SULLA IN GREECE AND ASIA.
[Sidenote: Aristion at Athens.] A citizen of Athens, named Aristion,
whose mother was an Egyptian slave, and who was the son or adopted
son of one Athenion, had been sent by the Athenians as ambassador to
Mithridates. He had been a schoolmaster and teacher of rhetoric,
and professed the philosophy of Epicurus. He gained the ear of
Mithridates, and sent home flaming accounts of the king's power, and
of his intention of restoring the democracy at Athens. The Athenians
sent some ships of war to bring him home from Euboea, with a present
of a silver-footed litter; and in this, clothed in purple, and with
a fine ring on his finger, which he had got probably from his friend
Mithridates, he came back to Athens with much parade. [Sidenote:
Revolt of Athens from Rome.] In a set speech he dilated on the king's
splendid successes, and advised the people to declare themselves
independent and elect him their general. They did so, and he very soon
massacred his opponents and made himself despot. Thus Athens and
the Piraeus passed into the hands of Mithridates. The spirit of
disaffection to Rome spread rapidly. [Sidenote: Revolt of the
Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians.] When Archelaus appeared in
Greece, the Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians, with the exception of
Thespiae, joined him, while the Pontic fleet seized Euboea and
Demetrias, a town at the head of the gulf of Pagasae.
Sura was sent by the Roman governor of Macedonia to make head against
the invaders. He won a naval battle and captured Sciathus, where all
the spoils of the enemy were stored. [Sidenote: Conflicts between the
Romans and the forces of Mithridates in Boeotia.] Then he marched into
Boeotia, and, after a three days' engagement with the combined forces
of Archelaus and Aristion, pushed Archelaus back to the coast. The
war, perhaps, might have been ended here; but at this moment Lucullus
came to announce the approach of Sulla, and to warn Sura that the war
had been entrusted to him. So Sura retired to Macedonia. [Sidenote:
Sulla lands in Epirus, 87 B.C., and marches on Athens.] Sulla had left
Brundusium in 87, and, landing on the coast of Epirus, gathered what
supplies he could from Aetolia and Thessaly, and marched straight
for Athens. It was soon seen that the foundations of the empire of
Mithridates were based on sand. The Boeotians at once submitted,
including Thebes, which had joined the king. [Sidenote: Siege of the
Piraeus and Athens.] Sulla then began two sieges, that of the Piraeus
where Archelaus was, and that of Athens defended by Aristion.
Archelaus had before shown himself an intrepid soldier, and he baffled
all Sulla's efforts with equal ingenuity and courage. After an
unsuccessful attempt to storm the walls, Sulla retired to Eleusis
and Megara, thus keeping up his communications with Thebes and the
Peloponnese, and set to work constructing catapults and other engines,
and preparing an earthwork from which he meant to attack the wall with
them. For these purposes he cut down the trees of the Academia and the
Lyceum. He was kept informed of intended sallies by two slaves inside
the town, who threw out leaden balls with words cut on them. But
as fast as the earthwork rose Archelaus built towers on the walls
opposite to it, and thence harassed the besiegers. [Sidenote: Battle
at the Piraeus. Archelaus nearly taken.] He was also reinforced by
Mithridates, and then came out and fought a battle which was for some
time doubtful; but he was forced to retire at length with the loss of
2,000 men. He himself remained till the last. The gates were shut and
he had to be drawn up by a rope over the wall.
[Sidenote: Sulla's difficulties.] The affairs of Sulla, however, were
in no flourishing condition. He had come to Greece with only 30,000
men, with no fleet, and little money. He was forced to plunder the
shrines of Epidaurus, Olympia, and Delphi. His messenger to Delphi
came back saying that he had heard the sound of a lute in the temple,
and dared not commit the sacrilege. But Sulla sent him back, saying
that he was sure the sound was a note of welcome, and that the god
meant him to have the treasure. He promised to pay it back some day,
and he kept his word, for he confiscated half the land of Thebes and
applied the proceeds to reimbursing the sacred funds. In his worst
straits he was always ready with some such mockery. [Sidenote: Sulla
sends Lucullus to Egypt.] Winter was now at hand, and Sulla despatched
Lucullus to Egypt to get ships. The refusal of the King of Egypt shows
what was now thought of the Roman power. Sulla then formed a camp
at Eleusis and continued the siege, and so shook the great tower of
Archelaus by a simultaneous discharge of twelve leaden balls from
his catapults that it had to be drawn back. [Sidenote: Blockade of
Athens.] By means of the two slaves he was also able to frustrate the
attempts of Archelaus to throw supplies into Athens, which was now
suffering from hunger, for Sulla had surrounded it with forts and
turned the siege into a blockade. Mithridates now sent his son into
Macedonia with an army, before which the small Roman force there had
to retire. After this success the prince marched towards Athens, but
died on the way. [Sidenote: Desperate defence of the Piraeus.] At the
Piraeus scenes occurred which were afterwards repeated at the siege of
Jerusalem. Archelaus undermined the earthwork and Sulla made another
determined attempt to take the wall by storm. He battered down part
of it, fired the props of his mine and so brought down more, and sent
troops by relays to escalade the breach. But Archelaus, like the
Plataeans in the Peloponnesian war, built an inner crescent-shaped
wall, from which he took the assailants in front and on both flanks
when they tried to advance. [Sidenote: Sulla turns the siege into a
blockade.] At last, wearied by this dogged resistance, Sulla turned
the siege of the Piraeus also into a blockade, which meant simply that
he hindered Archelaus from helping Athens, for he could not prevent
the influx of supplies from the sea.
[Sidenote: Athens taken March 1, B.C. 86.] Athens meanwhile was in
dreadful straits. Wheat was selling at nearly 3_l_. 10_s_. a gallon,
and the inhabitants were feeding on old leather bottles, shoes, and
the bodies of the dead. A deputation came out, but Sulla sent them
back because they began an harangue on the deeds of their ancestors,
put into their mouths, no doubt, by the rhetorician Aristion. Sulla
told them they were the scum of nations, not descended from the old
Athenians at all, and that instead of listening to their rhetoric he
meant to punish their rebellion. On the night of March 1, 86 B.C., he
broke into the town amid the blare of trumpets and the shouts of his
troops. He told his men to give no quarter, and the blood, it was
said, ran down through the gates into the suburbs. [Sidenote: Aristion
slain.] Aristion fled to the Acropolis. Hunger forced him in the end
to capitulate, and he was killed. Sulla meanwhile had forced on the
siege of Piraeus still more vigorously. He got past the crescent wall,
only to find other walls similarly constructed behind it; but he
gradually drove Archelaus into Munychia, or the peninsular part of
Piraeus, and as he had no ships he could do nothing more. [Sidenote:
Archelaus sails from Piraeus, and joins Taxiles, sent by Mithridates
with reinforcements.] Either before or after the capture of the
Acropolis Archelaus sailed away, in obedience to a summons from
Taxiles, a new general whom Mithridates had sent with an army of
100,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and ninety scythed chariots into Greece.
With these forces and the troops previously sent with his master's
son he formed a junction at Thermopylae, marched into Phocis down the
valley of the Cephissus, attempted but failed to take Elateia, and
came up with Sulla near Chaeroneia. [Sidenote: Sulla forms a
junction with Hortensius.] Sulla had marched into Boeotia and joined
Hortensius, who had a brought some troops from Thessaly. But he is
said by Appian to have had not a third of the enemy's numbers, while
Plutarch affirms that he had only 15,000 foot and 1,500 horse.
[Illustration: Map to illustrate the March of SULLA and ARCHELAUS
before Chaeroneia.]
[Sidenote: Position of the two armies.] Sulla was on the west bank of
the Cephissus, on an eminence named Philoboeotus, and Archelaus on the
other side of the river not far off. Sulla's soldiers were alarmed by
the numbers and splendour of the enemy, for the brass and steel
of their armour 'kindled the air with an awful flame like that of
lightning.' [Sidenote: Manoeuvres of Sulla and Archelaus.] Archelaus,
marching down the valley of the Cephissus, tried to seize a strong
position called the Acropolis of the Parapotamii, situated on the
Assus, which joined the Cephissus to the south of both armies. But
Sulla, who had wearied out his men by drudgery in dyke-making, and
made them eager for a fight, crossed the Cephissus, seized the
position first, and then, crossing the Assus, took up his position
under Mount Edylium. Here he encamped opposite Archelaus, who, having
also crossed the Assus, was now at a place called Assia, which was
nearer Lake Copais. Thence Archelaus made an attempt on Chaeroneia;
but Sulla was again beforehand with him, and garrisoned the place
with one legion. South of Chaeroneia was a hill called Thurium. This
Archelaus seized. Sulla then brought the rest of his troops across
the Cephissus, to form a junction with the legion in Chaeroneia and
dislodge the enemy from Thurium. He left Murena on the north of the
Cephissus to keep the enemy in check at Assia. Archelaus, however,
also brought his main army across the Cephissus after Sulla. Murena
followed him, and Sulla drew up his army with his cavalry on each
wing, himself commanding the right and Murena the left. The armies
were now opposite each other, Sulla to the south, then Archelaus, then
the Cephissus.
[Sidenote: Battle of Chaeroneia.] Sulla sent some troops round Thurium
to the hills behind Chaeroneia, and in the enemy's rear. The enemy ran
down in confusion from Thurium, where they were met by Murena with
Sulla's left wing, and were either destroyed or driven back upon the
centre of the line of Archelaus, which they threw into disorder. Sulla
on the right advanced so quickly as to prevent the scythed chariots
from getting any impetus, by which they were rendered useless, for the
soldiers easily eluded them when driven at a slow pace, and as soon as
they had passed killed the horses and drivers. Archelaus now extended
his right wing in order to surround Murena. Hortensius, whom Sulla had
posted on some hills to the left of his left wing on purpose to defeat
this manoeuvre, immediately pressed forward to attack this body on its
left flank. But Archelaus drove him back with some cavalry, and nearly
surrounded Hortensius.
[Illustration: First position of the two armies at CHAERONEIA.]
[Illustration: Second position of the two armies at CHAERONEIA.]
Sulla hastened to his aid, and Archelaus, seeing him coming, instantly
counter-marched and attacked Sulla's right in his absence, while
Taxiles assailed Murena on the left. But Sulla hastened back, too,
after leaving Hortensius to support Murena, and, when he appeared, the
right wing drove back Archelaus to the Cephissus. Murena was equally
triumphant on the left wing, and the barbarians fled pell-mell to the
Cephissus, only 10,000 of them reaching Chalcis in Euboea. [Sidenote:
Sulla's falsehood about the battle.] Appian says the Romans lost only
thirteen men, while Plutarch, on the authority of Sulla's Memoirs,
says that they lost four. This is absurd. Sulla seems to have told
some startling lies in his Memoirs, perhaps to prove that he had been
the favourite of fortune, which was a mania of his.
[Sidenote: Dorylaus reinforces Archelaus.] Mithridates, when he heard
of the defeat of Archelaus, sent Dorylaus with 8,000 men to Euboea,
where he joined the remnant of the army of Archelaus, and crossing
to the mainland met Sulla at Orchomenus. Sulla was in Phthiotis, to
confront L. Valerius Flaccus who had come to supersede him, but he
returned as soon as he heard that Dorylaus had landed. Orchomenus is
just north of the Cephissus where it runs into Lake Copais, and a
stream called Melas, rising on the east of Orchomenus, joined the
Cephissus near its mouth, the neighbouring ground being a marsh.
[Sidenote: Battle of Orchomenus. Disposition of Archelaus' army.]
Archelaus did not want to fight, but Dorylaus hinted at treachery and
had, no doubt, been ordered by Mithridates to avenge Chaeroneia.
Near Mount Tilphossium, however, to the south of Lake Copais, he was
worsted by Sulla in a skirmish, and thinking better of the advice of
Archelaus tried to prolong the war. Archelaus, indeed, seems to have
commanded in the battle, for Mithridates was shrewd enough to know
when he had a good general. He drew up his army in four lines, the
scythed chariots in front, behind them the Macedonian phalanx, then
his auxiliaries, including Italian deserters, and, lastly, his
light-armed troops. On each flank he posted his cavalry. [Sidenote:
Sulla's arrangements.] Sulla, who was weak in cavalry, dug two ditches
guarded by forts, one on each flank, so as to keep off the enemy's
horse. Then he drew up his infantry in three lines, leaving gaps in
them for the light troops and cavalry to come through from the rear
when needed. To the second line stakes were given, with orders to
plant them so as to form a palisade; and the first line, when the
chariots charged, retired behind the palisade, while the light troops
advanced through the gaps and hurled missiles at the horses and
drivers. The chariots turned and threw the phalanx into confusion, and
when Archelaus ordered up his cavalry, Sulla sent round his to take
them in the rear. At one time, however, the contest was doubtful, and
the Romans wavered, till they were put to shame by their general, who,
seizing a standard and advancing towards the foe, cried out, 'When
those at home ask where it was you abandoned your leader, say, it was
at Orchomenus.' This great victory, in which Sulla showed generalship
of a high order, ended the first Mithridatic war. The date is not
quite certain. Probably it happened in 86.
[Sidenote: Sulla winters in Thessaly.] After the battle Sulla wintered
in Thessaly, where he built a fleet, being tired of waiting for
Lucullus. [Sidenote: He confers with Archelaus at Delium.] At Delium
he met Archelaus and each urged the other to turn traitor, Archelaus
promising that Mithridates would aid Sulla against Cinna; Sulla
advising Archelaus to dethrone Mithridates. It was a curious way of
showing the respect which they entertained for each other's ability;
but Sulla was too scornful of Asiatic aid, and Archelaus too loyal
to listen to such suggestions. However, when Archelaus fell ill
afterwards, Sulla was so attentive to him, besides giving him land
in Euboea and styling him friend of the Roman people, that it was
suspected that Archelaus had been playing into his hands all along. It
was a most unlikely suspicion; for nothing was more natural than that
now, when Sulla was making terms with Mithridates and going to meet
Fimbria, he should wish to make Archelaus his friend. For after all he
had resolved to forget the Asiatic massacre and not push Mithridates
to desperation. [Sidenote: Terms offered by Sulla to Mithridates.] The
terms agreed upon were these: Mithridates was to surrender Cappadocia,
Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Asia, and the islands, eighty ships of war, all
prisoners and deserters; he was to give pay and provisions to Sulla's
men, and provide a war indemnity of 3,000 talents (732,000_l_.); to
restore to their homes the refugees from Macedonia, and those whom, as
will be related hereafter, he had carried off from Chios; and to hand
over more of his ships of war to such states as Rhodes in alliance
with Rome. Mithridates was then to be recognised as the ally of Rome.
He chafed at the terms, the proposal of which indeed brought out the
long-headed intrepidity of Sulla's character in the strongest light.
Walking, as it were, on the razor-edge of two precipices, he never
faltered once. The Romans could not charge him with not having carried
into effect the original purpose of the war--the restoration of
Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes--nor could Mithridates fail in the end to
listen to the voice of Archelaus. When he at first rejected the terms,
Sulla advanced towards Asia, plundering some of the barbarous tribes
on the frontiers of Macedonia, and reducing that province to order.
But Mithridates did not hesitate long. [Sidenote: Tyranny and
difficulties of Mithridates.] He, too, was in a difficult position.
The inhabitants of Asia Minor soon found that in yielding to him they
had exchanged whips for scorpions. He suspected that the defeat of
Archelaus at Chaeroneia would excite rebellion, and he seized as many
of the Galatian chiefs as he could, and slew them with their wives and
children. The consequence was that the surviving chiefs expelled the
man whom he had sent as satrap. He suspected the Chians also, and
made them give up their arms and the children of their chief men
as hostages. Then he made a requisition on them for 2,000 talents
(488,000_l_.), and because they could not raise the money, or because
the tyrant pretended that there was a deficiency, the citizens were
shipped off to the east of the Black Sea, and the island was occupied
by colonists. The man who had managed the affair of Chios was sent to
play the same game at Ephesus. But the people were on their guard,
slew him, and raised the standard of rebellion. Tralles, Hypaepa,
Metropolis, Sardis, Smyrna, and other towns followed their example.
Mithridates tried to buoy up his sinking cause, attracting debtors by
the remission of debts, resident aliens by the gift of the citizenship
of the towns which they inhabited, and slaves by the promise of
freedom--devices of a desperate man. A plot was laid against his life
which was betrayed, and in his fury he launched out into yet more
savage excesses. He sent a set of men to collect depositions, and they
slew indiscriminately those who were denounced, 1600, it is said, in
all.
[Sidenote: Fimbria mutinies against and murders Flaccus.] These events
must have occurred in the winter of 86-85 B.C., when Flaccus was on
his march from the Adriatic coast through Macedonia and Thrace
for Asia. Flaccus had quarrelled with his lieutenant Fimbria, and
superseded him. The latter, when Flaccus had crossed from Byzantium
to Chalcedon, induced the troops, who hated their general, to mutiny.
Flaccus returned in haste; but, learning what had happened, fled back
to Chalcedon and thence to Nicomedia. Here Fimbria, finding him hidden
in a well, murdered him, and threw his head into the sea. [Sidenote:
He defeats the son of Mithridates and pursues the king.] Then,
attacking the king's son, he defeated him at the river Rhyndacus, and
pursued the king himself to Pergamus and Pitane, where he would have
taken him but that he crossed over to Mitylene, while Fimbria had no
ships and was thus baulked of his prey. Another event had happened to
aggravate his irritation. [Sidenote: Lucullus off the coast of Asia
Minor. Overtures of Fimbria to him.] Lucullus, sent by Sulla to
collect a fleet, had, as has been related (p. 153), failed in Egypt.
But he had procured ships from Syria and Rhodes, induced Cos and
Cnidus to revolt, and driven out the Pontic partisans from Chios and
Colophon. He was now in the neighbourhood, when Mithridates was at
Pitane. [Sidenote: Mithridates meets Sulla and thy come to terms.]
But, he turned a deaf ear to Fimbria's request for aid, and after
defeating Neoptolemus, the king's admiral, met Sulla in the Thracian
Chersonese, and conveyed him across to Dardanus, in the Troad, where
Mithridates came to meet him. Each had one feeling in common--dread
lest the other should make terms with Fimbria; and the bargain was
soon struck in spite of Sulla's soldiers, who were thus after all
baulked of the long-looked-for Asiatic campaign and their desire to
take revenge for the great massacre. But Sulla, as we have seen (p.
153), got some money to quiet them; and they were in his power in Asia
almost as much as he had been in theirs at Rome. He at once led them
against Fimbria, who was near Thyatira, in Lydia. [Sidenote: Fimbria's
men desert to Sulla. Fimbria commits suicide.] He summoned that leader
to hand over his army, and the soldiers began to desert to him.
Fimbria tried to force them to swear obedience to him, and slew the
first who refused. Then he sent a slave to assassinate Sulla; and the
discovery of this attempt so maddened Sulla's soldiers that Fimbria
dared not trust even Sulla's promised safe-conduct and slew himself.
[Sidenote: Sulla's measures.] Sulla incorporated his troops with his
own army, and proceeded to regulate the affairs of Asia. Those towns
which had remained faithful to Rome or had sided with him were
liberally rewarded. All slaves who refused to return to their masters
were slain. The towns that resisted were punished and their walls
destroyed. The ringleaders in the massacre were put to death. The
taxpayers were forced to pay at once the previous five years' arrears
and a fine of 20,000 talents (4,880,000_l_.), and Lucullus was left
to collect it. In order to raise this sum the unhappy Asiatics
were obliged to mortgage their public buildings to the Italian
money-lenders; but Sulla got the whole of it, and scarcely was he
gone when pirates, hounded on by Mithridates, came, like flocks of
vultures, to devour what the eagles had left.
* * * * *