[17] After they had finished speaking they did not wait to hear what the Senate and people of Rome would think about such a great war, but began to collect forces from Bithynia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the Galatians of Asia. As soon as Lucius Cassius, the proconsul of Asia, had his own army in readiness all the allied forces were assembled.

Then they were put in separate divisions and sent into camp, Cassius on the boundary of Bithynia and Galatia, Manius on Mithridates' line of march to Bithynia, and Oppius, the third general, among the mountains of Cappadocia. Each of these had about 40,000 men, horse and foot together. They had also a fleet under command of Minucius Rufus and Gaius Popillius at Byzantium, guarding the mouth of the Euxine. Nicomedes was present with 50,000 foot and 6,000 horse under his command. Such was the total strength of the forces brought together.

Mithridates had in his own army 250,000 foot and 40,000 horse, 300 ships with decks, 100 with two banks of oars each, and other apparatus in proportion. He had for generals Neoptolemus and Archelaus, two brothers. The king took charge of the greater number in person. Of the allied forces Arcathias, the son of Mithridates, led 10,000 horse from Armenia Minor, and Doryalus commanded the phalanx. Craterus had charge of 130 war chariots. So great were the preparations on either side when the Romans and Mithridates first came in conflict with each other, about the 173d Olympiad.

[18] When Nicomedes and the generals of Mithridates came in sight of each other in a wide plain bordered by the river Amnias, they drew up their forces for battle. Nicomedes had his entire army in hand; Neoptolemus and Archelaus had only their light infantry and the cavalry of Arcathias and a few chariots; for the phalanx had not yet come up.

They sent forward a small force to seize a rocky hill in the plain lest they should be surrounded by the Bithynians, who were much more numerous. When Neoptolemus saw his men driven from the hill he was still more in fear of being surrounded. He advanced with haste to their assistance, at the same time calling on Arcathias for help.

When Nicomedes perceived the movement, he sought to meet it by a similar one. Thereupon a severe and bloody struggle ensued. Nicomedes prevailed and put the Mithridateans to flight until Archelaus, advancing from the right flank, fell upon the pursuers, who were compelled to turn their attention to him. He yielded little by little in order that the forces of Neoptolemus might have a chance to rally. When he judged that they had done so sufficiently, he advanced again. At the same time the scythe-bearing chariots made a charge on the Bithynians, cutting some of them in two, and tearing others to pieces.

The army of Nicomedes was terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments and their parts hanging on the scythes. Overcome rather by the hideousness of the spectacle than by loss of the fight, fear took possession of their ranks. While they were thus thrown into confusion, Archelaus attacked them in front, and Neoptolemus and Arcathias, who had turned about, assailed them in the rear.

They fought a long time facing both ways. After the greater part of his men had fallen, Nicomedes fled with the remainder into Paphlagonia, although the Mithridatean phalanx had not come into the engagement at all. His camp was captured, together with a large sum of money and many prisoners. All these Mithridates treated kindly and sent to their homes with supplies for the journey, thus gaining a reputation for clemency among his enemies.

[19] This first engagement of the Mithridatic war alarmed the Roman generals, because they had kindled so great a strife precipitately, without good judgment, and without any public decree. A small number of soldiers had overcome a much larger one, not by having a better position, or through any blunder of the enemy, but by the valor of the generals and the fighting quality of the army. Nicomedes now encamped alongside of Manius.

Mithridates ascended Mount Scoroba, which lies on the boundary between Bithynia and Pontus. A hundred Sarmatian horse of his advance-guard came upon 800 of the Nicomedean cavalry and took some of them prisoners.

Mithridates dismissed these also to their homes and furnished them supplies. Neoptolemus, and Nemanes the Armenian, overtook Manius on his retreat at the castle of Protophachium about the seventh hour, while Nicomedes was moving away to join Cassius, and compelled him to fight. He had 4,000 horse and ten times that number of foot. They killed 10,000 of his men and took 300 prisoners. When they were brought to Mithridates he released them in like manner, thus winning the good opinion of his enemies. The camp of Manius was also captured.

He fled to the river Sangarius, crossed it by night, and escaped to Pergamon. Cassius and Nicomedes and all the Roman ambassadors who were with the army decamped to a place called the Lion's Head, a very powerful stronghold in Phrygia, where they began to drill their newly collected mob of artisans, rustics, and other raw recruits, and made new levies among the Phrygians.

Finding them worthless, they abandoned the idea of fighting with such unwarlike men, dismissed them and retreated; Cassius with his own army to Apamea, Nicomedes to Pergamon, and Manius toward Rhodes. When those who were guarding the mouth of the Euxine learned these facts they scattered also and delivered the straits and all the ships they had to Mithridates.

[20] Having subverted the whole dominion of Nicomedes at one blow, Mithridates took possession of it and put the cities in order. Then he invaded Phrygia and lodged at an inn which had been occupied by Alexander the Great, thinking that it would bring him luck to halt where Alexander had once stopped.

He overran the rest of Phrygia, together with Mysia and those parts of Asia which had been lately acquired by the Romans. Then he sent his officers to the adjoining provinces and subjugated Lycia, Pamphylia, and the rest as far as Ionia. To the Laodiceans on the river Lycus, who were still resisting (for the Roman general, Quintus Oppius, had arrived with his cavalry and certain mercenaries at their town and was defending it), he made this proclamation by herald before the walls, "King Mithridates promises that the Laodiceans shall suffer no injury if they will deliver Oppius to him."

Upon this announcement they dismissed the mercenaries unharmed, but led Oppius himself to Mithridates with his lictors marching in front of him by way of ridicule. Mithridates did him no harm, but took him around with him unbound, exhibiting a Roman general as his prisoner.

[21] Not long afterward he captured Manius Aquilius, one of the ambassadors and the one who was most to blame for this war. Mithridates led him around, bound on an ass, and compelled him to introduce himself to the public as "maniac". Finally, at Pergamon, Mithridates poured molten gold down his throat, thus rebuking the Romans for their bribe-taking.

After appointing satraps over the various nations he proceeded to Magnesia, Ephesus, and Mitylene, all of which received him gladly. The Ephesians overthrew the Roman statues which had been erected in their cities - for which they paid the penalty not long afterward.

On his return from Ionia Mithridates took the city of Stratonicea, imposed a pecuniary fine on it, and placed a garrison in it. Seeing a handsome virgin there he added her to his list of wives. Her name, if anybody wishes to know it, was Monima, the daughter of Philopoemen. Against those Magnesians, Paphlagonians, and Lycians who still opposed him he directed his generals to make war.

[22] Such was the state of affairs with Mithridates. As soon as his outbreak and invasion of Asia were known at Rome the Romans declared war against him, although they were occupied with grievous dissensions in the city and a formidable Social war, almost all parts of Italy having revolted one after another. When the consuls cast lots, the government of Asia and the Mithridatic war fell to [Lucius] Cornelius Sulla.

As they had no money to defray his expenses they voted to sell the treasures that king Numa Pompilius had set apart for sacrifices to the gods; so great was their want of means at that time and so great their ambition for the commonwealth. A part of these treasures, sold hastily, brought 90,000 pounds' weight of gold and this was all they had to spend on so great a war. Moreover Sulla was detained a long time by the civil wars, as I have stated in my history of the same.

In the meantime Mithridates built a large number of ships for an attack on Rhodes, and he wrote secretly to all his satraps and magistrates that on the thirtieth day thereafter they should set upon all Romans and Italians in their towns, and upon their wives and children and their domestics of Italian birth, kill them and throw their bodies out unburied, and share their goods with himself. He threatened to punish any who should bury the dead or conceal the living, and offered rewards to informers and to those who should kill persons in hiding, and freedom to slaves for betraying their masters. To debtors for killing money-lenders he offered release from one half of their obligations.

These secret orders Mithridates sent to all the cities at the same time. When the appointed day came calamities of various kinds befell the province of Asia, among which were the following:

The Ephesians tore fugitives, who had taken refuge in the temple of Artemis, from the very images of the goddess and slew them.

The Pergameans shot with arrows those who had fled to the temple of Aesculapius, while they were still clinging to his statues.

The Adramytteans followed those who sought to escape by swimming, into the sea, and killed them and drowned their children.

The Caunii, who had been made subject to Rhodes after the war against Antiochus and had been lately liberated by the Romans, pursued the Italians who had taken refuge about the Vesta statue of the senate house, tore them from the shrine, killed children before their mothers' eyes, and then killed the mothers themselves and their husbands after them.

The citizens of Tralles, in order to avoid the appearance of blood-guiltiness, hired a savage monster named Theophilus, of Paphlagonia, to do the work. He conducted the victims to the temple of Concord, and there murdered them, chopping off the hands of some who were embracing the sacred images.

[23] Such was the awful fate that befell the Romans and Italians throughout the province of Asia, men, women, and children, their freedmen and slaves, all who were of Italian blood; by which it was made very plain that it was quite as much hatred of the Romans as fear of Mithridates that impelled the Asiatics to commit these atrocities. But they paid a double penalty for their crime - one at the hands of Mithridates himself, who ill-treated them perfidiously not long afterward, and the other at the hands of Cornelius Sulla.

In the meantime Mithridates crossed over to the island of Cos, where he was welcomed by the inhabitants and where he received, and afterward brought up in a royal way, a son of Alexander, the reigning sovereign of Egypt, who had been left there by his grandmother, Cleopatra, together with a large sum of money. From the treasures of Cleopatra he sent vast wealth, works of art, precious stones, women's ornaments, and a great deal of money to Pontus.

[24] While these things were going on the Rhodians strengthened their walls and their harbor and erected engines of war everywhere, receiving some assistance from Telmessus and Lycia. All the Italians who escaped from Asia collected at Rhodes, among them Lucius Cassius, the proconsul of the province.

When Mithridates approached with his fleet, the inhabitants destroyed the suburbs in order that they might not be of service to the enemy. Then they put to sea for a naval engagement with some of their ships ranged for an attack in front and some on the flank. Mithridates, who was sailing around in a quinquereme, ordered his ships to extend their wing out to sea and to quicken the rowing in order to surround the enemy, for they were fewer in number.

The Rhodians were apprehensive of this maneuver and retired slowly. Finally they turned about and took refuge in the harbor, closed the gates, and fought Mithridates from the walls. He encamped near the city and continually tried to gain entrance to the harbor, but failing to do so he waited for the arrival of his infantry from Asia. In the meantime there was continual skirmishing going on among the soldiers in ambush around the walls. As the Rhodians had the best of it in these affairs, they gradually plucked up courage and kept their ships well in hand in order to dart upon the enemy whenever they should discover an opportunity.

[25] As one of the king's merchantmen was moving near them under sail a Rhodian two-bank ship advanced against it. Many on both sides hastened to the rescue and a severe naval engagement took place. Mithridates outweighed his antagonists both in fury and in the multitude of his fleet, but the Rhodians circled around and rammed his ships with such skill that they took one of his triremes in tow with its crew and tackle and much spoil, and brought it into the harbor.

Another time, when one of their quinqueremes had been taken by the enemy, the Rhodians, not knowing this fact, sent out six of their swiftest ships to look for it, under command of their admiral, Demagoras. Mithridates despatched twenty-five of his against them. Demagoras retired before them until sunset. When it began to grow dark and the king's ships turned around to sail back, Demagoras fell upon them, sunk two, drove two others into Lycia, and returned home on the open sea by night. This was the result of the naval engagement, as unexpected to the Rhodians on account of the smallness of their force as to Mithridates on account of the largeness of his.

In this engagement, while the king was sailing about in his ship and urging on his men, an allied ship from Chios ran against his in the confusion with a severe shock. The king pretended not to mind it at the time, but later he punished the pilot and the lookout man, and conceived a hatred for all Chians.

[26] About the same time the land forces of Mithridates set sail in merchant vessels and triremes, and a storm, blowing from Caunus, drove them toward Rhodes. The Rhodians promptly sailed out to meet them, fell upon them while they were still scattered and suffering from the effects of the tempest, captured some, rammed others, and burned others, and took about 400 prisoners.

Thereupon Mithridates prepared for another naval engagement and siege at the same time. He built a sambuca, an immense machine for scaling walls, and mounted it on two ships. Some deserters showed him a hill that was easy to climb, where the temple of Zeus Atabyrius was situated, surrounded by a low wall. He placed a part of his army in ships by night, distributed scaling ladders to others, and commanded both parties to move silently until they should see a fire signal given from Mount Atabyrius; and then to make the greatest possible uproar, and some to attack the harbor and others the wall. Accordingly they approached in profound silence.

The Rhodian sentries knew what was going on and lighted a fire. The army of Mithridates, thinking that this was the fire signal from Atabyrius, broke the silence with a loud shout, the scaling party and the naval contingent shouting all together. The Rhodians, not at all dismayed, answered the shout and rushed to the walls in crowds. The king's forces accomplished nothing that night, and the next day they were beaten off.

[27] The Rhodians were most dismayed by the sambuca, which was moved against the wall where the temple of Isis stands. It was operating with weapons of various kinds, both rams and projectiles. Soldiers in numerous small boats circled around it with ladders, ready to mount the wall by means of it. Nevertheless the Rhodians awaited its attack with firmness. Finally the sambuca collapsed of its own weight, and an apparition of Isis was seen hurling a great mass of fire down upon it. Mithridates despaired of his undertaking and retired from Rhodes.

He then laid siege to Patara and began to cut down a grove dedicated to Latona, to get material for his machines, until he was warned in a dream to spare the sacred trees. Leaving Pelopidas to continue the war against the Lycians he sent Archelaus to Greece to gain allies by persuasion or force according as he could.

After this Mithridates committed most of his tasks to his generals, and applied himself to raising troops, making arms, and enjoying himself with his Stratonicean wife. He also held court to try those who were accused of conspiring against him, or of inciting revolution, or of favoring the Romans in any way.

[28] While Mithridates was thus occupied the following events took place in Greece: Archelaus, sailing thither with abundant supplies and a large fleet, possessed himself by force and violence of Delos and other strongholds which had revolted from the Athenians. He slew 20,000 men in these places, most of whom were Italians, and turned the strongholds over to the Athenians. In this way, and by boasting about Mithridates and extravagantly praising him, he brought the Athenians into alliance with him.

Archelaus sent them the sacred treasure of Delos by the hands of Aristion, an Athenian citizen, attended by 2,000 soldiers to guard the money. These soldiers Aristion made use of to make himself master of the country, putting to death immediately some of those who favored the Romans and sending others to Mithridates. And these things he did although he professed to be a philosopher of the school of Epicurus.

(Nor was it only in Athens that men played the part of tyrants as did he and before him Critias and his fellow philosophers. But in Italy, too, some of the Pythagoreans and those known as the Seven Wise Men in other parts of the Grecian world, who undertook to manage public affairs, governed more cruelly, and made themselves greater tyrants than ordinary despots; whence arose doubt and suspicion concerning other philosophers, whether their discourses about wisdom proceeded from a love of virtue or as a comfort in their poverty and idleness. We see many of these now, obscure and poverty stricken, wearing the garb of philosophy as a matter of necessity, and railing bitterly at the rich and powerful, not because they have any real contempt for riches and power, but from envy of the possessors of the same. Those whom they speak ill of have much better reason for despising them. These things the reader should consider as spoken against the philosopher Aristion, who is the cause of this digression.)

[29] Archelaus brought over to the side of Mithridates the Achaeans, the Lacedaemonians, and all of Boeotia except Thespiae, to which he laid close siege. At the same time Metrophanes, who had been sent by Mithridates with another army, ravaged Euboea and the territory of Demetrias and Magnesia, which states refused to espouse his cause.

Bruttius advanced against him with a small force from Macedonia, had a naval fight with him, sunk one large ship and one hemiolia, and killed all who were in them while Metrophanes was looking on. The latter fled in terror and, as he had a favorable wind, Bruttius could not overtake him, but stormed Sciathos, which was a storehouse of plunder for barbarians, and crucified some of them who were slaves and cut off the hands of the freedmen.

Then he turned against Boeotia, having received reinforcements of 1,000 horse and foot from Macedonia. Near Chaeronea he was engaged in a fight of three days' duration with Archelaus and Aristion, which had an indecisive result. When the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans came to the aid of Archelaus and Aristion, Bruttius thought that he was not a match for all of them together and withdrew to Piraeus until Archelaus came up with his fleet and seized that place also.

[30] Sulla, who had been appointed general of the Mithridatic War by the Romans, now for the first time passed over to Greece with five legions and a few cohorts and troops of horse and straightway called for money, reinforcements and provisions from Aetolia and Thessaly. As soon as he considered himself strong enough, he crossed over to attack Archelaus. As he was passing through the country, all Boeotia joined him except a few, and among others the great city of Thebes which had rather lightly taken sides with the Mithridateans against the Romans, but now even more nimbly changed from Archelaus to Sulla before coming to a trial of strength.

When Sulla reached Attica he detached part of his army to lay siege to Aristion in Athens, and himself went down to attack Piraeus, where Archelaus had taken shelter behind the wall with his forces. The height of the wall was about twenty meters and it was built of large square stones. It was the work of Pericles in the time of the Peloponnesian War, and as he rested his hope of victory on Piraeus he made it as strong as possible.

Notwithstanding the height of the walls, Sulla planted his ladders against them at once. After inflicting and receiving much damage (for the Cappadocians bravely repelled his attack), he retired exhausted to Eleusis and Megara, where he built engines for a new attack upon Piraeus and formed a plan for besieging it with mounds. Artifices and apparatus of all kinds, iron, catapults, and everything of that sort were supplied by Thebes. Sulla chopped down the grove of the Academy and constructed his largest engines there. He demolished the Long walls, and used the stones, timber, and earth for building mounds.

[31] Two Athenian slaves in Piraeus - either because they favored the Romans or were looking out for their own safety in an emergency - wrote down everything that took place there, enclosed their writing in leaden balls, and threw them over to the Romans with slings. As this was done continually it came to the knowledge of Sulla, who gave his attention to the missives and found one which said, "Tomorrow the infantry will make a sally in front upon your workers, and the cavalry will attack the Roman army on both flanks."

Sulla placed an adequate force in ambush and when the enemy dashed out with the thought that their movement would completely surprise him he gave them a greater surprise with his concealed force, killing many and driving the rest into the sea. This was the end of that enterprise.

When the mounds began to rise Archelaus erected opposing towers and placed the greatest quantity of missiles on them. He sent for reinforcements from Chalcis and the other islands and armed his oarsmen, for he considered himself in extreme danger. As his army was superior in number to that of Sulla before, it now became much more so by these reinforcements. He then darted out in the middle of the night with torches and burned one of the tortoises and the machines alongside of it; but Sulla made new ones in ten days' time and put them in the places of the former ones. Against these Archelaus established a tower on that part of the wall.

[32] Having received from Mithridates by sea a new army under command of Dromichaetes, Archelaus led all his troops out to battle. He distributed archers and slingers among them and ranged them close under the walls so that the guards above could reach the enemy with their missiles. Others were stationed around the gates with torches to watch their opportunity to make a sally. The battle remained doubtful a long time; each side yielding by turns.

First the barbarians gave way until Archelaus rallied them and led them back. The Romans were so dismayed by this that they were put to flight next, until Murena ran up and rallied them. Just then another legion, which had returned from gathering wood, together with some soldiers who had been disgraced, finding a hot fight in progress, made a powerful charge on the Mithridateans killed about 2,000 of them and drove the rest inside the walls.

Archelaus tried to rally them again and stood his ground so long that he was shut out and had to be pulled up by ropes. In consideration of their splendid behavior Sulla removed the stigma from those who had been disgraced and gave large rewards to the others.

[33] Now winter came on and Sulla established his camp at Eleusis and protected it by a deep ditch, extending from the high ground to the sea so that the enemy's horse could not readily reach him. While he was prosecuting this work, fighting took place daily, now at the ditch, now at the walls of the enemy, who frequently came out and assailed the Romans with stones, javelins, and leaden balls. Sulla, being in need of ships, sent to Rhodes to obtain them, but the Rhodians were not able to send them because Mithridates controlled the sea.

He then ordered Lucullus, a distinguished Roman who later succeeded Sulla as commander in this war, to proceed secretly to Alexandria and Syria, and procure a fleet from those kings and cities that were skilled in nautical affairs, and to bring with it the Rhodian naval contingent also. Lucullus had no fear of the hostile fleet. He embarked in a fast sailing vessel and, by changing from one ship to another in order to conceal his movements, arrived at Alexandria.

[34] Meanwhile the traitors in Piraeus threw another message over the walls, saying that Archelaus would on that very night send a convoy of soldiers with provisions to the city of Athens, which was suffering from hunger. Sulla laid a trap for them and captured both the provisions and the soldiers.

On the same day, near Chalcis, Minucius wounded Neoptolemus, Mithridates' other general, killed 1,500 of his men, and took a still larger number prisoners.

Not long after, by night, while the guards on the walls of Piraeus were asleep, the Romans took some ladders from the engines nearby, mounted the walls, and killed the guards at that place. Thereupon some of the barbarians abandoned their posts and fled to the harbor, thinking that all the walls had been captured. Others, recovering their courage, slew the leader of the assailing party and hurled the remainder over the wall. Still others darted out through the gates and almost burned one of the two Roman towers, and would have burned it had not Sulla ridden up from the camp and saved it by a hard fight lasting all that night and the next day. Then the barbarians retired.

Archelaus planted another great tower on the wall opposite the Roman tower and these two assailed each other, discharging all kinds of missiles constantly until Sulla, by means of his catapults, each of which discharged twenty of the heaviest leaden balls at one volley, had killed a large number of the enemy, and had so shaken the tower of Archelaus that it was rendered untenable, and the latter was compelled, by fear of its destruction, to draw it back with all speed.

[35] Meanwhile famine pressed more and more on the city of Athens, and the ball throwers in Piraeus gave information that provisions would be sent thither by night. Archelaus suspected that some traitor was giving information to the enemy about his convoys. Accordingly, at the same time that he sent it, he stationed a force at the gates with torches to make an assault on the Roman works if Sulla should attack the provision train. So it turned out that Sulla captured the train and Archelaus burned some of the Roman works.

At the same time Arcathias, the son of Mithridates, with another army invaded Macedonia and without difficulty overcame the small Roman force there, subjugated the whole country, appointed satraps to govern it, and advanced against Sulla, but was taken sick and died near Tisaeus. In the meantime the famine in Athens became very severe. Sulla built stockades around it to prevent anybody from going out so that, by reason of their numbers, the hunger should be more severe upon those who were shut in.

[36] When Sulla had raised his mound to the proper height at Piraeus, he planted his engines on it. But Archelaus undermined the mound and carried away the earth, the Romans for a long time suspecting nothing. Suddenly the mound sank down.

Quickly understanding the state of things, the Romans withdrew their engines and filled up the mound, and, following the enemy's example, began in like manner to undermine the walls. The diggers met each other underground, and fought there with swords and spears as well as they could in the darkness.

While this was going on, Sulla pounded the wall with rams erected on the tops of mounds until part of it fell down. Then he hastened to burn the neighboring tower, and discharged a large number of fire-bearing missiles against it, and ordered his bravest soldiers to mount the ladders. Both sides fought bravely, but the tower was burned.

Another small part of the wall was thrown down also, over against which Sulla at once stationed a guard. Having now undermined a section of the wall, so that it was only sustained by wooden beams, he placed a great quantity of sulfur, hemp, and pitch under it, and set fire to the whole at once. The walls fell -now here, now there- carrying the defenders down with them. This great and unexpected crash demoralized the forces guarding the walls everywhere, as each one expected that the ground would sink under him next. Fear and loss of confidence kept them turning this way and that way, so that they offered only a feeble resistance to the enemy.

[37] Against the forces thus demoralized Sulla kept up an unceasing fight, continually changing the active part of his own army, bringing up fresh soldiers with ladders, one division after another, with shout and cheer, urging them forward with threats and encouragement at the same time, and telling them that victory would shortly be theirs.

Archelaus, on the other hand, brought up new forces in place of his discouraged ones. He, too, changed their labor continually, cheering and urging them on, and telling them that their salvation would soon be secured.

A high degree of zeal and courage was excited in both armies again and the fight became very severe, the slaughter being substantially equal on both sides. Finally Sulla, being the attacking party and therefore soonest exhausted, sounded a retreat and led his forces back, praising many of his men for their bravery.

Archelaus forthwith repaired the damage to his wall by night, protecting a large part of it with a lunette curving inward. Sulla attacked this newly built wall at once with his whole army, thinking that as it was still moist and weak he could easily demolish it, but as he had to work in a narrow space and was exposed to missiles from above, both in front and flank, as is usual with crescent-shaped fortifications, he was again worn out. Then he abandoned all idea of taking Piraeus by assault and established a siege around it in order to reduce it by famine.

[38] Knowing that the defenders of Athens were severely pressed by hunger, that they had devoured all their cattle, boiled the hides and skins, and licked what they could get therefrom, and that some had even partaken of human flesh, Sulla directed his soldiers to encircle the city with a ditch so that the inhabitants might not escape secretly, even one by one. This done, he brought up his ladders and at the same time began to break through the wall. The feeble defenders were soon put to flight, and the Romans rushed into the city.

A great and pitiless slaughter ensued in Athens, the inhabitants, for want of nourishment, being too weak to fly. Sulla ordered an indiscriminate massacre, not sparing women or children. He was angry that they had so suddenly joined the barbarians without cause, and had displayed such violent animosity toward himself.

Most of the Athenians, when they heard the order given, rushed upon the swords of the slayers voluntarily. A few had taken their feeble course to the Acropolis, among them Aristion, who had burned the Odeum, so that Sulla might not have the timber in it at hand for storming the Acropolis.

Sulla forbade the burning of the city, but allowed the soldiers to plunder it. In many houses they found human flesh prepared for food. The next day Sulla sold the slaves at auction. To the freedmen who had escaped the slaughter of the previous night, a very small number, he promised their liberty but took away their right as voters and electors because they had made war upon him. The same terms were extended to their offspring.

[39] In this way did Athens have her full of horrors. Sulla stationed a guard around the Acropolis, to whom Aristion and his company were soon compelled by hunger and thirst to surrender. Sulla inflicted the penalty of death on Aristion and his bodyguard, and upon all who exercised any authority or who had done anything whatever contrary to the rules laid down for them after the first capture of Greece by the Romans.

Sulla pardoned the rest and gave to all of them substantially the same laws that had been previously established for them by the Romans. About forty pounds of gold and 600 pounds of silver was obtained from the Acropolis - but these events at the Acropolis took place somewhat later.

[40] As soon as Athens was taken Sulla, impatient at the long siege of Piraeus, brought up rams, and projectiles of all kinds, and a large force of men, who battered the walls under the shelter of tortoises, and numerous cohorts who hurled javelins and shot arrows in vast numbers at the defenders on the walls in order to drive them back.

He knocked down a part of the newly built lunette, which was still moist and weak. Archelaus had anticipated this from the first and had built several others like it inside, so that Sulla came upon one wall after another, and found his task endless. But he pushed on with tireless energy, he relieved his men often, he was ubiquitous among them, urging them on and showing them that their entire hope of reward for their labors depended on accomplishing this small remainder.

The soldiers, too, believing that this would in fact be the end of their toils, and spurred to their work by the love of glory and the thought that it would be a splendid achievement to conquer such walls as these, pressed forward vigorously. Finally, Archelaus was dumbfounded by their senseless and mad persistence, and abandoned the walls to them and betook himself to that part of the Piraeus which was most strongly fortified and enclosed on all sides by the sea. As Sulla had no ships he could not attack it.

[41] Thence Archelaus withdrew to Thessaly by way of Boeotia and drew what was left of his entire forces together at Thermopylae, both his own and those brought by Dromichiaetes. He also united with his command the army that had invaded Macedonia under Arcathias, the son of king Mithridates, which was fresh and at nearly its full strength, and had lately received recruits from Mithridates; for he never ceased sending forward reinforcements.

While Archelaus was hastily gathering these forces, Sulla burned Piraeus, which had given him more trouble than the city of Athens, not sparing the arsenal, or the navy yard, or any other of its famous belongings.

Then he marched against Archelaus, proceeding also by way of Boeotia. As they neared each other, the forces of Archelaus just from Thermopylae advanced into Phocis, consisting of Thracian, Pontic, Scythian, Cappadocian, Bithynian, Galatian, and Phrygian troops, and others from Mithridates' newly acquired territory, in all 120,000 men. Each nationality had its own general, but Archelaus had supreme command over all. Sulla's forces were Italians and some Greeks and Macedonians, who had lately deserted Archelaus and come over to him, and a few others from the surrounding country, but they were not one third the number of the enemy.

[42] When they had taken position opposite each other Archelaus repeatedly led out his forces and offered battle. Sulla hesitated on account of the nature of the ground and the numbers of the enemy. When Archelaus moved toward Chalcis Sulla followed him closely, watching for a favorable time and place. When he saw the enemy encamped in a rocky region near Chaeronea, where there was no chance of escape for the vanquished, he took possession of a broad plain nearby and drew up his forces in such a way that he could compel Archelaus to fight whether he wanted to or not, and where the slope of the plain favored the Romans either in advancing or retreating.

Archelaus was hedged in by rocks which, in a battle, would not allow his whole army to act in concert, as he could not bring them together by reason of the unevenness of the ground; and if they were routed their flight would be impeded by the rocks. Relying for these reasons on his advantage of position Sulla moved forward in such a way that the enemy's superiority of numbers should not be of any service to him.

Archelaus did not dream of coming to an engagement at that time, for which reason he had been careless in choosing the place for his camp. Now that the Romans were advancing he perceived sorrowfully and too late the badness of his position, and he sent forward a detachment of horse to prevent the movement. The detachment was put to flight and shattered among the rocks. He next charged with sixty chariots, hoping to sever and break in pieces the formation of the legions by the shock. The Romans opened their ranks and the chariots were carried through by their own momentum to the rear, and before they could turn back they were surrounded and destroyed by the javelins of the rear guard.

[43] Although Archelaus might have fought safely from his fortified camp, where the crags would perhaps have defended him, he hastily led out his vast multitude of men who had not expected to fight here, and drew them up, in a place that had proved much too narrow, because Sulla was already approaching. He first made a powerful charge with his horse, cut the Roman formation in two, and, by reason of the smallness of their numbers, completely surrounded both parts.

The Romans turned their faces to the enemy on all sides and fought bravely. The divisions of Galba and Hortensius suffered most since Archelaus led the battle against them in person, and the barbarians fighting under the eye of the commander were spurred by emulation to the highest pitch of valor. But Sulla moved to their aid with a large body of horse and Archelaus, feeling sure that it was Sulla who was approaching, for he saw the standards of the commander-in-chief, and a greater cloud of dust arising, released his grasp and began to resume his first position.

Sulla, leading the best part of his horse and picking up two new cohorts that had been placed in reserve, struck the enemy before they had executed their maneuver and formed a solid front. He threw them into confusion, put them to flight, and pursued them. While victory was dawning on that side, Murena, who commanded the left wing, was not idle. Chiding his soldiers for their remissness he, too, dashed upon the enemy valiantly and put them to flight.

[44] When Archelaus' two wings gave way, the center no longer held its ground, but took to promiscuous flight. Then everything that Sulla had foreseen befell the enemy. Not having room to turn around, or an open country for flight, they were driven by their pursuers among the rocks. Some of them rushed into the hands of the Romans.

Others with more wisdom fled toward their own camp. Archelaus placed himself in front of them and barred the entrance, and ordered them to turn and face the enemy, thus betraying the greatest inexperience of the exigencies of war. They obeyed him with alacrity, but as they no longer had either generals to lead, or officers to align them, or standards to show where they belonged, but were scattered in disorderly rout, and had no room either to fly or to fight, the pursuit having brought them into their very narrowest place, they were killed without resistance, some by the enemy, upon whom they could not retaliate, and others by their own friends in the jam and confusion.

Again they fled toward the gates of the camp, around which they became congested. They up braided the gate-keepers. They appealed to them in the name of their country's gods and their common relationship, and reproached them that they were slaughtered not so much by the swords of the enemy as by the indifference of their friends. Finally Archelaus, after more delay than was necessary, opened the gates and received the disorganized runaways. When the Romans observed this they gave a great cheer, burst into the camp with the fugitives, and made their victory complete.

[45] Archelaus and the rest, who made their escape singly, came together at Chalcis. Not more than 10,000 of the 120,000 remained. The Roman loss was only fifteen, and two of these turned up afterward. Such was the result of the battle of Chaeronea between Sulla and Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, to which the sagacity of Sulla and the blundering of Archelaus contributed in equal measure.

Sulla captured a large number of prisoners and a great quantity of arms and spoils, the useless part of which he put in a heap. Then he girded himself according to the Roman custom and burned it as a sacrifice to the gods of war.

After giving his army a short rest he hastened with his best troops after Archelaus, but as the Romans had no ships the latter sailed securely among the islands and ravaged the coasts. He landed at Zacynthus and laid siege to it, but being attacked in the night by a party of Romans who were sojourning there, he reembarked in a hurry and returned to Chalcis more like a robber than a warrior.

[46] When Mithridates heard of this great disaster he was astonished and terror-stricken, as was natural. Nevertheless, he proceeded with all haste to collect a new army from all his subject nations. Thinking that certain persons would be likely to turn against him on account of his defeat, either now or later, if they should find a good chance, he arrested all suspects before the war should become sharper.

First, he put to death the tetrarchs of Galatia with their wives and children, not only those who were united with him as friends, but those who were not his subjects - all except three who escaped. Some of these he took by stratagem, the others he slew one night at a banquet. He believed that none of them would be faithful to him if Sulla should come near. He confiscated their property, established garrisons in their towns, and appointed Eumachus satrap of the nation. But the tetrarchs who had escaped raised an army from the country people forthwith, expelled him and his garrisons, and drove them out of Galatia, so that Mithridates had nothing left of that country except the money he had seized.

Being angry with the inhabitants of Chios, one of whose vessels had accidentally run against the royal ship in the naval battle near Rhodes, he first confiscated the goods of all Chians who had fled to Sulla, and then sent persons to inquire what property in Chios belonged to Romans. For a third move, his general, Zenobius, who was conducting an army to Greece, seized the walls of Chios and all the fortified places by night, stationed guards at the gates, and made proclamation that all strangers should remain quiet, and that the Chians should repair to the assembly so that he might give them a message from the king. When they had come together he said that the king was suspicious of the city on account of the Roman faction in it, but that he would be satisfied if they would deliver up their arms and give the children of their principal families as hostages. Seeing that their city was already in his hands they gave both. Zenobius sent them to Erythrae and told the Chians that the king would write to them directly.

[47] A letter came from Mithridates of the following tenor: "You favor the Romans even now, and many of your citizens are still sojourning with them. You are reaping the fruits of Roman property of which you do not make returns to us. Your trireme ran against and shook my ship in the battle before Rhodes. I willingly imputed that fault to the pilots alone, hoping that you would observe the rules of safety and remain my submissive subjects. Now you have secretly sent your chief men to Sulla, and you have never proved or declared that this was done without public authority, as was the duty of those who were not cooperating with them. Although my friends consider that those who conspire against my government, and who intend to conspire against my person, ought to suffer death, I will let you off with a fine of 2,000 talents."

Such was the purport of the letter. The Chians wanted to send legates to the king, but Zenobius would not allow it. As they were disarmed and had given up the children of their principal families, and a large barbarian army was in possession of the city, they groaned aloud, but they collected the temple ornaments and the women's jewelry to the full amount of 2,000 talents.

When this sum had been made up Zenobius accused them of giving him short weight and summoned them to the theater. Then he stationed his army with drawn swords around the theater itself and along the streets leading from it to the sea. Then he led the Chians one by one out of the theater and put them in ships, the men separate from the women and children, and all treated with indignity by their barbarian captors. In this way they were dragged to Mithridates, who packed them off to Pontus on the Euxine. Such was the calamity that befell the citizens of Chios.

[48] When Zenobius approached Ephesus with his army, the citizens ordered him to leave his arms at the gates and come in with only a few attendants. He obeyed the order and made a visit to Philopoemen (the father of Monima, the favorite wife of Mithridates), whom the latter had appointed overseer of Ephesus, and summoned the Ephesians to the assembly.

They expected nothing good from him, and adjourned the meeting till the next day. During the night, however, they met for mutual consultation and encouragement, after which they cast Zenobius into prison and put him to death. They then manned the walls, put the citizens in training, brought in supplies from the country, and put the city in a state of complete defense.

When the people of Tralles, Hypaepa, Metropolis, and several other towns heard of this they feared lest they should meet the fate of Chios, and followed the example of Ephesus. Mithridates sent an army against the revolters and inflicted terrible punishments on those whom he captured, but as he feared other defections, he gave freedom to the Greek cities, proclaimed the canceling of debts, gave the right of citizenship to all sojourners therein, and freed the slaves. He did this hoping (as indeed it turned out) that the debtors, sojourners, and slaves would consider their new privileges secure only under the rule of Mithridates, and would therefore be well disposed toward him.

In the meantime Mynnio and Philotimus of Smyrna, Clisthenes and Asclepiodotus of Lesbos, all of them the king's intimates (Asclepiodotus had once entertained him as a guest) joined in a conspiracy against Mithridates. Of this conspiracy Asclepiodotus himself became the informer, and in order to confirm his story he arranged that the king should conceal himself under a couch and hear what Mynnio said. The plot being thus revealed the conspirators were put to death with torture, and many others suffered from suspicion of similar designs. Thus eighty citizens of Pergamon were caught taking counsel together to like purpose, and others in other cities.

The king sent spies everywhere who denounced their own enemies, and in this way about 1,500 men lost their lives. Some of these accusers were captured by Sulla a little later and put to death, others committed suicide, and still others took refuge with Mithridates himself in Pontus.

[49] While these events were taking place in Asia, Mithridates assembled an army of 80,000 men, which Dorylaus led to Archelaus in Greece, who still had 10,000 of his former force remaining. Sulla had taken a position against Archelaus near Orchomenus. When he saw the great number of the enemy's horse coming up, he dug a number of ditches through the plain ten feet wide, and drew up his army to meet Archelaus when the latter advanced.

The Romans fought badly because they were in terror of the enemy's cavalry. Sulla rode hither and thither a long time, encouraging and threatening his men. Failing to bring them up to their duty in this way, he leaped from his horse, seized a standard, ran out between the two armies with his shield-bearers, exclaiming, "If you are ever asked, Romans, where you abandoned Sulla, your general, say that it was at the battle of Orchomenus."

When the officers saw his peril they darted from their own ranks to his aid, and the troops, moved by the sense of shame, followed and drove the enemy back in their turn. This was the beginning of the victory. Sulla again leaped upon his horse and rode among his troops praising and encouraging them until the end of the battle. The enemy lost 15,000 men, about 10,000 of whom were cavalry, and among them Diogenes, the son of Archelaus. The infantry fled to their camps.

[50] Sulla feared lest Archelaus should escape him again, because he had no ships, and take refuge in Chalcis as before. Accordingly he stationed night watchmen at intervals over the whole plain, and the next day he enclosed Archelaus with a ditch at a distance of less than 600 feet from his camp, to prevent his escape. Then he appealed to his army to finish the small remainder of the war, since the enemy were no longer even making show of resistance; and so he led them against the camp of Archelaus.

Like scenes transpired among the enemy, with a change of feeling necessarily, the officers hurrying hither and thither, representing the imminent danger, and upbraiding the men if they should not be able to defend the camp against assailants inferior in numbers. There was a rush and a shout on each side, followed by many valiant deeds on the part of both. The Romans, protected by their shields, were demolishing a certain angle of the camp when the barbarians leaped down from the parapet inside and took their stand around this corner with drawn swords to ward off the invaders.

No one dared to enter until the military tribune, Basillus, first leaped over and killed the man in front of him. Then the whole army dashed after him. The flight and slaughter of the barbarians followed. Some were captured and others driven into the neighboring lake, and, not knowing how to swim, perished while begging for mercy in barbarian speech, not understood by their slayers. Archelaus hid in a marsh, where he found a small boat by which he reached Chalcis. Whatever remained of the Mithridatean forces in separate detachments he summoned thither with all speed.

[51] The next day Sulla decorated the tribune, Basillus, and gave rewards for valor to others. He ravaged Boeotia, which was continually changing from one side to the other, and then moved to Thessaly and went into winter quarters, and waited for Lucullus and his fleet.

As he had no tidings of Lucullus he began to build ships for himself. At this juncture Cornelius Cinna and Gaius Marius, his rivals at home, caused him to be declared an enemy of the Roman people, destroyed his houses in the city and the country, and murdered his friends. This, however, did not weaken him in the least, since he had a zealous and devoted army.

Cinna sent Flaccus, whom he had caused to be chosen as his colleague in the consulship, to Asia with two legions to take charge of that province and of the Mithridatic war in place of Sulla, who was now declared a public enemy. As Flaccus was inexperienced in the art of war, a man of senatorial rank named Fimbria, who was skilled in military affairs, accompanied him as a volunteer.

As they were sailing from Brundusium many of their ships were destroyed by a tempest, and some that had gone in advance were burned by a new army that had been sent forward by Mithridates. Moreover, Flaccus was a rascal, and, being severe in punishments and greedy of gain, was hated by the whole army. Accordingly, a part of them who had been sent ahead into Thessaly went over to Sulla, but Fimbria kept the rest of them from deserting, because they considered him more humane and a better general than Flaccus.

[52] Once while he was at an inn he had a dispute with the quaestor about their lodgings. Flaccus, who acted as arbiter between them, showed little consideration for Fimbria, and the latter was vexed and threatened to go back to Rome. Accordingly Flaccus appointed a successor to perform the duties which he then had charge of. Fimbria watched his opportunity, and when Flaccus had sailed for Chalcedon, Fimbria first took the fasces away from Thermus, whom Flaccus had left as his praetor, as though the army had conferred the command upon himself, and when Flaccus returned soon afterward and was angry with him, Fimbria compelled him to fly.

Flaccus took refuge in a certain house and in the nighttime climbed over the wall and fled first to Chalcedon and afterward to Nicomedia, and closed the gates of the city. Fimbria overcame the place, found him concealed in a well, and killed him, although he was a Roman consul and the commanding officer of this war, and Fimbria himself was only a private citizen who had gone with him as an invited friend.

Fimbria cut off his head and flung it into the sea, and left the remainder of his body unburied. Then he appointed himself commander of the army and fought several successful battles with the son of Mithridates. He drove the king himself into Pergamon. The latter escaped from Pergamon to Pitane. Fimbria followed him and began to enclose the place with a ditch. Then the king fled to Mitylene on a ship.

[53] Fimbria traversed the province of Asia, punished the Cappadocian faction, and devastated the territory of the towns that did not open their gates to him. The inhabitants of Ilium, who were besieged by Fimbria, appealed to Sulla for aid. The latter said that he would come, and told them to say to Fimbria meanwhile that they had entrusted themselves to Sulla.

Fimbria, when he heard this, congratulated them on being already friends of the Roman people, and ordered them to admit him within their walls because he also was a Roman. He spoke in an ironical way also of the relationship existing between Ilium and Rome. When he was admitted he made an indiscriminate slaughter and burned the whole town. Those who had been in communication with Sulla he tortured in various ways. He spared neither the sacred objects nor the persons who had fled to the temple of Athena, but burned them with the temple itself. He demolished the walls, and the next day made a search to see whether anything of the place was left standing.

So much worse was the city now treated by one of its relations than it had been by Agamemnon, that not a house, not a temple, not a statue was left. Some say that the image of Athena, called the Palladium, which was supposed to have fallen from heaven, was then found unbroken, the falling walls having formed an arch over it; and this may be true unless Diomedes and Ulysses carried it away from Ilium during the Trojan War.

Thus was Ilium destroyed by Fimbria at the close of the 173d Olympiad. Some people think that 1050 years had intervened between this calamity and that which it suffered at the hands of Agamemnon.

[54] When Mithridates heard of his defeat at Orchomenus, he reflected on the immense number of men he had sent into Greece from the beginning, and the continual and swift disaster that had overtaken them. Accordingly, he sent word to Archelaus to make peace on the best terms possible. The latter had an interview with Sulla in which he said, "King Mithridates was your father's friend, o Sulla. He became involved in this war through the rapacity of other Roman generals. He will avail himself of your virtuous character to make peace, if you will grant him fair terms."

As Sulla had no ships; as his enemies at Rome had sent him no money, nor anything else, but had declared him an outlaw; as he had already spent the money which he had taken from the Pythian, Olympian, and Epidauric temples, in return for which he had assigned to them half of the territory of Thebes on account of its frequent defections; and because he was in a hurry to lead his army fresh and unimpaired against the hostile faction at home, he assented to the proposal, and said," If injustice was done to Mithridates, or Archelaus, he ought to have sent an embassy to show how he was wronged, instead of which he put himself in the wrong by overrunning such a vast territory belonging to others, killing such a vast number of people, seizing the public and sacred funds of cities, and confiscating the private property of those whom he destroyed. He has been just as perfidious to his own friends as to us, many of whom he has put to death, including the tetrarchs whom he had brought together at a banquet, and their wives and children, although they had committed no hostile act. Toward us he was moved by an inborn enmity rather than by any necessity for war, visiting every possible calamity upon the Italians throughout Asia, torturing and murdering all of our race, together with their wives, children, and servants. Such hatred did this man bear toward Italy, who now pretends friendship for my father! - a friendship which you did not call to mind until I had destroyed 160,000 of your troops.

[55] "Instead of treating for peace we ought to be absolutely implacable toward him, but for your sake I will undertake to obtain his pardon from Rome if he actually repents. But if he is playing the hypocrite again, I advise you, Archelaus, to look out for yourself. Consider how matters stand at present between you and him. Bear in mind how he has treated his other friends and how we treated Eumenes and Massinissa."

While he was yet speaking, Archelaus rejected the offer with indignation, saying that he would never betray one who had put an army under his command. "I hope," he said, "to come to an agreement with you if you offer moderate terms."

After a short interval Sulla said, "If Mithridates will deliver to us the entire fleet in your possession; if he will surrender our generals and ambassadors and all prisoners, deserters, and runaway slaves, and send back to their homes the people of Chios and all others whom he has dragged off to Pontus; if he will remove his garrison from all places except those that he held before the outbreak of hostilities; if he will pay the cost of the war incurred on his account, and remain content with his ancestral dominions - I shall hope to persuade the Romans not to remember the injuries he has done them."

Such were the terms which he offered. Archelaus at once withdrew his garrison from all the places he held and referred the other conditions to the king. In order to make use of his leisure in the meantime, Sulla marched against the Eneti, the Dardani, and the Sinti, tribes on the border of Macedonia, who were continually invading that country, and devastated their territory. In this way he exercised his soldiers and enriched them at the same time.

[56] The ambassadors of Mithridates returned with ratifications of all the terms except those relating to Paphlagonia, and they added that Mithridates could obtain better conditions, "if he should negotiate with your other general, Flaccus." Sulla was indignant that he should be brought into such comparison and said that he would bring Fimbria to punishment, and would go himself to Asia and see whether Mithridates wanted peace or war.

Having spoken thus he marched through Thrace to Cypsella after having sent [Lucius Licinius] Lucullus forward to Abydus, for Lucullus had arrived at last, having run the risk of capture by pirates several times. He had collected a sort of a fleet composed of ships from Cyprus, Phoenicia, Rhodes, and Pamphylia, and had ravaged much of the enemy's coast, and had skirmished with the ships of Mithridates on the way.

Then Sulla advanced from Cypsella and Mithridates from Pergamon, and they met in a conference. Each went with a small force to a plain in sight of the two armies. Mithridates began by discoursing of his own and his father's friendship and alliance with the Romans. Then he accused the Roman ambassadors, committeemen, and generals of doing him injuries by putting Ariobarzanes on the throne of Cappadocia, depriving him of Phrygia, and allowing Nicomedes to wrong him. "And all this," he said, "they did for money, taking it from me and from them by turns; for there is nothing of which most of you are so liable to accusation, o Romans, as the love of lucre. When war had broken out through the acts of your generals all that I did was in self-defense, and was the result of necessity rather than of intention."

[57] When Mithridates had ceased speaking Sulla replied: "Although you called us here," he said, "for a different purpose, namely, to accept our terms of peace, I shall not refuse to speak briefly of those matters. I restored Ariobarzanes to the throne of Cappadocia by decree of the Senate when I was governor in Cilicia, and you obeyed the decree. You ought to have opposed it and given your reasons then, or forever after held your peace.

Manius gave Phrygia to you for a bribe, which was a crime on the part of both of you. By the very fact of your getting it by bribery you confess that you had no right to it. Manius was tried at Rome for other acts that he had done for money and the Senate annulled them all. For this reason they decided, not that Phrygia, which had been given to you wrongfully, should be made tributary to Rome, but should be free. If we who had taken it by war did not think best to govern it, by what right could you hold it?

Nicomedes charges that you sent against him an assassin named Alexander, and then Socrates Chrestus, a rival claimant of the kingdom, and that it was to avenge these wrongs that he invaded your territory. However, if he wronged you, you ought to have sent an embassy to Rome and waited for an answer. But although you took swift vengeance on Nicomedes, why did you attack Ariobarzanes, who had not harmed you? When you drove him out of his kingdom you imposed upon the Romans, who were there, the necessity of putting him back. By preventing them from doing so you brought on the war.

You had meditated war a long time, because you hoped to rule the whole world if you could conquer the Romans, and the reasons you tell of were mere pretexts to cover your real intent. The proof of this is that you, although not yet at war with any nation, sought the alliance of the Thracians, Sarmatians, and Scythians, sought aid from the neighboring kings, built a navy, and enlisted pilots and helmsmen.

[58] "The time you chose convicts you of treachery most of all. When you heard that Italy had revolted from us you seized the occasion when we were occupied to fall upon Ariobarzanes, Nicomedes, Galatia, and Paphlagonia, and finally upon our Asiatic province.

When you had taken them you committed all sorts of outrages on the cities, appointing slaves and debtors to rule over some of them, and freeing slaves and canceling debts in others. In the Greek cities you destroyed 1,600 men on one false accusation. You brought the tetrarchs of Galatia together at a banquet and slew them. You butchered or drowned all residents of Italian blood in one day, including mothers and babes, not sparing even those who had fled to the temples. What cruelty, what impiety, what boundless hate did you exhibit toward us!

After you had confiscated the property of all your victims you crossed over to Europe with great armies, although we had forbidden the invasion of Europe to all the kings of Asia. You overran our province of Macedonia and deprived the Greeks of their freedom. Nor did you begin to repent and tell Archelaus to intercede for you, until I had recovered Macedonia and delivered Greece from your grasp, and destroyed 160,000 of your soldiers, and taken your camps with all their belongings.

I am astonished that you should now seek to justify the acts for which you asked pardon through Archelaus. If you feared me at a distance, do you think that I have come into your neighborhood to have a debate with you? The time for that passed by when you took up arms against us, and we vigorously repelled your assaults and repelled them to the end."

While Sulla was still speaking with vehemence the king yielded to his fears and consented to the terms that had been offered through Archelaus. He delivered up the ships and everything else that had been required, and went back to his paternal kingdom of Pontus as his sole possession. And thus the first war between Mithridates and the Romans came to an end.

[59] Sulla now advanced within 400 meters of Fimbria and ordered him to deliver up his army since he held the command contrary to law. Fimbria replied jestingly that Sulla himself did not now hold a lawful command. Sulla drew a line of circumvallation around Fimbria, and many of the latter's soldiers deserted openly. Fimbria called the rest of them together and urged them to stand by him. When they refused to fight against their fellow citizens he rent his garments and besought them man by man. As they still turned away from him, and still more of them deserted, he went around among the tents of the tribunes, bought some of them with money, called these to the assembly again, and got them to swear that they would stand by him.

Those who had been suborned exclaimed that all ought to be called up by name to take the oath. He summoned those who were under obligations to him for past favors. The first name called was that of Nonius, who had been his close companion. When even he refused to take the oath Fimbria drew his sword and threatened to kill him, and would have done so had he not been alarmed by the outcry of the others and compelled to desist.

Then he hired a slave, with money and the promise of freedom, to go to Sulla as a pretended deserter and assassinate him. As the slave was nearing his task he became frightened, and thus fell under suspicion, was arrested and confessed. Sulla's soldiers who were stationed around Fimbria's camp were filled with anger and contempt for him. They reviled him and nicknamed him Athenio - a man who was once a king of fugitive slaves in Sicily for a few days.

[60] Thereupon Fimbria in despair went to the line of circumvallation and asked for a colloquy with Sulla. The latter sent Ritulius instead. Fimbria was disappointed at the outset that he was not deemed worthy of an interview, although it had been given to the enemy. When he begged pardon for an offense due to his youth, Ritulius promised that Sulla would allow him to go away in safety by sea if he would take ship from the province of Asia, of which Sulla was proconsul.

Fimbria said that he had another and better route. He went to Pergamon, entered into the temple of Aesculapius, and stabbed himself with his sword. As the wound was not mortal he ordered a slave to drive the weapon in. The latter killed his master and then himself. So perished Fimbria, who next to Mithridates had most sorely afflicted Asia.

Sulla gave his body to his freedmen for burial, adding that he would not imitate Cinna and Marius, who had deprived many in Rome of their lives and of burial after death. The army of Fimbria came over to him, and he exchanged pledges with it and joined it with his own. Then he directed Curio to restore Nicomedes to Bithynia and Ariobarzanes to Cappadocia and reported everything to the Senate, ignoring the fact that he had been voted an enemy.

[61] Having settled the affairs of Asia, Sulla bestowed freedom on the inhabitants of Ilium, Chios, Lycia, Rhodes, Magnesia, and some others, either as a reward for their cooperation, or a recompense for what they had bravely suffered on his account, and inscribed them as friends of the Roman people.

Then he distributed his army among the remaining towns and issued a proclamation that the slaves who had been freed by Mithridates should at once return to their masters. As many disobeyed and some of the cities revolted, several massacres ensued, of both free men and slaves, on various pretexts. The walls of many towns were demolished. Many others were plundered and their inhabitants sold into slavery.

The Cappadocian faction, both men and cities, were severely punished, and especially the Ephesians, who, with servile adulation of the king, had treated the Roman offerings in their temples with indignity. After this a proclamation was sent around commanding the principal citizens to come to Ephesus on a certain day to meet Sulla. When they had assembled Sulla addressed them from the tribune as follows:

[62] "We first came to Asia with an army when Antiochus, king of Seleucid Syria, was despoiling you. We drove him out and fixed the boundaries of his dominions beyond the river Halys and Mount Taurus. We did not retain possession of you when we had delivered you from him, but set you free, except that we awarded a few places to Eumenes and the Rhodians, our allies in the war, not as tributaries, but as clients. The proof of this is that when the Lycians complained of the Rhodians we deprived them of their authority. Such was our conduct toward you.

You, on the other hand, when Attalus Philometor had left his kingdom to us in his will, gave aid to Aristonicus Mithridates against us for four years. When he was captured, most of you, under the impulse of necessity and fear, returned to your duty. Notwithstanding all this, after a period of twenty-four years, during which you had attained to great prosperity and embellishment, public and private, you again became puffed up by ease and luxury and took the opportunity, while we were preoccupied in Italy, some of you to call inand others to join him when he came.

Most infamous of all, you obeyed the order he gave to kill all the Italians in your communities, including women and children, in one day. You did not even spare those who fled to the temples dedicated to your own gods. You have received some punishment for this crime from Mithridates himself, who broke faith with you and gave you your fill of rapine and slaughter, redistributed your lands, canceled debts, freed your slaves, appointed tyrants over some of you, and committed robberies everywhere by land and sea; so that you learned immediately by experiment and comparison what kind of defender you chose instead of your former ones. The instigators of these crimes paid some penalty to us also. It is necessary, too, that some penalty should be inflicted upon you in common, as you have been guilty in common, and something corresponding to your deserts.

But may the Romans never even conceive of impious slaughter, indiscriminate confiscation, servile insurrections, or other acts of barbarism. I shall spare even now the Greek race and name so celebrated throughout Asia, and for the sake of that fair repute that is ever dear to the Romans. I shall only impose upon you the taxes of five years, to be paid at once, together with the cost of the war expended by me, and whatever else may be spent in settling the affairs of the province. I will apportion these charges to each of you according to cities, and will fix the time of payment. Upon the disobedient I shall visit punishment as upon enemies."

[63] After he had thus spoken Sulla apportioned the fine to the delegates and sent men to collect the money. The cities, oppressed by poverty, borrowed it at high rates of interest and mortgaged their theaters, their gymnasiums, their walls, their harbors, and every other scrap of public property, being urged on by the soldiers with contumely. Thus was the money collected and brought to Sulla.

The province of Asia had her fill of misery. She was assailed openly by a vast number of pirates, resembling regular fleets rather than robber bands. Mithridates had first fitted them out at the time when he was ravaging all the coasts, thinking he could not long hold these regions. Their numbers had then greatly increased, and they did not confine them-selves to ships alone, but openly attacked harbors, castles, and cities. They captured Iassus, Samos, and Clazomenae, also Samothrace, where Sulla was staying at the time, and it was said that they robbed the temple at that place of ornaments valued at 1,000 talents.

Sulla, willing perhaps that those who had offended him should be maltreated, or because he was in haste to put down the hostile faction in Rome, left them and sailed for Greece, and thence passed on to Italy with the greater part of his army. What he did there I have related in my History of the Civil Wars.