Mithridatic Wars

At issue: Control of Asia Minor

Date: 88-65 b.c.e.

Location: Asia Minor and Greece

Combatants: Pontic forces vs. Romans

Principal commanders:Pontic, Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (c. 132-63 b.c.e.); Roman, Sulla (138-78 b.c.e.), Lucius Licinius Lucullus (fl. first century b.c.e.), Pompey the Great (106-48 b.c.e.)

Principal battles: Athens, Chaeronea, Orchomenus, Cyzicus, Tigranocerta

Result: Roman victory; acquisition of new Roman provinces in Asia Minor

Background

The death of King Attalus III in 133 b.c.e. left the kingdom of Pergamum to the Roman people. This territory, organized as the province of Asia, became a rich source of revenue for Rome. The neighboring regions of Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Pontus remained nominally independent allies of the Roman people but often were subject to Roman intervention. Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, expanded his kingdom from its ancestral region in northern Asia Minor to the Crimea. Capitalizing on provincial resentment of Roman rule and the Social War (91-88 b.c.e.) raging in Italy, Mithridates aimed at overthrowing the Romans and establishing his own empire in the eastern Mediterranean. His first step was the annexation of Cappadocia and Bithynia, states bordering Roman territory.

Action

Rome was the aggressor in the First Mithridatic War (88-85 b.c.e.) as Roman and allied troops moved against Pontic forces in Bithynia and Cappadocia. Mithridates turned back the Romans and pursued them through the province of Asia, where secret arrangements were made for the massacre of some 80,000 resident Italians and Romans (88 b.c.e.). With this action, the people of Asia proclaimed their independence. The revolt against Roman rule spread to Greece, where the Athenians welcomed the Pontic general Archelaus as their liberator. Herod Archelaus quickly secured central Greece for Mithridates. In 87 b.c.e., the Romans launched a counterattack. Sulla arrived from Italy with five legions and besieged and captured Athens (March 1, 86 b.c.e.). Archelaus withdrew to northern Greece, where he met up with reinforcements. After two costly defeats at Chaeronea and Orchomenus (86 b.c.e.), Archelaus began negotiations for peace. Meanwhile, Roman troops commanded by Sulla’s rival Lucius Valerius Flaccus invaded Asia Minor. Soon, Mithridates accepted the terms of peace (August, 85 b.c.e.) and withdrew his forces to Pontus.

A series of Roman raids against the Pontic kingdom followed (the Second Mithridatic War, 83-81 b.c.e.). Advancing north from Cappadocia, Lucius Licinius Murena overran some four hundred villages, before withdrawing and reinstating the status quo of the peace treaty.

The bequest to the Roman people of the kingdom of Bithynia precipitated the Third Mithridatic War (74-65 b.c.e.). Mithridates, allied with the Sertorian rebels in Spain, invaded Bithynia to prevent Rome’s expansion. His army was cut off by the Roman commander Lucius Licinius Lucullus and failed to capture the strategic city of Cyzicus (73 b.c.e.). Lucullus then took the offensive, capturing all of Pontus by 70 b.c.e. Mithridates fled to the court of his son-in-law, Tigranes the Great of Armenia. Lucullus followed, winning a pitched battle against Tigranes and capturing the capital Tigranocerta (69 b.c.e.). Though recognized as the victor over Mithridates, Lucullus was stripped of much of his power by political opponents in Rome. Mithridates rallied his forces and returned to Pontus in 68, only to be driven out by Pompey the Great, who assumed the command of the Roman forces in 66. Tigranes capitulated to the Romans, and the war ended the following year, when Mithridates abandoned Pontus for his Crimean kingdom.

Aftermath

After a series of costly wars, Rome’s most dangerous threat in the east was eliminated. Rome acquired new provinces in Asia Minor, expanding the empire across the eastern Mediterranean.

Milestones in the Mithridatic Wars

Bibliography

Crook, J. A., Andrew Lintott, and Elizabeth Rawson, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History. 2d ed. London: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

McGing, Brian C. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.

Magie, David. Roman Rule in Asia Minor. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950.

Rubinsohn, Zeev W. “Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysos and Rome’s Conquest of the Hellenistic East.” Mediterranean Historical Review 8, no.1 (1993): 5–54.