Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

372 HISTORY OF PERSIA chap, xxix
The Suicide of Mithridates VI., 63 b.c.— Mithridates,
in whom there must have been a strain of madness such
as showed itself in his kinsman Antiochus Epiphanes, at
this time reached the end of his long career. He was preparing
a fresh army with which to invade Italy, when his
son Pharnaces headed a
rising against him, which was joined
by all classes who had united in opposition to this wild
scheme. The old wolf, finding no hope left, first poisoned
his wives, his daughters, and his concubines, and then
himself drained the deadly cup. Thus dramatically died
Mithridates VI. of Pontus, in 6^ B.C., and with him passed
away the greatest enemy that had ever withstood the might
of Rome in the East. As Plutarch
"
puts it, The whole
army (of Pompey) upon hearing the news fell to feasting,
as if in the person of Mithridates alone there had died
-^
thousands of their enemies."
many
The Results of Pompey s Campaigns.—The campaigns
of Pompey and their results can be concisely summarized.
He had thoroughly subdued and annexed Pontus, which
with neighbouring Bithynia became united to Rome ; he
had made Armenia a vassal state, as also the Cimmerian
Bosphorus ; and the Albanians and Iberians of the valley
of the Kur had been conquered. Parthia had been humiliated
but not subdued, and here, in his dealings with this
Eastern Power, he had shown a lack of wisdom and fore-
sight.
In
princelings
Syria he refused to acknowledge the puppet-
of the house of Seleucus, and subdued the
various disturbing elements, the last resistance being
offered by the Jews. Rome now marched with Parthia,
but the demand of Phraates that the Euphrates should
be the recognized boundary had neither been definitely
acknowledged nor observed. Pompey, moreover, had^
received communications from states such as Elymais
and Media which certainly formed part of the Parthian
Empire. In short, the arrangement come to was intended
to be an advance and not a final settlement, and the
course of events in the next generation proved that this,
indeed, was its character.
^ Plutarch's Lives— Pompey.