XXXII. Lucullus[254] now retired, and Pompeius after distributing his whole naval force over the sea between Phœnicia and the Bosporus to keep guard, himself marched against Mithridates, who had thirty thousand foot soldiers of the phalanx and two thousand horsemen, but did not venture to fight. First of all, Mithridates left a strong mountain which was difficult to assault, whereon he happened to be encamped, because he supposed there was no water there; but Pompeius, after occupying the same mountain, conjectured from the nature of the vegetation upon it and the hollows formed by the slopes of the ground that the place contained springs, and he ordered wells to be dug in all parts: and immediately the whole army had abundance of water, so that it was a matter of surprise that Mithridates had all along been ignorant of this. Pompeius then surrounded Mithridates with his troops and hemmed him in with his lines. After being blockaded forty-five days Mithridates succeeded in stealing away with the strongest part of his army, after having first massacred those who were unfit for service and were sick. Next, Pompeius overtook him on the Euphrates and pitched his camp near him; and fearing lest Mithridates should frustrate his design by crossing the river, he led his army against him in battle order at midnight, at which very hour it is said that Mithridates had a vision in his sleep which forewarned him of what was going to happen. He dreamed that he was sailing on the Pontic sea with a fair wind, and was already in sight of the Bosporus, and congratulating his fellow voyagers, as a man naturally would do in his joy at a manifest and sure deliverance; but all at once he saw himself abandoned by everybody and drifting about upon a small piece of wreck. While he was suffering under this anguish and these visions, his friends came to his bed-side and roused him with the news that Pompeius was attacking them. The enemy accordingly must of necessity fight in defence of their camp, and the generals leading their forces out put them in order of battle. Pompeius, seeing the preparations to oppose him, hesitated about running any risk in the dark, and thought that he ought only to surround the enemy, to prevent their escape, and attack them when it was daylight, inasmuch as their numbers were greater. But the oldest centurions by their entreaties and exhortations urged him on; for it was not quite dark, but the moon which was descending in the horizon still allowed them to see objects clear enough. And it was this which most damaged the king's troops. For the Romans advanced with the moon on their backs, and as the light was much depressed towards the horizon, the shadows were projected a long way in front of the soldiers and fell upon the enemy, by reason of which they could not accurately estimate the distance between them and the Romans, but supposing that they were already at close quarters they threw their javelins without effect and struck nobody. The Romans perceiving this rushed upon the enemy with shouts, and as they did not venture to stand their ground, but were terror-struck and took to flight, the Romans slaughtered them to the number of much more than ten thousand, and took their camp. Mithridates at the commencement with eight hundred horsemen cut his way through the Romans, but the rest were soon dispersed and he was left alone with three persons, one of whom was his concubine Hypsikratia,[255] who on all occasions showed the spirit of a man and desperate courage; and accordingly the king used to call her Hypsikrates. On this occasion, armed like a Persian and mounted on horseback, she was neither exhausted by the long journeys nor ever wearied of attending to the King's person and his horse, till they came to a place called Inora,[256] which was filled with the King's property and valuables. Here Mithridates took costly garments and distributed among those who had flocked to him after the battle. He also gave to each of his friends a deadly poison to carry about with them, that none of them might fall into the hands of the Romans against his will. Thence he set out towards Armenia to Tigranes, but Tigranes forbade him to come and set a price of a hundred talents upon him, on which Mithridates passed by the sources of the Euphrates and continued his flight through Colchis.[257] XXXIII. Pompeius invaded Armenia at the invitation of young Tigranes,[258] who had now revolted from his father, and he met Pompeius near the river Araxes,[259] which rises in the same parts with the Euphrates, but turns to the east and enters the Caspian Sea. Pompeius and Tigranes received the submission of the cities as they advanced: but King Tigranes, who had been lately crushed by Lucullus, and heard that Pompeius was of a mild and gentle disposition, admitted a Roman garrison into his palace,[260] and taking with him his friends and kinsmen advanced to surrender himself. As he approached the camp on horseback, two lictors of Pompeius came up to him and ordered him to dismount from his horse and to enter on foot: they told him that no man on horseback had ever been seen in a Roman camp. Tigranes obeyed their orders, and taking off his sword presented it to them; and finally, when Pompeius came towards him, pulling off his cittaris,[261] he hastened to lay it before his feet, and what was most humiliating of all, to throw himself down at his knees. But Pompeius prevented this by laying hold of his right hand and drawing the king towards him; he also seated Tigranes by his side, and his son on the other side, and said that Tigranes ought so far to blame Lucullus only, who had taken from him Syria, Phœnicia, Cilicia, Galatia, and Sophene,[262] but that what he had kept up to that time, he should still have, if he paid as a compensation to the Romans for his wrongful deeds six thousand talents, and his son should be King of Sophene. Tigranes assented to these terms, and being overjoyed by the Romans saluting him as king, he promised to give every soldier half a mina of silver,[263] to a centurion ten minæ, and to a tribune a talent. But his son took this ill, and on being invited to supper he said that he was not in want of Pompeius to show such honour as this, for he would find another Roman.[264] In consequence of this he was put in chains and kept for the triumph. No long time after Phraates the Parthian sent to demand the young man, as his son-in-law, and to propose that the Euphrates should be the boundary of the two powers. Pompeius replied that Tigranes belonged to his father rather than to his father-in-law, and that as to a boundary he should determine that on the principles of justice.
XXXIV. Leaving Afranius in care of Armenia, Pompeius advanced through the nations that dwell about the Caucasus,[265] as of necessity he must do, in pursuit of Mithridates. The greatest of these nations are Albani and Iberians, of whom the Iberians extend to the Moschic mountains and the Pontus, and the Albani extend to the east and the Caspian Sea. The Albani at first allowed a free passage to Pompeius at his request; but as winter overtook the Romans in the country and they were occupied with the festival of the Saturnalia,[266] mustering to the number of forty thousand they attacked the Romans, after crossing the Cyrnus[267] river, which rising in the Iberian mountains and receiving the Araxes which comes down from Armenia, empties itself by twelve mouths into the Caspian. Others say that the Araxes does not join this stream, but that it has a separate outlet, though near to the other, into the same sea. Pompeius, though he could have opposed the enemy while they were crossing the river, let them cross quietly, and then he attacked and put them to flight and destroyed a great number. As the King begged for pardon, and sent ambassadors, Pompeius excused him for the wrong that he had done, and making a treaty with him, advanced against the Iberians, who were as numerous as the Albani and more warlike, and had a strong wish to please Mithridates and to repel Pompeius. For the Iberians had never submitted either to the Medes or the Persians,[268] and they had escaped the dominion of the Macedonians also, inasmuch as Alexander soon quitted Hyrkania. However Pompeius routed the Iberians also in a great battle, in which nine thousand of them were killed and above ten thousand taken prisoners, and he entered Colchis; and on the Phasis[269] he was met by Servilius with the vessels with which he was guarding the Pontus.
XXXV. The pursuit of Mithridates was attended with great difficulties, as he had plunged among the nations around the Bosporus and the Mæotis; and intelligence reached Pompeius that the Albani had again revolted. Moved by passion and desire of revenge, Pompeius turned against the Albani. He again crossed the Cyrnus with difficulty and danger, for the river had been fenced off with stakes to a great extent by the barbarians; and as the passage of the river was succeeded by a long waterless and difficult march, he had ten thousand skins filled with water and then advanced against the enemy, whom he found posted on the river Abas[270] to the number of sixty thousand foot and twelve thousand cavalry, but poorly armed, and for the most part only with the skins of beasts. They were commanded by a brother of the king, named Kosis, who, when the two armies had come to close quarters, rushed against Pompeius and struck him with a javelin on the fold[271] of his breastplate, but Pompeius with his javelin in his hand pierced him through and killed him. In this battle it is said that Amazons[272] also fought on the side of the barbarians, and that they had come down hither from the mountains about the river Thermodon. For after the battle, when the Romans were stripping the barbarians, they found Amazonian shields and boots, but no body of a woman was seen. The Amazons inhabit those parts of the Caucasus which extend towards the Hyrcanian sea, but they do not border on the Albani, for Gelæ and Leges dwell between; and they cohabit with these people every year for two months, meeting them on the river Thermodon, after which they depart and live by themselves.