[B.C. 68 (a.u. 686)]
[-4-] Besides these transactions Lucullus this year subdued many parts of Armenia. In the year of Quintus Marcius (Note by the author.—By this I mean that although he was not the only consul appointed, he was the only one that held office. Lucius Metellus, elected with him, died in the early part of the year, and the man chosen in his stead resigned before entering upon office, wherefore no one else was appointed.),—in this year, then, when summer was half way through (in the spring it was impossible to invade hostile territory by reason of the cold), Lucullus entered upon a campaign and devastated some land purposing to draw the barbarians, while defending it, imperceptibly into battle. As he could not rouse them for all that, he attacked. [-5-]In this engagement the opposing cavalry gave the Roman cavalry hard work, but none of the foe approached the infantry; indeed, whenever the foot-soldiers of Lucullus assisted the horse, the adversaries of the Romans would turn to flight. Far from suffering harm, however, they shot backward at those pursuing them, killing some instantly and wounding great numbers. Such wounds were dangerous and hard to heal. This was because they used double arrow-points and furthermore poisoned them, so that the missiles, whether they stuck fast anywhere in the body or were drawn out, would quickly destroy it, since the second iron point, having no attachment, would be left within.
[-6-] Lucullus, since many were being wounded, some were dying, and some were being maimed, and provisions at the same time were failing them, retired from that place and marched against Nisibis. This city is built in the region called Mesopotamia (Author's note.—Mesopotamia is the name given to all the country between the Tigris and Euphrates.) and now belongs to us, being considered a colony of ours. But at that time Tigranes, who had seized it from the Parthians, had deposited in it his treasuries and most of his other possessions, and had stationed his brother as guard over it. Lucullus reached this city in summer time, and although he directed his attacks upon it in no half-hearted fashion, he effected nothing. For the walls being of brick, double and of great thickness, with a deep moat intervening, could be neither shaken down nor dug through and consequently Tigranes was not lending them assistance.[-7-] When winter set in, and the barbarians were behaving rather carelessly, inasmuch as they had the upper hand and were all but expecting to drive out the Romans, Lucullus waited for a night without a moon, when there was a violent storm of thunder and rain, so that the foe, not being able to see ahead or hear a sound, left the outer city (all but a few of them) and the intervening moat. He then assailed the wall at many points, ascending it without difficulty from the mounds, and easily slew the guards, not many in number, who had been left behind upon it. In this way he filled up a part of the moat—the barbarians had broken down the bridges in advance—and got across, since in the downpour neither archery nor fire could harm him. Immediately he captured nearly everything, for the inner circle was not very strong by reason of the confidence felt in the outer works beyond it. Among those that fled to the acropolis, whom he subsequently caused to capitulate, was the brother of Tigranes. He also obtained considerable money and passed the winter there.
[-8-] Nisibis, then, he overpowered as described, but many localities of Armenia and the other countries around Pontus he lost. Tigranes had not aided the town in question through the idea that it could not be captured, but had hurried to the aforementioned places to see if he could acquire them before Lucullus, while the latter was occupied near the other city. Despatching Mithridates to his native land, Tigranes himself entered his own district of Armenia. There he was opposed by Lucius Fannius, whom he cut off and besieged, however, until Lucullus ascertaining it sent assistance. [-9-]Meanwhile Mithridates had invaded the other Armenia and surrounding neighborhood, where he fell upon and destroyed many of the Romans to whom he appeared unexpectedly as they were wandering about the country. Others he annihilated in battle, and thereby won back speedily most of the positions. For the men of that land were well disposed toward him because of kinship and because of his being hereditary monarch: they hated the Romans because the latter were foreigners and because they had been ill treated by those set over them. Consequently they sided with Mithridates and afterward conquered Marcus Fabius, leader of the Romans in that place. The Thracians, who had formerly been mercenaries under Mithridates, but were then with Fabius, and the slaves present in the Roman camp gave them vigorous assistance. Thracians sent ahead by Fabius to reconnoitre brought back to him no reliable report, and later, when Mithridates suddenly fell upon him as he was proceeding along in a rather unguarded fashion, they joined in the attack on the Romans. At the same instant the slaves (to whom the barbarians had proclaimed freedom) took a hand in the work. They would have crushed their adversaries, had not Mithridates while occupied with the enemy—although over seventy years old he was in the battle—been hit with a stone. This caused the barbarians to fear that he might die; and while they halted battle on this account, Fabius and the others were able to escape to safety.[-10-] The Roman general was subsequently shut up and besieged in Cabira, but was rescued by Triarius. The latter was in that vicinity on his way from Asia to Lucullus. Having learned what had happened he collected as large a force as was possible with the resources at hand and in his advance so alarmed Mithridates (probably by the size of the Roman detachment) as to make him withdraw before Triarius came in view. At this the Romans took courage, and pursuing the enemy as far as Comana, whither he had retired, won a victory over him. Mithridates was in camp on the opposite side of the river from the point where the Romans approached, and was anxious to join battle while they were worn out from the march. Accordingly he himself met them first, and directed that at the crisis of the battle others should cross from another direction, by a bridge, to take part in the attack. But whereas he fought an equal conflict a long time he was deprived of reinforcements by the confusion on the bridge across which many were pushing at one time, crowded all, together.
[-11-] Thereafter they both retreated to their own fortifications and rested, for it was now winter. Comana belongs to the present territory of Cappadocia and was reported to have preserved right through to that time the Tauric statue of Artemis and the race of Agamemnon. As to how these reached them or how remained there I can find no certain account, since there are various stories. But what I understand accurately I will state. There are two cities in Cappadocia not far apart and of the same name which contend for the same honors. Their myths and the relics they exhibit are alike, and both treasure a sword, which is supposedly the very one connected with the story of Iphigenia.
[B.C. 67 (a.u. 687)]
[-12-] To resume our narrative. The following year, in the consulship of Manius Acilius and Gaius Piso, Mithridates encamped against Triarius near Gaziura, trying to challenge and provoke him to battle; for incidentally he himself practiced watching the Romans and trained his army to do so. His hope was to engage and vanquish Triarius before Lucullus came up and thus get back the rest of the province. As he could not arouse him, he sent some men to Dadasa, a garrison where the Romans' baggage was deposited, in order that his opponent by defending it might be drawn into conflict. And so it was. Triarius for a time fearing the numbers of Mithridates and expecting Lucullus, whom he had sent for,[4] remained quiet. But when news came of the siege of Dadasa, and the soldiers in fear for the place got disturbed and kept threatening that if no one would lead them out they would go to the rescue at their own bidding, he reluctantly left his position. As he was now moving forward the barbarians fell upon him, surrounded and overwhelmed by their numbers those near at hand, and encompassed with cavalry and killed those who, not knowing that the river had been directed into the plain, had fled thither.[-13-] They would have destroyed them utterly, had not one of the Romans, pretending to come from the allies of Mithridates—no few of whom, as I have said, were along with the expedition on an equal footing with the Romans,—approached the leader, as if wishing to make some communication, and wounded him. To be sure, the fellow was immediately seized and put to death, but the barbarians were so disheartened in view of the occurrence that many of the Romans escaped.
When Mithridates had had his wound cured, he suspected that there were some others, too, of the enemy in the camp. So he held a review of the soldiers as if with a different purpose, and gave the order that they should retire singly to their tents with speed. Then he despatched the Romans, who were thus left alone. [-14-] At this juncture the arrival of Lucullus gave the idea to some that he would conquer Mithridates easily, and soon recover all that had been let slip: however, he effected nothing. For his antagonist, entrenched on the high ground near Talaura, would not come out against him, and the other Mithridates from Media, son-in-law of Tigranes, fell upon the Romans while scattered, and killed many of them. Likewise the approach of Tigranes himself was announced.
Then there was mutiny in the army; for the Valerians,[5] who had been exempted from military service and afterward had started on a campaign again, had been restless even at Nisibis on account of the victory and ensuing idleness, and also because they had had provisions in abundance and the bulk of the management, Lucullus being absent on many errands. But it was chiefly because a certain Publius Clodius (whom some called Claudius) under the influence of an innate love of revolution solidified the seditious element among them, though his sister was united in wedlock to Lucullus. They were especially wrought up at that time, moreover, through hearing that Acilius the consul, who had been sent out to relieve Lucullus for reasons mentioned, was drawing near. They held him in slight repute, regarding him as a mere private citizen. [-15-]Lucullus was in a dilemma both for these reasons and because Marcius[6] (consul the year before Acilius), who was en route to Cilicia, the province he was destined to govern, had refused a request of his for aid. He hesitated to depart through a barren country and feared to stand his ground: hence he set out against Tigranes, to see if he could repulse the latter while off his guard and tired from the march, and thus put a stop, to a certain extent, to the mutiny of the soldiers. He attained neither object. The army accompanied him to a certain spot from which it was possible to turn aside into Cappadocia, and all with one consent without a word turned off in that direction. The Valerians, indeed, learning that they had been exempted from the campaign by the authorities at home, withdrew altogether.
[-16-] Let no one wonder that Lucullus, who had proved himself of all men most versed in warfare, and was the first Roman to cross the Taurus with an army and for hostile operations, who had vanquished two powerful kings and would have captured them if he had chosen to end the war quickly, was unable to rule his fellow-soldiers, and that they were always revolting and finally left him in the lurch. He required a great deal of them, was difficult of access, strict in his demands for labor, and inexorable in his punishments: he did not understand how to win over a man by argument, or to attach him to himself by kindliness, or to make a comrade of him by sharing honors or wealth,—all of which means are necessary, especially in a large body, and most of all in a body of soldiers. Hence the soldiers, as long as they prospered and got booty that was a fair return for their dangers, obeyed him: but when they encountered trouble and fell into fear instead of hopes, they no longer heeded him at all. The proof of this is that Pompey took these same men (he enrolled the Valerians again) and kept them without the slightest show of revolt. So much does man differ from man.