Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "SINOPI Ancient city TURKEY".
A celebrated Cynic philosopher of Sinope. His father, Icesias,
a banker, was convicted of debasing the public coin, and was obliged to leave
the country; or, according to another account, his father and himself were charged
with this offence, and the former was thrown into prison, while the son escaped
and went to Athens. Here he attached himself, as a disciple, to Antisthenes, who
was at the head of the Cynics. Antisthenes at first refused to admit him into
his house and even struck him with a stick. Diogenes calmly bore the rebuke and
said, "Strike me, Antisthenes, but you will never find a stick sufficiently
hard to remove me from your presence, while you speak anything worth hearing."
The philosopher was so much pleased with this reply that he at once admitted him
among his scholars. Diogenes fully adopted the principles and character of his
master. Renouncing every other object of ambition, he determined to distinguish
himself by his contempt of riches and honours and by his invectives against luxury.
He wore a coarse cloak, carried a wallet and a staff, made the porticoes and other
public places his habitation, and depended upon casual contributions for his daily
bread. A friend whom he had desired to procure him a cell not executing his order
so soon as was expected, he took up his abode in a pithos, or large vessel, in
the Metroum. It is probable, however, that this was only a temporary expression
of indignation and contempt, and that he did not make it the settled place of
his residence. This famous "tub" is indeed celebrated by Juvenal; it
is also ridiculed by Lucian and mentioned by Seneca. But no notice is taken of
so singular a circumstance by other ancient writers who have mentioned this philosopher.
It cannot be doubted, however, that Diogenes practised the most hardy self-control
and the most rigid abstinence--exposing himself to the utmost extremes of heat
and cold and living upon the simplest diet, casually supplied by the hand of charity.
In his old age, sailing to Aegina, he was taken by pirates and carried to Crete,
where he was exposed to sale in the public market. When the auctioneer asked him
what he could do, he said, "I can govern men; therefore sell me to one who
wants a master." Xeniades, a wealthy Corinthian, happening at that instant
to pass by, was struck with the singularity of his reply and purchased him. On
their arrival at Corinth, Xeniades gave him his freedom and committed to him the
education of his children and the direction of his domestic concerns. Diogenes
executed this trust with so much judgment and fidelity that Xeniades used to say
that the gods had sent a good genius to his house.
During his residence at Corinth, the interview between him
and Alexander is said to have taken place. Plutarch relates that Alexander, when
at Corinth, receiving the congratulations of all ranks on being appointed to command
the army of the Greeks against the Persians, missed Diogenes among the number,
with whose character he was not unacquainted. Curious to see one who had given
so signal an instance of his haughty independence of spirit, Alexander went in
search of him and found him sitting in his tub in the sun. "I am Alexander
the Great," said the monarch. "And I am Diogenes the Cynic," replied
the philosopher. Alexander then requested that he would inform him what service
he could render him. "Stand from between me and the sun," said the Cynic.
Alexander, struck with the reply, said to his friends, who were ridiculing the
whimsical singularity of the philosopher, "If I were not Alexander, I should
wish to be Diogenes." This story is too good to be omitted, but there are
several circumstances which in some degree diminish its credibility. It supposes
Diogenes to have lived in his tub at Corinth, whereas it is certain that he lived
there in the house of Xeniades, and that, if he had ever dwelt in a tub, he left
it behind him at Athens. Alexander, moreover, was at this time scarcely twenty
years old, and could not call himself Alexander the Great, for he did not receive
this title till his Persian and Indian expedition, after which he never returned
to Greece; yet the whole transaction represents him as elated with the pride of
conquest. Diogenes probably was visited by Alexander, when the latter held the
general assembly of the Greeks at Corinth, and was received by him with rudeness
and incivility, which may have given rise to the whole story. The philosopher
at this time would have been about seventy years of age. Various accounts are
given concerning the manner and time of his death. It seems most probable that
he died at Corinth, of mere decay, in the ninetieth year of his age and in the
114th Olympiad. A column of Parian marble, terminating in the figure of a dog,
was raised over his tomb. His fellow-townsmen of Sinope also erected brazen statues
in memory of the philosopher. Diogenes left behind him no system of philosophy.
After the example of his school, he was more attentive to practical than to theoretical
wisdom.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diogenes, a Cynic of Sinope in Pontus, born about B. C. 412. His father was a
banker named Icesias or Icetas, who was convicted of some swindling transaction,
in consequence of which Diogenes quitted Sinope and went to Athens. Ilis youth
is said to have been spent in dissolute extravagance; but at Athens his attention
was arrested by the character of Antisthenes, who at first drove him away, as
he did all others who offered themselves as his pupils. Diogenes, however, could
not be prevented from attending him even by blows, but told him that he would
find no stick hard enough to keep him away. Antisthenes at last relented, and
his pupil soon plunged into the most frantic excesses of austerity and moroseness,
and into practices not unlike those of the modern Trappists, or Indian gymnosophists.
In summer he used to roll in hot sand, and in winter to embrace statues covered
with snow; he wore coarse clothing, lived on the plainest food, and sometimes
on raw meat (comp. Julian, Orat. vi.), slept in porticoes or in the street, and
finally, according to the common story, took up his residence in a tub belonging
to the Metroum, or temple of the Mother of the Gods. The truth of this latter
tale has, however, been reasonably disputed. The chief direct authorities for
it are Seneca (Ep. 99), Lucian (Quomodo Conscr. Hist. ii.), Diogenes Laertius
(vi. 23), and the incidental allusion to it in Juvenal (xiv. 308, &c.), who says,
Alexander testa vidit in ilia magnum habitatorem, and Dolia nudi non ardent Cynici.
Besides these, Aristophanes (Equit. 789), speaks of the Athenian poor as living,
during the stress of the Peloponnesian war, in cellars, tubs (pithaknais), and
similar dwellings. To these arguments is opposed the fact, that Plutarch, Arrian,
Cicero, and Valerius Maximus, though they speak of Diogenes basking in the sun,
do not allude at all to the tub; but more particularly that Epictetus (ap. Arrian.
iii. 24), in giving a long and careful account of his mode of life, says nothing
about it. The great combatants on this subject in modem times are, against the
tub, Heumann (Act. Philosoph. vol. ii.), and for it, Hase, whose dissertation
de Doliari Habitatione Diogenis Cynici, was published by his rival. (Paecil. vol.
i. lib. iv.) The story of the tub goes on to say that the Athenians voted the
repair of this earthenware habitation when it was broken by a mischievous urchin.
Lucian, in telling this anecdote, appeals to certain spurious epistles, falsely
attributed to Diogenes. In spite of his strange eccentricities, Diogenes appears
to have been much respected at Athens, and to have been privileged to rebuke anything
of which he disapproved with the utmost possible licence of expression. He seems
to have ridiculed and despised all intellectual pursuits which did not directly
and obviously tend to some immediate practical good. He abused literary men for
reading about the evils of Ulysses, and neglecting their own; musicians for stringing
the lyre harmoniously while they left their minds discordant; men of science for
troubling themselves about the moon and stars, while they neglected what lay immediately
before them; orators for learning to say what was right, but not to practise it.
Various sarcastic sayings of the same kind are handed down as his, generally shewing
that unwise contempt for the common opinions and pursuits of men, which is so
unlikely to reform them.
The removal of Diogenes from Athens was the result of a voyage to
Aegina, in the course of which the ship was taken by pirates, and Diogenes carried
to Crete to be sold as a slave. Here when he was asked what business he understood,
he answered " How to command men," and he begged to be sold to some
one who needed a ruler. Such a purchaser was found in the person of Xeniades of
Corinth, over whom he acquired such unbounded influence, that he soon received
from him his freedom, was entrusted with the care of his children, and passed
his old age in his house. During his residence among them his celebrated interview
with Alexander the Great is said to have taken place. The conversation between
them is reported to have begun by the king's saying, " I am Alexander the
Great," to which the philosopher replied, " And I am Diogenes the Cynic."
Alexander then asked whether he could oblige him in any way, and received no answer
except " Yes, you can stand out of the sunshine." Considering, however,
that this must have happened soon after Alexander's accession, and before his
Persian expedition, he could not have called himself the Great, which title was
not conferred on him till he had gained his Eastern victories, after which he
never returned to Greece. These considerations, with others, are sufficient to
banish this anecdote, together with that of the tub, from the domain of history;
and, considering what rich materials so peculiar a person as Diogenes must have
afforded for amusing stories, we need not wonder if a few have come down to us
of somewhat doubtful genuineness. We are told, however, that Alexander admired
Diogenes so much that he said, " If I were not Alexander, I should wish to
be Diogenes." (Plut. Alex. c. 14.) Some say, that after Diogenes became a
resident at Corinth, he still spent every winter at Athens, and he is also accused
of various scandalous offences, but of these there is no proof; and the whole
bearing of tradition about him shews that, though a strange fanatic, he was a
man of great excellence of life, and probably of real kindness, since Xeniades
compared his arrival to the entrance of a good genius into his house.
With regard to the philosophy of Diogenes there is little to say,
as he was utterly without any scientific object whatever. His system, if it deserve
the name, was purely practical, and consisted merely in teaching men to dispense
with the simplest and most necessary wants (Diog. Laert. vi. 70); and his whole
style of teaching was a kind of caricature upon that of Socrates, whom he imitated
in imparting instruction to persons whom he casually met, and with a still more
supreme contempt for time, place, and circumstances. Hence he was sometimes called
" the mad Socrates." He did not commit his opinions to writing, and
therefore those attributed to him cannot be certainly relied on. The most peculiar,
if correctly stated, was, that all minds are air, exactly alike, and composed
of similar particles, but that in the irrational animals and in idiots, they are
hindered from properly developing themselves by the arrangement and various humours
of their bodies. (Plut. Plac. Phil. v. 20.) This resembles the Ionic doctrine,
and has been referred by Brucker Hist. Crit. Phil. ii. 2. 1.21) to Diogenes of
Apollonia. The statement in Suidas, that Diogenes was once called Cleon, is probably
a false reading for Kuon. He died at the age of nearly ninety, B. C. 323, in the
same year that Epicurus came to Athens to circulate opinions the exact opposite
to his. It was also the year of Alexander's death, and as Plutarch tells us (Sympos.
viii. 717), both died on the same day. If so, this was probably the 6th of Thargelion.
(Clinton, F. H. vol. ii.; Ritter, Gesch. der Philosophie, vii. 1, 4.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
400 - 323
Diogenes (c.412-323 BC). Born in Sinope (today's Turkey),
Diogenes studied in Athens
under Antisthenes after forcing himself into his school.
Diogenes was to be what we today call an ascet, eating plainly, wearing
shreaded clothes and sleeping in the streets. Though an eccentric, he was greatly
admired by his time and is sometimes called the founder of the Cynic school instead
of Antisthenes.
When travelling to Aegina
he was captured and sold as a slave by pirates. Xeniades of Corinth
bought him, set him free and had him teach his children.
There are many anectodes about this man, who laughed at aristocrats
and is said to walk around Corinth
with a lighted lamp in daytime, looking for “a human being”. The most
famous one is the one about his meeting with Alexander the Great. When Alexander
asked the cynic, who lived in a barrel, what he could do for him, Diogenes replied
that he could step out of his sunlight, somethimg which greatly impressed the
king.
Tradition holds that Diogenes died on the same day as Alexander the
Great. He was 96 years old, and died in his barrel in Corinth.
Though the philosopher had requested his body be thrown in some ditch, he was
given a magnificent funeral.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Diodorus, (Diodoros), of Sinope, an Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy, is mentioned in an inscription (Bockh, i.), which fixes his date at the archonship of Diotimus (B. C. 354 - 353), when he exhibited two plays, entitled Nekros and Mainomenos, Aristomachus being his actor. Suidas (s. v.) quotes Athenaeus as mentioning his Auletris in the tenth book of the Deipnosophistae, and Epikleros and Paneguristai in the twelfth book. The actual quotations made in our copies of Athenaeus are from the Auletris (x.) and a long passage from the Epikleros (vi., not xii.), but of the Paneguristai there is no mention in Athenaeus. A play under that title is ascribed to Baton or to Plato. There is another fragment from Diodorus in Stobaeus. (Serm. lxxii. 1.) In another passage of Stobaeus (Serm. cxxv. 8) the common reading, Dionusios, should be retained. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i., iii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dionysius, (Dionusios), of Sinope, an Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy. (Athen. xi., xiv.; Schol. Horn. Il. xi. 515.) He appears, from indications in the fragments of his plays, to have been younger than Archestratus, tc have flourished about the same time as Nicostratus, the son of Aristophanes, and to have lived till the establishment of the Macedonian supremacy in Greece. We have the titles and some fragments of his Akontizomenos (Ath. xiv.), which appears to have been translated by Naevius, Thesmophoros (a long passage in Athen. ix. p. 404,e.), Homonumoi (Athen. viii., xiv.), Limos (Schol. Hom. Il. xi, 515; Eustath.), Sozousa or Soteira (Athen. xi.; Stob. Serm. cxxv. 8.) Meursius and Fabricius are wrong in assigning the Taxiarchai to Dionysius. It belongs to Eupolis. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i., iii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diphilus (Diphilos). A poet of the new Attic comedy, a native of Sinope, and contemporary of Menander. He is supposed to have written some one hundred pieces, of which we have the titles and fragments of about fifty. The Casina and Rudens of Plautus are modelled on two plays of Diphilus; and Terence has adopted some scenes from one of them (the Sunapothneiskontes) in his Adelphoe. Diphilus took his subjects both from common life and from mythology. Most of the passages that have been preserved relate to matters of cookery, the longest being one of forty-one lines. Both the judgments passed on him in antiquity and his remaining fragments justify us in recognizing him as one of the most gifted poets of his age.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diphilus, one of the principal Athenian comic poets of the new comedy, and a contemporary
of Menander and Philemon, was a native of Sinope (Strab. xii.). He was a lover
of the courtezan Gnatbaena, and seems sometimes to have attacked her in his comedies,
when under the influence of jealousy (Machon and Lynceus Samius, ap. Athen. xiii.).
He was not, however, perfectly constant (Alciph. Ep. i. 37). He is said to have
exhibited a hundred plays (Anon.), and sometimes to have acted himself (Athen.
xiii.).
Though, in point of time, Diphilus belonged to the new comedy, his
poetry seems to have had more of the character of the middle. This is shewn, among
other indications, by the frequency with which he chooses mythological subjects
for his plays, and by his bringing on the stage the poets Archilochus, Hipponax,
and Sappho (Ath. xi., xiii.). His language is simple and elegant, but it contains
many departures from Attic purity.
The following are the plays of Diphilus, of which we have fragments
or titles: Agnoia (Ath. ix., xv.), which was also ascribed to Calliades: Adelphoi
(Ath. xi.; Poll. x. 72; Stob. Flor. cviii. 9): Aleiptria (Etym. Mag.), which was
also the title of a play of Antiphanes, by others ascribed to Alexis: Amastris
(Suid. s. v. Athenaias) : Hairesiteiches, of which there was a second edition
by Callimachus under the title of Eunouchos or Stratiotes (Ath. xi., xv.; Antiatticista):
the principal character in this play seems to have been such as Pyrgopolinices
in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, which was perhaps taken from the play of Diphilus:
Anaguros (Schol. Ven. ad Il. i. 123; corrupted in Etym. Magn., and Eustath.):
Anasozomenoi (Ath. xi.; Antiatt.): Aplestos (Ath. ix.): Apobates, (Harpocrat;
Antiatt.): Apolipousa, also ascribed to Sosippus, whose name is otherwise unknown
(Ath. iv.; Poll. x. 12): Balaneion (Ath. x.; Antiatt.); Boiotios (Ath. x.): Gamos
(Ath. vi.; and perhaps in Diog. Laert. ii. 120, Diphilou should be substituted
for Sophilou): Danaides (Erot. gloss. Harpoc.): Diamartanousa (Ath. iii.): Enkalountes
(Antiatt.): Ekate (Ath. xiv.; and perhaps Poll. x. 72): Helenephorountes (Ath.
vi.). Elleborizomenoi (Antiatt.): Emporos (Ath. vi., vii.; Etym. Mag.; Harpocrat.):
Enagizontes (Ath. iv.) or Enagismata (Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 960; Photius and Suidas,
s. v. Psolos): Epidikazomenos (Poll. x. 137): Epitrope, or more correctly Hepitropeus
(Antiatt.): Epikleros (Poll. x. 99): Zographos (Ath. vi., vii.; Stob. Flor. cv.
5): Herakles (Ath. x.): Heros (Ath. ix.): Thesauros (Stob. Flor. xii. 12): Theseus
(Ath. vi., x.): Kitharoidos (Poll. x. 38, 62): Kleroumenoi, of which the Casina
of Plautus is a translation (Prolog. 31): Leuiniai (Ath. vi., comp. iv.); Mainomenos
(Poll x. 18): Mnemation (Ath. iii.): Paiderastai (Ath. x.): Pallake (Etym. Mag.):
Parasitos (Ath. vi., x.): Peliades (Ath. iv.): Pithraustes, probably for Tithraustes
(Ath. xiii.): Plinthophoros (Antiatt.; and perhaps Eustath. ad Horn.): Polupragmon
(Ath. vi.; Phot. s. v. rhagdaios): Purra (Ammon. Diff. Verb.): Sappho (Ath. xi.,
xiii.): Sikelikos (Poll. ix. 81), which, however, belongs perhaps to Philemon:
Schedia (Etym. Mag., corrected by Gaisford): Sunapothneskontes, which was translated
by Plautus under the title of Commorientes, and partly followed by Terence in
his Adelphi (Terent. Prol. Adelph. 10): Suntrophroi (Harpoc.): Sunoris, of which
there were two editions (Ath. vi., xiv.; Phot. s. v. Phimoi Harpocr.): Telesias
(Ath. xiv.): Phrear (Stob. Flor. cxvi. 32): Philadelphos or Philadelphoi (Antiatt.):
Chrusochoos (Phot. s. v. opaia). There are other fragments, which cannot be assigned
to their proper places. The Rudens of Plautus is a translation of a play of Diphilus
(Prol. 32), but the title of the Greek play is not known.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Baton, of Sinope, a Greek rhetorician and historian, who lived subsequently to Aratus of Sicyon. (Plut. Agis, 15.) The following works of his are mentioned by the ancient writers: - 1. Commentaries on Persian affairs. (Persika, Strab. xii.) 2. On the tyrants of Ephesus. (Athen. vii.; comp. Suidas, s.v. Puthagoras Ephesios.) 3. On Thessaly and Haemonia. (Athen, xiv.) 4. On the tyranny of Hieronymus. (Athen. vi.) 5. On the poet Ion. (Athen. x.) 6. A history of Attica. (Schol. ad Pind. Isth. iv. 104, where Biickh reads Baton instead of Batos.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracleides. Of Sinope: under this name we possess a Greek epigram in the Greek
Anthology (vii. 329). It is not improbable that two other epigrams (vii. 281,
465) are likewise his productions, though his native place is not mentioned there.
He seems to have been a poet of some celebrity, as Diogenes Laertius (v. 94) mentions
him as epigrammaton poietes liguros. Diogenes Laertius (l. c.) mentions fourteen
persons of this name.
Mithridates VI., king of Pontus (120-63), surnamed Eupator,
also Dionysus, but more commonly "the Great," was the son and successor
of the preceding, and was only eleven years old at the period of his accession.
We have very imperfect information concerning the earlier years of his reign,
and much of what has been transmitted wears a suspicious aspect. It is said that
immediately on ascending the throne he found himself assailed by the designs of
his guardians, but that he succeeded in eluding all their machinations, partly
by displaying a courage and address in warlike exercises beyond his years, partly
by the use of antidotes against poison, to which he began thus early to accustom
himself. In order to evade the designs formed against his life, he also devoted
much of his time to hunting, and took refuge in the remotest and most unfrequented
regions, under pretence of pursuing the pleasures of the chase. Whatever truth
there may be in these accounts, it is certain that when he attained to manhood
he was not only endowed with consummate skill in all martial exercises, and possessed
of a bodily frame inured to all hardships as well as a spirit to brave every danger,
but his naturally vigorous intellect had been improved by careful culture. As
a boy, he had been brought up at Sinope, where he had probably received the elements
of a Greek education; and so powerful was his memory that he is said to have learned
not less than twenty-two languages, and to have been able in the days of his greatest
power to transact business with the deputies of every tribe subject to his rule
in their own peculiar dialect.
The first steps of his career were marked by blood. He is said
to have murdered his mother, to whom a share in the royal authority had been left
by Mithridates Euergetes; and this was followed by the assassination of his brother.
In the early part of his reign he subdued the barbarian tribes between the Euxine
and the confines of Armenia, including the whole of Colchis and the province called
Lesser Armenia, and even extended his conquests beyond the Caucasus. He assisted
Parisades, king of the Bosporus, against the Sarmatians and Roxolani, and rendered
the whole of the Tauric Chersonesus tributary to his kingdom. After the death
of Parisades the kingdom of Bosporus itself was incorporated with his dominions.
He was now in possession of such great power that he began to deem himself equal
to a contest with Rome itself. Many causes of dissension had already arisen between
them, but Mithridates had hitherto submitted to the mandates of Rome. Even after
expelling Ariobarzanes from Cappadocia and Nicomedes from Bithynia in 90, he offered
no resistance to the Romans when they restored these monarchs to their kingdom.
But when Nicomedes, urged by the Roman legates, invaded the territories of Mithridates,
the latter made preparations for immediate hostilities. His success was rapid
and striking. In 88 he drove Ariobarzanes out of Cappadocia and Nicomedes out
of Bithynia, defeated the Roman generals who had supported the latter, made himself
master of Phrygia and Galatia, and at last of the Roman province of Asia. During
the winter he issued the sanguinary order to all the cities of Asia to put to
death, on the same day, all the Roman and Italian citizens who were to be found
within their walls. So hateful had the Romans rendered themselves, that these
commands were obeyed with alacrity by almost all the cities of Asia, and eighty
thousand Romans and Italians are said to have perished in this fearful massacre.
Meantime Sulla had received the command of the war against Mithridates, and crossed
over into Greece in 87. Mithridates, however, had resolved not to await the Romans
in Asia, but had already sent his general Archelaus into Greece at the head of
a powerful army. The war proved unfavourable to the king. Archelaus was twice
defeated by Sulla with immense loss near Chaeronea, and Orchomenus in Boeotia
(86). About the same time Mithridates was himself defeated in Asia by Fimbria.
These disasters led him to sue for peace, which Sulla was willing to grant, because
he was anxious to return to Italy, which was entirely in the hands of his enemies.
Mithridates consented to abandon all his conquests in Asia, to pay a sum of two
thousand talents, and to surrender to the Romans a fleet of seventy ships. Thus
terminated the First Mithridatic War (84). Shortly afterwards Murena, who had
been left in command of Asia by Sulla , invaded the dominions of Mithridates (83)
under the pretext that the king had not yet evacuated the whole of Cappadocia.
In the following year (82) Murena renewed his hostile incursions, but was defeated
by Mithridates on the banks of the river Halys. But shortly afterwards Murena
received peremptory orders from Sulla to desist from hostilities, in consequence
of which peace was again restored. This is usually called the Second Mithridatic
War. Mithridates, however, was well aware that the peace between him and Rome
was in fact a mere suspension of hostilities, and that the Republic would never
suffer the massacre of her citizens in Asia to remain ultimately unpunished. No
formal treaty was ever concluded between Mithridates and the Roman Senate; and
the king had in vain endeavoured to obtain the ratification of the terms agreed
on between him and Sulla.
The death of Nicomedes III., king of Bithynia, at the beginning
of 74, brought matters to a crisis. That monarch left his dominions by will to
the Roman people; and Bithynia was accordingly declared a Roman province; but
Mithridates asserted that the late king had left a legitimate son by his wife
Nysa, whose pretensions he immediately prepared to support by his arms. He had
employed the last few years in forming a powerful army, armed and disciplined
in the Roman manner; and he now took the field with one hundred and twenty thousand
foot soldiers, sixteen thousand horse, and a vast number of barbarian auxiliaries.
This was the commencement of the Third Mithridatic War. The two Roman consuls,
Lucullus and Cotta , were unable to oppose his first irruption. He traversed Bithynia
without encountering any resistance, and when at length Cotta ventured to give
him battle under the walls of Chalcedon, the consul was totally defeated both
by sea and land. Mithridates then proceeded to lay siege to Cyzicus both by sea
and land. Lucullus marched to the relief of the city, cut off the king's supplies,
and eventually compelled him to raise the siege early in 73. On his retreat Mithridates
suffered great loss, and eventually took refuge in Pontus. Hither Lucullus followed
him in the next year. The new army which the king had collected was entirely defeated
by the Roman general; and Mithridates, despairing of opposing the further progress
of Lucullus, took refuge in the dominions of his son-in-law Tigranes, the king
of Armenia. Tigranes at first showed no disposition to attempt the restoration
of his father-in-law; but being offended at the haughty conduct of Appius Claudius,
whom Lucullus had sent to demand the surrender of Mithridates, the Armenian king
not only refused this request, but determined to prepare for war with the Romans.
Accordingly, in 69, Lucullus marched into Armenia, defeated Tigranes and Mithridates
near Tigranocerta, and in the next year (68) again defeated the allied monarchs
near Artaxata. The Roman general then turned aside into Mesopotamia, and laid
siege to Nisibis. Here the Roman soldiers broke out into open mutiny, and demanded
to be led home; and Lucullus was obliged to raise the siege, and return to Asia
Minor. Meanwhile Mithridates had taken advantage of the absence of Lucullus to
invade Pontus at the head of a large army. He defeated Fabius and Triarius, to
whom the defence of Pontus had been committed; and when Lucullus returned to Pontus,
he was unable to resume the offensive in consequence of the mutinous spirit of
his own soldiers. Mithridates was thus able, before the close of 67, to regain
possession of the greater part of his hereditary dominions. In the following year
(66) the conduct of the war was intrusted to Pompey. Hostilities were resumed
with greater vigour than ever. Mithridates was obliged to retire before the Romans;
he was surprised and defeated by Pompey; and as Tigranes now refused to admit
him into his own dominions, he resolved to plunge with his small army into the
heart of Colchis, and thence make his way to the Palus Maeotis and the Cimmerian
Bosporus. Arduous as this enterprise appeared, it was successfully accomplished;
and he at length established himself without opposition at Panticapaeum, the capital
of Bosporus. He had now nothing to fear from the pursuit of Pompey, who turned
his arms first against Tigranes, and afterwards against Syria. Unable to obtain
peace from Pompey, unless he would come in person to make his submission, Mithridates
conceived the daring project of marching round the northern and western coasts
of the Euxine, through the wild tribes of the Sarmatians and Getae, and, having
gathered round his standard all these barbarous nations, to penetrate into Italy
itself. But meanwhile disaffection had made rapid progress among his followers.
His son Pharnaces at length openly rebelled against him. He was joined both by
the whole army and the citizens of Panticapaeum, who unanimously proclaimed him
king; and Mithridates, who had taken refuge in a strong tower, saw that no choice
remained to him but death or captivity. Hereupon he took poison, which he constantly
carried with him; but his constitution had been so long inured to antidotes that
it did not produce the desired effect, and he was compelled to call in the assistance
of one of his Gaulish mercenaries to dispatch him with his sword. He died in 63.
His body was sent by Pharnaces to Pompey at Amisus, as a token of his submission;
but the conqueror caused it to be interred with regal honours in the sepulchre
of his forefathers at Sinope. He was sixty-eight or sixty-nine years old at the
time of his death, and had reigned fifty-seven years, of which twenty-five had
been occupied, with only a few brief intervals, in one continued struggle against
the Roman power. The estimation in which he was held by his adversaries is the
strongest testimony to his great abilities: Cicero calls him the greatest of all
kings after Alexander, and in another passage says that he was a more formidable
opponent than any other monarch whom the Roman arms had yet encountered.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Mithridates VI Eupator : Perseus Encyclopedia
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