[120] Pharnaces besieged the Phanagoreans and the towns neighboring to the Bosphorus until the former were compelled by hunger to come out and fight, when he overcame them in battle; yet he did them no other harm, but made friends with them, took hostages, and withdrew.

Not long afterward he took Sinope and had a mind to take Amisus also, for which reason he made war against Calvinus, the Roman commander, at the time when Pompey and Caesar were contending against each other, until Asander, an enemy of his own, drew him away from Asia, while the Romans were still preoccupied. Afterward he fought with Caesar himself (when the latter had overthrown Pompey and returned from Egypt), near Mount Scotius, where his father had defeated the Romans under Triarius. He was beaten and fled to Sinope with 1,000 cavalry. Caesar was too busy to follow him, but sent Domitius against him. He surrendered Sinope to Domitius, who agreed to let him go away with his cavalry. He killed his horses, though his men were extremely dissatisfied at this, then took ship and fled to the Bosphorus. Here he collected a force of Scythians and Sarmatians and captured Theodosia and Panticapaeum. His enemy, Asander, attacked him again, and his men were defeated for want of horses, and because they were not accustomed to fighting on foot. Pharnaces alone fought valiantly until he died of his wounds, being then fifty years of age and having been king of Bosphorus fifteen years.

[121] Thus Pharnaces was cut off from his kingdom and Caesar bestowed it upon Mithridates of Pergamon, who had rendered him very important help in Egypt. But the people of Bosphorus now had rulers of their own and a praetor was sent by the Senate yearly to govern Pontus and Bithynia.

Although Caesar was offended with the other rulers who held their possessions as gifts from Pompey, since they had aided Pompey against him, nevertheless he confirmed their titles, except the priesthood of Comana which he took from Archelaus and gave to Lycomedes. Not long after, all these countries, and those which Gaius Caesar or Mark Antony had given to others, were made Roman provinces by Augustus Caesar, after he had taken Egypt, as the Romans needed only the slightest pretext in each case.

Thus, since their dominion had been advanced in consequence of the Mithridatic war, from Spain and the Pillars of Hercules to the Euxine sea, and the sands which border Egypt, and the river Euphrates, it was fitting that this victory should be called the great one, and that Pompey, who commanded the army, should be styled the Great. As they held Africa also as far as Cyrene (for Apion, the king of that country, a bastard of the house of the Lagids left Cyrene itself to the Romans in his will), Egypt alone was lacking to their grasp of the whole Mediterranean.