THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR.
Events have been anticipated in order to relate the close of Cinna's
career. But it is time now to say what Sulla had been doing, and who
that Mithridates was whose name for so long had been formidable at
Rome.
[Sidenote: Foreign events after the second slave war.] After the
defeat of the northern hordes and the suppression of the second slave
revolt, there was a war with the Celtiberi in Spain, in 97, in
which Sertorius showed himself already an adroit and bold officer.
[Sidenote: Sertorius in command against the Celtiberi.] He was in
winter quarters at Castulo (Cazlona), and his men were so disorderly
that the Spaniards were emboldened to attack them in the town;
Sertorius escaped, rallied those soldiers who had also escaped,
marched back, and after putting those in the town to the sword,
dressed his troops in the dead men's clothes, and so obtained
admission to another town which had helped the enemy. But the hero of
the campaign was Titus Didius, afterwards Caesar's lieutenant in the
Social War. He had some hard fighting and captured Termesus, the chief
town of the Arevaci, and Colenda.--He earned his triumph by other
means also. There was a town near Colenda, the inhabitants of which
the Romans wished to destroy. Didius told them that he would give them
the lands of Colenda, and they came to receive their allotments. As
soon as they were within his lines, his soldiers set on them and slew
them all.
[Sidenote: Africa.] In 96 B.C. Ptolemaus Apion bequeathed Cyrene--a
narrow strip of terraced land on the north coast of Africa, situated
between the Libyan deserts and the Mediterranean--to Rome. The Romans
did not refuse the legacy; but they took no trouble to govern the
country. The cities of Cyrene were declared to be free. In other
words, while nominally subject to Rome, so that she might interfere
when she pleased, they were left to govern themselves. Such government
was no government; but it was in accordance with the deliberate policy
of the senatorial party.
[Sidenote: Crimes and intrigues of Mithridates.] It was in the same
year that Mithridates committed the first of the series of crimes
which eventually brought him into collision with Rome. His sister
had married the King of Cappadocia. Mithridates assassinated him.
Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, seized Cappadocia and married the widowed
sister of Mithridates. Having slain one brother-in-law, Mithridates
expelled the other, and set on the throne his sister's son. But when
his nephew refused to welcome home Gordius, the man who had murdered
his father, Mithridates marched against and assassinated him. Then he
set on the throne his own son, to whom he gave his nephew's name, and
made Gordius his guardian. Him the Cappadocians expelled, and raised
to the throne another nephew of Mithridates; but Mithridates instantly
drove him from power. Nicomedes now appealed to the Senate, and
produced, as he asserted, a third nephew of Mithridates as a claimant
for the crown. To support his assertion he sent his wife to Rome to
swear she had had three sons. Mithridates, as if in burlesque of the
imposture, sent Gordius to swear that the youth on the throne was son
of a Cappadocian king who had died more than thirty years before. The
Senate decided as a lion might between two jackals quarrelling over
a carcase. It took Cappadocia from Mithridates and Paphlagonia from
Nicomedes, and declared both countries free. But the Cappadocians
clamoured for a king, and so, in 93, the Senate appointed Ariobarzanes
I. Mithridates then stirred up Tigranes, King of Armenia, to expel
Ariobarzanes, who fled to Rome. Sulla was sent to restore him, and
did so in 92, after defeating the Cappadocians under Gordius and the
Armenians. [Sidenote: The Romans come in contact with the Parthians.]
It was when he was on this mission that the Romans and Parthians
confronted each other for the first time. The Parthians sent an
embassy to ask for the alliance of Rome. Three chairs were set for
Ariobarzanes, Sulla, and Orobazus; and Sulla, who was only propraetor,
took the central seat. This incensed the Parthian king; and he
revenged himself not on Sulla, but on the unfortunate Orobazus, whom
he put to death. A Chaldean in the Parthian's suite, after studying
Sulla's face, predicted great things for him; which pleased Sulla as
much as it would have done Marius, for he believed in his luck just as
his rival did in his seventh consulship. But when he came home he was
impeached for taking bribes from Ariobarzanes, and no doubt he had
made his trip which was so gratifying to his pride not less profitable
also, and had had his appetite whetted for a second taste of eastern
treasures. Mithridates, meanwhile, was brooding over his humiliation
and meditating revenge. He went on a journey incognito through the
Roman province of Asia and Bithynia, intending to attack both if he
found himself strong enough. When he came back he found that his wife,
who was also his sister, had been unfaithful to him, and he put her to
death. He had now murdered a wife, a sister, a brother, and a nephew.
He had also imprisoned his mother, and was equally merciless to his
sons, his daughters, and his concubines. At his death, it is said, a
paper was found in which he had foredoomed his most trusted servants,
and he slew all the inmates of his harem in order to hinder them from
falling into his enemies' hands.
[Sidenote: Early years of Mithridates.] His whole history is in
fact one long record of sensuality, treachery, and murder. From
his earliest years he had breathed, as it were, an atmosphere of
assassination. His father had been assassinated when he was eleven
years old. His guardians and even his own mother had then plotted to
assassinate him. They placed him on a wild horse, and made him perform
exercises with the javelin on it. When his precocious vigour defeated
their hopes, they tried to poison him. But by studying antidotes he
made his body poison-proof, or at least was reputed to have done so,
and, flying from his enemies, lived for seven years through all the
hardships of a wild and wandering life, in which he never slept under
a roof, and hunted and fought with wild beasts, to emerge in manhood a
very tiger himself for strength, and beauty of body, and ferocity of
disposition, a tyrant who spared neither man in his ambition nor
woman in his lust. [Sidenote: His physical vigour.] His stature
was gigantic, his strength and activity such as took captive the
imagination of the East. He could, it was believed, outrun the deer;
out-eat and out-drink everyone at the banquet; strike down flying
game unerringly; tame the wildest steed, and ride 120 miles in a day.
Twenty-two nations obeyed him, and he could speak the dialect of
each. A veneer of Greek refinement was spread thinly over the savage
animalism of the man. [Sidenote: Pseudo-civilisation of his court.] He
was a virtuoso, and had a wonderful collection of rings. He maintained
Greek poets and historians, and offered prizes for singing. He had
shrewdness enough to employ Greek generals, but not enough to keep him
from being grossly superstitious.
[Sidenote: His kingdom and how it was acquired.] For twenty years
(110-90 B.C.) he had been with never-resting activity extending his
empire, before the Romans assailed him. He had inherited from his
ancestors the kingdom of Pontus, or Cappadocia on the Pontus, which
had been one of the two satrapies into which Cappadocia was divided
at the time of the Macedonian conquest. Mithridates IV. had married a
princess of the Greek race, the sister of Seleucus, King of Syria.
His grandfather had conquered Sinope and Paphlagonia, as far as the
Bithynian frontier. His father had helped the Romans in the third
Punic War, had been styled the friend of Rome, and had been rewarded
with the province of Phrygia nominally for his services against
Aristonicus, the pretender to the kingdom of Attalus, but had been
deprived of it afterwards when it was found out that really it had
been put up for auction by Manius Aquillius, who was completing the
subjugation of the adherents of the pretender. The boundaries of
Pontus at his accession cannot be strictly defined. On the east it
stretched towards the Caucasus and the sources of the Euphrates,
Lesser Armenia being dependent on it. On the south and south-west
its frontiers were Cappadocia and Galatia. On the west nominally
Paphlagonia was the frontier, for the grandfather of Mithridates had
been induced by the Romans to promise to evacuate his conquests.
But Sinope was then, and continued to be, the capital of the Pontic
kingdom, and both Paphlagonia and Galatia were virtually dependent.
This was the territory to which Mithridates was heir, and which, true
to the policy of his father and grandfather, he constantly strove by
force or fraud to extend. [Sidenote: Mithridates extends his kingdom.]
To the east of the Black Sea he conquered Colchis on the Phasis,
and converted it into a satrapy. To the north he was hailed as the
deliverer of the Greek towns on that coast and in the region now
known as the Crimea, which from the constant exaction of tribute by
barbarous tribes were, in the absence of any protectorate like that of
Athens, falling into decay. By sea, and perhaps across the Caucasus by
land, Mithridates sent his troops under the Greek generals Neoptolemus
and Diophantus. Neoptolemus won a victory over the Tauric Scythians at
Panticapaeum (Kertch), and the kingdom of Bosporus in the Crimea was
ceded to his master by its grateful king. Diophantus marched westwards
as far as the Tyras (Dneister), and in a great battle almost
annihilated an army of the Roxolani, a nomadic people who roamed
between the Borysthenes (Dneiper) and the Tanais (Don). By these
conquests Mithridates acquired a tribute of 200 talents (48,000_l_.),
and 270,000 bushels of grain, and a rich recruiting ground for his
armies. [Sidenote: His alliance with Tigranes.] On the east he annexed
Lesser Armenia, and entered into the closest alliance with Tigranes,
King of Greater Armenia, which had lately become a powerful kingdom,
giving him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage. If the allies had any
defined scheme of conquest, it was that Mithridates should occupy Asia
Minor and the coast of the Black Sea, and Tigranes the interior and
Syria. How the King intrigued and meddled in Cappadocia and Bithynia
has been previously related; and when he had marched into Cappadocia
it was at the head of 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 600 scythed
chariots.
Such was the history, the power, and the character of the great
potentate who had yielded to the demands of Sulla, the propraetor,
but who now awaited the attack of Sulla, the proconsul, with proud
disdain. Much, indeed, had happened since the year 92 to justify such
feelings. Hardly had Sulla reinstated Ariobarzanes when Tigranes drove
him out again, and restored the son of Mithridates; while in Bithynia
the younger son of Nicomedes, Socrates, appeared in arms against his
elder brother, Nicomedes II., who on his father's death had been
acknowledged as king by Rome. Socrates had soldiers from Pontus with
him; but Mithridates, though his hand was plain in these disturbances,
outwardly stood aloof; and the Senate, sending Manius Aquillius to
restore the two kings, ordered Mithridates to aid him with troops if
they were wanted. [Sidenote: Mithridates submits to Aquillius.] The
king submitted as before, not, indeed, sending troops, but without
resisting, and as a proof of his complacency put Socrates to death.
This happened in the year 90, when Rome was pressed hardest by the
Italians, and at first sight it seems astonishing that he should not
have seized on so favourable a moment. But in those days news would
travel from the west of Italy to Sinope but slowly and uncertainly,
and Mithridates would have the fate of Antiochus in mind to warn him
how the foes of the great republic fared, and the history of Pergamus
to testify to the prosperity of those who remained its friends.
Sulla's proud tone in 92 would not have lessened this impression;
and, before he appealed to force, the crafty king hoped to make his
position securer by fraud. Partly, therefore, from real awe, partly
because he was not yet ready, he obeyed Aquillius as he had obeyed
Sulla. But Aquillius, who had once put up Phrygia to auction, knew
what pickings there were for a senator when war was afoot in Asia, and
perhaps may have had the honester notion that, as Mithridates was sure
to go to war soon, it was for the public as well as for his private
interest to act boldly and strike the first blow. So he forced the
reluctant Bithynian king to declare war, and to ravage with an army
the country round Amastris while his fleet shut up the Bosporus. Still
Mithridates did not stir; all that he did was to lodge a complaint
with the Romans, and solicit their mediation or their permission to
defend himself. [Sidenote: Aquillius forces on a war.] Aquillius
replied that he must in no case make war on Nicomedes. It is easy to
conceive how such an answer affected a man of the king's temper. He
instantly sent his son with an army into Cappadocia. But once more he
tried diplomacy. [Sidenote: Ultimatum of Mithridates.] Pelopidas, his
envoy, came to Aquillius, and said that his master was willing to aid
the Romans against the Italians if the Romans would forbid Nicomedes
to attack him, their ally. If not, he wished the alliance to be
formally dissolved. Or there was yet another alternative. Let the
commissioners and himself appeal to the Senate to decide between them.
The commissioners treated the message as an insult. Mithridates,
they said, must not attack Nicomedes, and they intended to restore
Ariobarzanes. Possibly the conduct of Aquillius was due to his having
been heavily bribed by Nicomedes, who must have felt that when the
Romans were gone he would be like a mouse awaiting the cat's spring;
for it is difficult to imagine the foolhardiness which without some
such tangible stimulus would at that moment have plunged him into war.
[Sidenote: War begun. Energy of Mithridates.] But when once the die
was cast, Mithridates threw himself into the war with the energy of
long-suppressed rage. He sent to court the alliance of Egypt and the
Cretan league, to whom he represented himself as the champion of
Greece against her tyrant. He tried to stir up revolts in Thrace and
Macedonia. He arranged with Tigranes that an Armenian army should
co-operate with him, leaving him the land it occupied, but carrying
off the plunder. He gave the word, and a swarm of pirate ships swept
the Mediterranean under his colours. He summoned an army of 250,000
foot, 40,000 horse, and 130 scythed chariots, a fleet of 300 decked
vessels, and 100 other ships called 'Dicrota' with a double bank of
oars. He formed and armed in Roman fashion a foreign contingent, in
which many Romans and Italians enlisted; and he placed able Greek
generals, Archelaus and Neoptolemus, over his troops. [Sidenote:
Forces of Rome.] To meet this formidable array the Romans had a fleet
off Byzantium, the army of Nicomedes, which was still between Sinope
and Amastris, and three corps, each of 40,000 men, but composed for
the most part of hastily organized Asiatics; one under Cassius between
Bithynia and Galatia, another under Aquillius between Bithynia and
Pontus, and a third under Oppius in Cappadocia. The war was decided
almost in a single battle. [Sidenote: Victory of Mithridates over
Nicomedes.] Neoptolemus and Archelaus routed the Bithynian army on
the river Amnias, and captured the camp and military chest. It was a
fierce and for some time a doubtful fight, and seems to have been
decided by the scythed chariots, which spread terror in the Bithynian
ranks. [Sidenote: Victory over Aquillius.] Nicomedes fled to
Aquillius, who was defeated by Archelaus near Mount Scorobas, and fled
with the king across the Sangarius to Pergamus, whence he attempted to
reach Rhodes. Cassius retreated to Phrygia, and tried to discipline
his raw levies. But, finding this impossible; he broke up the army and
led the Roman troops with him to Apameia. The fleet in the Black Sea
was surrendered by its commander.
[Sidenote: Mithridates' progress through Phrygia, Mysia and Asia.]
Thus, triumphant by sea and land, Mithridates, after settling
Bithynia, marched through Phrygia and Mysia into the Roman province
Asia, and was hailed everywhere as a deliverer, for after his
victories he had sent home all his Asiatic prisoners with presents.
Then he sent messengers into Lycia and Pamphylia to seek the alliance
of those countries. Oppius was in Laodicea, on the Lycus. The king
offered the townsmen immunity if they surrendered him, and, when they
did so, carried him about as a show. [Sidenote: Fate of Aquillius.]
Aquillius was also given up by the Mytileneans and made to ride in
chains on an ass, calling out who he was wherever he went. At Pergamus
Mithridates slew him by pouring molten gold down his throat--a savage
punishment, which, however, confirms the impression that it was Roman
avarice which forced on the war. Magnesia on the Maeander, Ephesus,
and Mitylene welcomed the king joyfully, and Stratoniceia, in Caria,
was captured. He then attacked Magnesia near Mount Sipylus, prepared
to invade Rhodes, and issued a hideous order for an exterminating
massacre of every Roman and Italian in Asia on an appointed day.
Punishments were proclaimed for anyone who should hide one of the
proscribed or bury his body; rewards were promised for all who killed
or denounced them. Slaves who slew their masters were to be freed. The
murder of a creditor was to be taken as payment by a debtor of half
his debt. [Massacre of Romans and Italians.] There were dreadful
scenes on the fatal day--the thirtieth after the order was issued--in
the Asiatic cities. In Pergamus the victims fled to the temple of
Aesculapius, and were shot down as they clung to the statues. At
Ephesus they were dragged out from the temple of Artemis and slain. At
Adramyttium they swam out to sea, but were brought back and killed,
and their children were drowned. At Cos alone was any mercy shown.
There those who had taken refuge in the temple of Aesculapius were
spared. The number of the slain was said to be 80,000 or even 120,000,
which must have been, however, an incredible exaggeration. [Sidenote:
Objects of the massacre.] By this fiendish crime Mithridates must,
though he was mistaken, have felt that he cut himself off for
ever from all reconciliation with Rome. But no doubt he acted on
calculation. For not only did he get rid of men who might have
recruited the Roman armies; not only did he gratify the long-hoarded
hatred of the farmers and peasants of whom Roman publicans and Roman
slave-masters had so long made a prey; not only did he oblige the
debtors by wiping out their debts and even the very memory of them
in their creditors' blood, but he might well count on putting his
accomplices also beyond the pale of Roman mercy, and so linking them
to his own fortunes. Moreover, vengeance seemed remote. For Sulla had
just marched on Rome instead of to the east, and a civil war in
Italy might make Mithridates permanently supreme in Asia. [Sidenote:
Mithridates' settlement of his new acquisitions.] So he made Pergamus
his capital, leaving Sinope to his son as vice-regent, while
Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Bithynia were turned into satrapies. All
arrears of taxes were remitted; and so wealthy had his spoils made him
that exemption for five years to come was promised to the towns that
had obeyed his orders.
[Sidenote: Reverses of Mithridates. He retires to Pergamus.] But
the tide was already on the turn. In Paphlagonia there was still
resistance. Archelaus was repulsed and wounded at Magnesia.
Mithridates in person was forced to abandon the siege of Rhodes. His
revenge was sated; he was tired of the hardships of a war which he
meant his generals to conduct in future; and with a new wife he went
back to Pergamus, to his rings, and his music, and debaucheries, at
the very time that a shudder had gone through Italy at the tidings of
the massacre, and when Sulla was on his way to avenge it.
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