year before, at the price of great presents, and by giving one of his sons as a hostage for his observing it better than he had done the former.

Mithridates, in the mean time, had passed the winter at Dioscurias, in the north eastern part of the Euxine sea. Early in the spring, he marched to the Cimmerian Bosphorus, through several nations of the Scythians, some of whom suffered him to pass voluntarily, and others were obliged to it by force. The kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosphorus is now called Crim Tartary, and was at that time a province of the empire of Mithridates. He had given it as an appendage to one of his sons named Machares. But that young prince had been so vigorously handled by the Romans, while they besieged Sinope, and their fleet was in possession of the Euxine sea, which lay between that city and his kingdom, that he had been obliged to make a peace with them, and had inviolably observed it till then. He well knew that his father was extremely displeased with such conduct, and therefore very much apprehended his presence. In order to a reconciliation, he sent ambassadors to him upon his route, who represented to him, that he had been reduced to act in that manner, contrary to his inclination, by the necessity of his affairs. But finding that his father would not hearken to his reasons, he endeavoured to save himself by sea, and was taken by vessels sent expressly by Mithridates to cruise in his way. He chose rather to die, than fall into his father's hands.

Pompey, having terminated the war in the north, and seeing it impossible to follow Mithridates in the remote country into which he had retired, led back his army to the south, and on his march subjected Darius, king of the Medes, and Antiochus, king of Comagena. He went on to Syria, and made himself master of the whole empire. Scaurus reduced Colosyria and Damascus, and Gibinius all the rest of the country, as far as the Tigris; they were his lieutenant generals. Antiochus Asiaticus, son of Antiochus Eusebes, heir of the house of the Seleucides, who, by permission of Lucullus, had reigned four years in that part of the country, of which he had taken possession when Tigranes abandoned it, came to solicit him to re-establish him upon the throne of his ancestors. But Pompey refused to give him audience, and deprived him of all his dominions, which he made a Roman province.* Thus, while Armenia was left in possession of Tigranes, who had done the Romans great injury during the course of a long war, Antiochus was dethroned, who had never committed the least hostility, and by no means deserved such treatment. The reason given for it was, that the Romans had conquered Syria under Tigranes; that it was not just that they should lose the fruit of their victory; that Antiochus was a prince who had neither courage nor capacity necessary for the defence of the country; and that to put it into his hands, would be to expose it to the perpetual ravages and incursions of the Jews, which Pompey took care not to do. In consequence of this way of reasoning, Antiochus lost his crown, and was reduced to the necessity of passing his life as a private person. In him ended the empire of the Seleucides, after a duration of almost two hundred and fifty years.

During these expeditions of the Romans in Asia, great revolutions happened in Egypt. The Alexandrians, weary of their king Alexander, took up arms, and after having expelled him, called in Ptolemy Auletes to supply his place. That history will be treated at large in the ensuing Book.

Pompey afterwards went to Damascus, where he regulated several affairs relating to Egypt and Judea. During his residence there, twelve crowned heads went thither to make their court to him, and were all in the city at the same time.‡ A very interesting scene between the love of a father and the duty of a son was presented at this time; a very extraordinary occurrence in those days, when the most horrid murders and parricides frequently opened the way to thrones. Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, voluntarily resigned the crown in favour of his son, and put the diadem upon his head in the presence of Pompey. The most sincere tears flowed in abundance from the eyes of the truly afflicted son, for what others would have highly rejoiced in. It was the sole occasion in which Appian. in Syr. p. 133. Justin. 1. xl. c. 2. †A. M. 3939. Ant. J. C. 65

Plut. in Pomp. p. 638, 639.

378

he thought disobedience allowable; and he would have persisted in refusing the sceptre, if Pompey's orders had not interfered, and obliged him at length to submit to paternal authority.* This is the second example Cappadocia has instanced of so generous a dispute. We have spoken in its place of the like contest between the two Ariarathes.†

As Mithridates was in possession of several small places in Pontus and Cappadocia, Pompey judged it necessary to return thither, in order to reduce them. He therefore made himself master of almost all of them upon his arrival, and afterwards wintered at Aspis, a city of Pontus.

Stratonice, one of the wives of Mithridates, surrendered a castle of the Bosphorus, with the treasures concealed in it, which she had in her keeping, to Pompey, demanding only for recompense, that if her son Xiphares should fall into his hands, he should be restored to her. Pompey accepted only such of those presents as would serve for the ornaments of temples. When Mithridates knew what Stratonice had done, to revenge her readiness in surrendering that fortress, which he considered as a treason, he killed Xiphares in his mother's sight, who beheld that sad spectacle from the other side of the strait.

Caina, or the new city, was the strongest place in Pontus, and therefore Mithridates kept the greatest part of his treasures, and whatever he had of greatest value, in that place, which he conceived impregnable. Pompey took it, and with it all that Mithridates had left in it. Among other things were found secret memoirs, written by himself, which gave a clear idea of his character. In one part he had noted down the persons whom he had poisoned, among whom were his own son Ariarathes, and Alcæus of Sardis; the latter because he had carried the prize in the chariot race against him. What fantastical records were these? Was he afraid that the public and posterity should not be informed of his monstrous crimes, and his motives for committing them?

His memoirs of physic were also found there, which Pompey caused to be translated into Latin by Lenæus, a good grammarian, one of his freedmen; and they were afterwards made public in that language; for among the other extraordinary qualities of Mithridates, he was very skilful in medicines. It was he who invented the excellent antidote which still bears his name, and from which physicians have experienced such effects, that they continue to use it successfully to this day.‡

Pompey, during his stay at Aspis, made such regulations in the affairs of the country, as the state of them would admit. As soon as the spring returned, he marched back into Syria for the same purpose. He did not think it advisable to pursue Mithridates into the kingdom of Bosphorus, whither he was returned. To do that, he must have marched round the Euxine sea with an army, and passed through many countries, either inhabited by barbarous nations, or entirely desert; a very dangerous enterprise, in which he would have run great risk of perishing; so that all Pompey could do, was to post the Roman fleet in such a manner as to intercept any convoys that might be sent to Mithridates. He expected by that means to be able to reduce him to the last extremity; and said, on setting out, that he left Mithridates more formidable enemies than the Romans, which were hunger and necessity.§

What carried him with so much ardour into Syria, was his excessive and vainglorious ambition to push his conquests as far as the Red Sea. In Spain, and before that, in Africa, he had carried the Roman arms as far as the western ocean on both sides of the straits of the Mediterranean. In the war against the Albanians, he had extended his conquests to the Caspian Sea, and believed there was nothing wanting to his glory, but to carry them as far as the Red Sea. Upon his arrival in Syria, he declared Antioch and Seleucia, upon the Orontes, free cities, and continued his march toward Damascus; from whence he designed to have proceeded against the Arabians, and afterwards to have conquered all

Nec ilium finem tam egregium certamen habuisset, nisi patriæ voluntati auctoritas Pompeii adfuisset. Val. Max. Val. Max. 1. v. c. 7. Plin. l. xxv. c. 20. § A. M. 3940. Ant. J. C. 64. Joseph. Antiq. I. xiv. 5, 6. Plut. in Pomp. p. 639-641. Dion. Cass 1. xxvii. p 34-36. App. p. 246-251

the countries to the Red Sea; but an accident happened, which obliged him to suspend all his projects, and to return into Pontus.

Some time before, an embassy came to him from Mithridates, king of Pontus, who demanded peace. He proposed, that he should be suffered to retain his hereditary dominions, as Tigranes had been, upon condition of paying a tribute to the Romans, and resigning all other provinces. Pompey replied, that then he should also come in person, as Tigranes had done. Mithridates would not consent to such meanness, but proposed sending his children and some of his principal friends. Pompey would not agree to that. The negotiation broke up, and Mithridates applied himself to making preparations for war with as much vigour as ever. Pompey, who received advice of this activity, judged it necessary to be upon the spot, in order to have an eye to every thing. For that purpose he went to pass some time at Amisus, the ancient capital of the country. "There, through the just punishment of the gods," says Plutarch," his ambition made him commit faults, which drew upon him the blame of all the world. He had publicly charged and reproached Lucullus, that, during the war, he had disposed of provinces, given rewards, decreed honours, and acted in all things as victors are not accustomed to act till a war be finally terminated, and now fell into the same inconsistency himself; for he disposed of governments, and divided the dominions of Mithridates into provinces, as if the war had been at an end. But Mithridates still lived, and every thing was to be apprehended from a prince, inexhaustible in resources, whom the greatest defeats could not disconcert, and whom losses themselves seemed to inspire with new courage, and to supply with new forces. At that very time, when he was believed to be entirely ruined, he actually meditated a terrible invasion into the very heart of the Roman empire with the troops he had lately raised."

Pompey, in the distribution of rewards, gave Armenia Minor to Dejotarus, prince of Galatia, who had always continued firmly attached to the Roman interests during this war; to which he added the title of king. It was this Dejotarus, who, by always persisting, out of gratitude, in his adherence to Pompey, incurred the resentment of Cæsar, and had occasion for the eloquence of Cicero to defend him.

He made Archelaus also high-priest of the moon, who was the supreme goddess of the Comanians, and gave him the sovereignty of the place, which contained at least six thousand persons, all devoted to the worship of that deity. I have already observed, that this Archelaus was the son of him who had commanded in chief the troops sent by Mithridates into Greece, in his first war with the Romans, and who, being disgraced by that prince, had, with his son, taken refuge among them. They had always, from that time, continued their firm adherents, and had been of great use to them in the wars of Asia. The father being dead, the high-priesthood of Comana was given to his son, in recompense for the services of both.

During Pompey's stay in Pontus, Aretas, king of Arabia Petræa, took advantage of his absence to make incursions into Syria, which very much distressed the inhabitants. Pompey returned thither. Upon his way he came to the place where lay the dead bodies of the Romans killed in the defeat of Triarius. He caused them to be interred with great solemnity, which gained him the hearts of his soldiers. From thence he continued his march toward Syria, with the view of executing the projects he had formed for the war of Arabia; but important advices interrupted those designs.

Though Mithridates had lost all hopes of peace, after Pompey had rejected the overtures he had caused to be made to him, and though he saw many of his subjects abandon his party, far from losing courage, he had formed the design of crossing Pannonia, and passing the Alps, to attack the Romans in Italy itself, as Hannibal had done before him: a project more bold than prudent, with which his inveterate hatred and blind despair had inspired him. A great number of neighbouring Scythians had entered themselves into his service, and considerably augmented his army. He had sent deputies into Gaul to solicit that people to join him, when he should approach the Alps. As great passions are always

credulous, and men easily flatter themselves in what they ardently desire, be was in hopes that the flame of the revolt among the slaves in Italy and Sicily, perhaps ill extinguished, might suddenly rekindle upon his presence; that the pirates would soon repossess themselves of the empire of the sea, and involve the Romans in new difficulties; and that the provinces, oppressed by the avarice and cruelty of the magistrates and generals, would be fond of throwing off, by his aid, the yoke under which they had so long groaned. Such were the thoughts that he had revolved in his mind.

But as, to execute this project, it was necessary to march five hundred leagues, and traverse the countries now called Little Tartary, Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania, Hungary, Stiria, Carinthia, Tirol, and Lombardy, and pass three great rivers, the Borysthenes, Danube, and Po; the idea alone of so rude and dangerous a march threw his army into such a terror, that, to prevent the execution of his design, they conspired against him, and chose Pharnaces his son, king, who had been active in exciting the soldiers to this revolt. Mithridates then seeing himself abandoned by all the world, and that even his son would not suffer him to escape where he could, retired to his apartment, and after having given poison to such of his wives and daughters as were with him at that time, he took the same himself; but when he perceived that it had not its effect upon him, he had recourse to his sword. The wound he gave himself not sufficing, he was obliged to desire a Gaulish soldier to put an end to his life. Dion says he was killed by his own son.

Mithridates had reigned sixty years, and lived seventy-two. His greatest fear was to fall into the hands of the Romans, and to be led in triumph. To prevent that misfortune, he always carried poison about him, in order to escape in that way, if other means should fail. The apprehension he was in, lest his son should deliver him up to Pompey, occasioned his taking the fatal resolution he executed so suddenly. It was generally said, the reason the poison did not kill him, was his having taken antidotes to such a degree, that his constitution was proof against it. But this is believed an error; and that it is impossible any remedy should be a universal antidote against all the different species of poison.*

Pompey was at Jericho in Palestine, whither the differences between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, of which we have spoken elsewhere, had carried him, when he received the first news of the death of Mithridates. It was brought him by expresses despatched on purpose from Pontus with letters from his lieutenants. Those expresses arriving with their lances crowned with laurels, which was customary only when they brought advice of some victory, or news of great importance and advantage, the army was very eager and solicitous to know what it was. As they had only begun to form their camp, and had not erected the tribunal from which the general harangued the troops, without staying to raise one of turf, as was usual, because that would take up too much time, they made one of the packs of their carriage horses, upon which Pompey mounted without ceremony. He acquainted them with the death of Mithridates, and the manner of his killing himself; that his son Pharnaces submitted himself and dominions to the Romans, and thereby terminated that tedious war, which had endured so long. This gave both the army and general great cause to rejoice. Such was the end of Mithridates; a prince, says a historian, of whom it was difficult either to speak or be silent: full of activity in war, of distinguished courage; and sometimes very great by fortune, and always of invincible resolution; truly a general in his prudence and counsel, and a soldier in action and danger; a second Hannibal in his hatred of the Romans.†

Cicero says of Mithridates, that, after Alexander, he was the greatest of kings: "Ille rex post Alexandrum maximus." It is certain, that the Romans never had such a king in arms against them. Nor can we deny that he had his great

* A. M. 3941. Ant. J. C. 63.

↑ Vir neque silendus neque dicendus sine cura: bello acerrimus, virtute eximius; aliquando fortuna, semper animo, maximus: consiliis dux, miles manu; odio in Romanos Annibal.-Vel. Paterc. 1. 2. c. 19. Academ. Quæst. 1. iv. n. 3.

qualities; a vast extent of mind, that aspired at every thing; a superiority of genius, capable of the greatest undertakings; a constancy of soul, which the severest misfortunes could not depress; an industry and bravery, inexhaustible in resources, and which after the greatest losses, brought him again unexpectedly on the stage, more powerful and formidable than ever. I cannot, however, believe that he was a consummate general; that idea does not seem to result from his actions. He obtained great advantages at first, but against generals without either merit or experience. When Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey opposed him, it does not appear he acquired any great honour, either by his address in posting himself to advantage, by his presence of mind in unexpected emergency, or intrepidity in the heat of action. But should we admit him to have all the qualities of a great captain, he could not but be considered with horror, when we reflect upon the innumerable murders and parricides of his reign, and that inhuman cruelty, which regarded neither mother, wives, children, nor friends, and which sacrificed every thing to his insatiable ambition. Pompey having arrived in Syria, went directly to Damascus, with design to set out from thence to begin at length the war with Arabia. When Aretas, the king of that country, saw him upon the point of entering his dominions, he sent an embassy to make his submissions.*

The troubles of Judea employed Pompey some time. He returned afterwards into Syria, from whence he set out for Pontus. Upon his arrival at Amisus, he found the body of Mithridates there, which Pharnaces his son had sent to him; no doubt to convince Pompey by his own eyes of the death of an enemy who had occasioned him so many difficulties and fatigues. He added great presents, in order to incline him in his favour. Pompey accepted the presents; but for the body of Mithridates, looking upon their enmity to be extinguished in death, he paid it all the honours due to the remains of a king, sent it to the city of Sinope to be interred there with the kings of Pontus his ancestors, who had long been buried in that place, and ordered the sums that were necessary for the solemnity of a royal funeral.

In this last journey he took possession of all the places in the hands of those to whom Mithridates had confided them. He found immense riches in some of them, especially at Telaurus, where part of the most valuable effects and jewels of Mithridates were kept: his principal arsenal was also in the same place. Among those rich things were two thousand cups of onyx, set and adorned with gold, with so prodigious a quantity of all kinds of plate, fine moveables, and furniture of war for man and horse, that the quæstor, or treasurer of the ariny, occupied thirty days in taking an inventory of them.

Pompey granted Pharnaces the kingdom of Bosphorus as a reward for his parricide, declared him the friend and ally of the Roman people, and marched into the province of Asia, in order to winter at Ephesus. He gave each of his soldiers fifteen hundred drachmas, and to the officers according to their several posts. The total sum to which his liberalities amounted, all raised out of the spoils of the enemy, was sixteen thousand talents, besides which, he had twenty thousand more, to put into the treasury at Rome upon the day of his entry.

His triumph continued two days, and was celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. Pompey caused three hundred and twenty-four captives of the highest distinction to march before his chariot: among whom were Aristobulus, king of Judea, with his son Antigonus; Olthaces, king of Colchis; Tigranes, the son of Tigranes, king of Armenia; the sister, five sons, and two daughters of Mithridates. For want of the person of that king, his throne, sceptre, and gold bust, of eight cubits, or twelve feet, in height, were carried in triumph.†

A. M. 3941. Ant. J. C. 63. Joseph, Antiq. 1. xiv. 4. 8. et de Bell. Jud. 1. 5. Plut. in Pomp. p. 641. Appian. p. 250. Dion. Cass. 1. xxxvi. p. 35 et 36. † A. M. 3943. Ant. J. C. 61.