance, and, what was even better,
the disaster aroused an the savagery of Mithradates, the Greek
vanished in the oriental despot.
{2193}
Suspicious and ruthless, he ordered his nearest friends to be
assassinated; he transported all the population of Chios to
the mainland, and by his violence and exaction stirred
Ephesus, Sardes, Tralles, and many other cities, to renounce
his control, and to return to the Roman government. Still, he
did not suspect Archelaus, but appointed him, together with
Dorilaus, to lead a new army into Greece. The new army
appeared in Bœotia, and encamped by the Copaic Lake, near
Orchomenos. Before the raw levies could become familiar with
the sight of the legions, Sulla assaulted the camp [B. C. 85],
and rallied his wavering men by leading them in person with
the cry, 'Go, tell them in Rome that you left your general in
the trenches of Orchomenos;' the self-consciousness was
sublime, for nothing would have pleased the people in Rome
better; his victory was complete, and Archelaus escaped alone
in a boat to Calchis. As the conqueror returned from the
battle-field to reorganize Greece, he learnt that the Senate
had deposed him from command, declared him an outlaw, and
appointed as his successor the consul L. Valerius Flaccus. The
disorganization of the republic seemed to have reached a
climax. Flaccus conducted his army straight to the Bosphorus
without venturing to approach the rebel proconsul Sulla; while
Mithradates, who began to wish for peace, preferred to
negotiate with his conqueror rather than with the consul of
the republic. To complete this complication of anarchy,
Flaccus was murdered, and superseded in the command by his own
legate, C. Flavius Fimbria; this choice of their general by
the legions themselves might seem significant if anything
could be significant or connected in such a chaos. But Sulla
now crossed into Asia, and concluded peace with Mithradates on
these conditions: The king was to relinquish all his
conquests, surrender deserters, restore the people of Chios,
pay 2,000 talents, and give up seventy of his ships. Fimbria
… remained to be dealt with. It was not a difficult matter:
the two Roman armies confronted one another at Thyatira, and
the Fimbrians streamed over to Sulla. After all, the
legionaries, who had long ceased to be citizens, were soldiers
first and politicians after; they worshipped the felicity of
the great general; and the democratic general had not yet
appeared who could bind his men to him by a spell stronger
than Sulla's. Fimbria persuaded a slave to thrust him through
with his sword. His enemies were vanquished in Asia, but in
Rome Cinna was again consul (85 B. C.), and his colleague, Cn.
Papirius Carbo, out-Cinnaed Cinna. Yet Sulla was in no hurry.
He spent more than a year in reorganizing the disordered
province. … He even allowed Cinna and Carbo, who began to
prepare for war with him (84 B. C.), to be re-elected to the
consulship; but when the more cautious party in the Senate
entered into negotiations with him, and offered him a safe
conduct to Italy, he showed in a word what he took to be the
nature of the situation by saying that he was not in need of
their safe conduct, but he was coming to secure them."
_R. F. Horton,
History of the Romans,
chapter 26._
_Plutarch,
Sulla._
After a second and a third war with Rome (see ROME: B. C.
78-68, and 69-63), Mithridates was finally (B. C. 65) driven
from his old dominions into the Crimean kingdom of Bosporus,
where he ended his life in despair two years later. The
kingdom of Pontus was absorbed in the Roman empire. The
southern part of Cappadocia held some rank as an independent
kingdom until A. D. 17, when it was likewise reduced to the
state of a Roman province.
MITLA, The Ruins of.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, ETC.
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