The Historians' History of the World 05

Lucullus wished to follow up the victory so as to give the enemy no time to assemble for a fresh resistance. Submission was made to him by many of the subjects of Tigranes, and an embassy of the Parthians appeared with an offering of friendship. Only one more blow was needed to finally drive the Armenian from his throne. But it was some time before the general could appease his discontented, unwilling soldiers and the allied kings made use of the opportunity to reassemble an army of seventy thousand infantry and thirty-five thousand cavalry. This time they followed Mithridates’ advice to avoid a battle. However, when Artaxata (on the Araxes) the second city of the kingdom was threatened, a battle ensued on the river Arsanias in the neighbourhood. The conflict lasted somewhat longer this time and the victory was bought more dearly, the loss of the enemy was somewhat slighter, but the result was the same. No Asiatic army, albeit large and well chosen, could be victorious over a well-commanded Roman army.

[68-67 B.C.]

But Lucullus had not yet accomplished his purpose. His military capacity was indisputable, but he was wanting in the power of attaching the soldiers to himself by that personal charm which was almost a more important gift in those times.

They murmured that the richest towns had been past by, none had been taken by storm, so that they had come in for no plunder; but they maintained that the imperator looked out for himself though he gave them nothing, and it cannot be denied that Lucullus enriched himself. In his cold, severe manner the general ignored their desire for loot, and they hated him not only because he was an aristocrat but because he treated the inhabitants of the cities with consideration, whilst they, as savage soldiery, regarded them as profitable booty. The snow-covered mountains and the endless precipitous roads filled them with aversion; never had they wintered in a friendly Hellenic city, and the officers concurred in these complaints, particularly P. Clodius, the brother-in-law of the general, who actively fostered the feeling against Lucullus in the camp as well as the capital.

The proconsul could not induce his soldiers to help him to take Artaxata, the second city of the Armenian kingdom. Half ceding to their pressure he turned southward to Mesopotamia, whose capital Nisibis surrendered to him. But here the unwilling machine denied him further service. The troops insisted on winter quarters in Nisibis and its environs where they wished to wait for the successor of Lucullus. This was advantageous to the enemy as it delayed the final blow.

However Tigranes gained nothing, as L. Fannius came opportunely to the aid of Lucullus’ soldiers whom Tigranes had surprised. Nevertheless Mithridates strove to benefit by the discontent in the Roman army and regain his kingdom.

He arrived at Pontus and attacked the Romans, who had excited universal hatred in the country, with a small force, and not unsuccessfully for he had learned somewhat in the long war, and in the following year (67) he defeated the deputy Triarius at Zela on the river Iris (southwest of Pontus) when the Romans lost seven thousand killed, amongst them a great number of officers.

Lucullus, hearing the bad news, withdrew to Mesopotamia and returned to Pontus, and Mithridates carried the war from thence to Cappadocia. When Lucullus wished to follow him thither, the Fimbrian soldiers declined to obey him as he was no longer their general and they declared they would only remain under arms with the other legions, until the autumn.

Mithridates profited by these occurrences. Acilius Glabrio, the governor of Bithynia who was to have been replaced by Lucullus, and Q. Marcius Rex, the governor of Cilicia, were inactive in their provinces, and when the ten commissioners of the Roman senate arrived to join with Lucullus in organising the conquered district of Pontus as a province, Mithridates had reconquered the greater part of it. In the meanwhile, the mine laid at Rome against the general of the aristocracy by his active enemies, namely, Pompey and his friends, the embittered members of the equestrian order, the offended officers and the misguided people, was finally sprung and the inevitable Pompey, who reaped everywhere where he had not sown, was appointed commander-in-chief in the East and this time with full powers more comprehensive and extravagant than those conferred in the previous year by the Gabinian law.c

[67-66 B.C.]

Pompey

(From a coin)