This city was founded by a colony from Miletus and Athens, who preserved
their independence till they were conquered by the Persians. They
succeeded in maintaining their liberties under Alexander.
During a war with Mithridates, king of Pontus, Lucullus, the Roman
general, laid strong siege to this town; and while so engaged, his
troops murmured against him:--"Our general," said they, "amuses himself
with sieges, which, after all, are not worth the trouble he bestows upon
them." When Lucullus heard this, he replied: "You accuse me of giving
the enemy time to augment his army and regain his strength. That is just
what I want. I act in this manner for no other purpose; in order that
our enemy may take new courage, and assemble so numerous an army as may
embolden him to expect us in the field, and no longer fly before us. Do
you not observe, that he has behind him immense solitudes and infinite
deserts in which it is impossible for us to come up with or pursue him?
Armenia is but a few days march from these deserts. There Tigranes keeps
his court,--that king of kings, whose power is so great, that he subdues
the Parthians, transports whole cities of Greeks into the heart of
Media, has made himself master of Syria and Palestine, exterminated the
kings descended from Seleucus, and carried their wives and daughters
into captivity. This powerful prince is the ally and son-in-law of
Mithridates. Do you think, when he has him in his palaces, as a
suppliant, that he will abandon himself, and not make war against us?
Hence, in hastening to drive away Mithridates, we shall be in great
danger of drawing Tigranes upon our hands, who has long sought pretexts
for declaring against us, and who can never find one more specious,
legitimate, and honourable, than that of assisting his father-in-law,
and a king, reduced to the last extremity. Why, therefore, should we
serve Mithridates against ourselves; or show him to whom he should have
recourse for the means of supporting the war with us, by pushing him
against his will,--and at a time, perhaps, when he looks upon such a
step as unworthy his valour and greatness,--into the arms and protection
of Tigranes? Is it not infinitely better, by giving him time to take
courage and strengthen himself with his own forces, to have only upon
our hands the troops of Colchis, the Tibarenians, and Cappadocians, whom
we have so often defeated, than to expose ourselves to have the
additional force of the Armenians and Medes to contend with?"
Lucullus soon after this marched against Mithridates, and in three
engagements defeated him. Mithridates, however, escaped, and almost
immediately after sent commands to his two sisters and his two wives,
that they should die; he being in great fear that they would fall into
the hands of the enemy. Their history is thus related:--When the
officer, whose name was Bacchides, arrived where they were, and had
signified to the princesses the orders of their king, which favoured
them no further than to leave them at liberty to choose the kind of
death they should think most gentle and immediate; Monima taking the
diadem from her head, tied it round her neck, and hung herself with it.
But that wreath not being strong enough, and breaking, she cried
out--"Ah! fatal trifle, you might at least do me this mournful office."
Then, throwing it away with indignation, she presented her neck to
Bacchides. As for Berenice, she took a cup of poison; and as she was
going to drink it, her mother, who was with her, desired to share it
with her. They accordingly drank both together. The half of that cup
sufficed to carry off the mother, worn out and feeble with age; but was
not enough to surmount the strength and youth of Berenice. That
princess, therefore, struggled long with death in the most violent
agonies; till Bacchides, tired with waiting the effect of the poison,
ordered her to be strangled. Of the two sisters, Roxana is said to have
swallowed poison, venting reproaches and imprecations against
Mithridates. Statira, on the contrary, was pleased with her brother, and
thanked him, that being in so great a danger for his own person, he had
not forgot them, and had taken care to supply them with the means of
dying free, and of withdrawing from the indignities their enemies might
else have made them undergo. Their deaths afflicted Lucullus very
sensibly; for he was of a very gentle and humane disposition.
Lucullus, in the mean time, laid strong siege to Amisus. Mithridates had
given the conduct of the place to Callimachus, who was esteemed the
best engineer of his time. That officer held out for a long time very
skilfully, and with the utmost gallantry; but finding at last that the
town must surrender, he set fire to it, and escaped in a ship that
waited for him. Lucullus did all he could to extinguish the flames; but,
for the most part, in vain; and the whole city had undoubtedly been
burned, had not a rain fallen so violently, that a considerable number
of houses were thereby saved; and before he departed, the conqueror
caused those that had been burned, to be rebuilt; but so inveterate were
his soldiers, that all his efforts could not secure it from plunder.
It was afterwards the favourite residence of Pompey the Great, who
rebuilt the city, and restored the inhabitants to their liberties, which
were confirmed by Cæsar and Augustus. In subsequent times it was
included in the dominions of the Commeni emperors of Trebisond; and
finally subdued by the Turks in the reign of Mahomet the Second.
It is now surrounded by a decayed wall. Towards the sea may be traced
the remains of another wall; the ruins of these, in many parts, are
almost buried under the waves[31].