First war of the Romans against Mithridates the Great,
king of Pontus, who had overrun Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece.
Sulla defeats his armies, and forces him to withdraw his forces from
Europe.
Sulla returns to Rome to carry on the civil war against the
son and partisans of Marius. He makes himself dictator.
74 - 64 BC
The last Mithridatic wars.
Lucullus, and after him Pompeius, command against the great King of
Pontus, who is busy designing to raise
the warlike tribes of the Danube against Rome, and to invade Italy
from the north-east.
Great Asiatic conquests of the Romans.
Besides the ancient province of Pergamus, the maritime countries of
Bithynia, and nearly all Paphlagonia and Pontus, are formed into a
Roman province, under the name of Bithynia; while on the southern
coast Cilicia and Pamphylia form another, under the name of Cilicia;
Phoenicia and Syria compose a third, under the name of Syria.
On the other hand, Great Armenia is left
to Tigranes; Cappodocia to
Ariobarzanes; the Bosphorus to Pharnaces; Judaea to Hyrcanus; and
some other small states are also given to petty princes, all of whom
remain dependent on Rome.
After waging three
Mithradatic Wars against Rome, Mithradates had to flee to the
Crimea, his last stronghold.
There at Panticapaeum, which is
today's Kerch in the Ukraine, one of his slaves assassinated him.
The year? 63 B.C.
