BOOK LXXXI.
Lucius Sylla besieged Athens, [y. r. 666. b. c. 86,] held by Archelaus, under Mithridates, and took it, after an obstinate resistance. The city and such of the inhabitants as remained alive, were restored to liberty. Magnesia, the only city in Asia which continued faithful, was defended against Mithridates with great valour. The Thracians invaded Macedon.
BOOK LXXXII.
Sylla defeated Mithridates in Thessaly, killing one hundred thousand men, and taking their camp. The war being renewed, he entirely routed and destroyed the king’s army. Archelaus, with the royal fleet, surrendered to Sylla. Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Cinna’s colleague in the consulship, who was appointed to succeed Sylla in the command of his army, became so odious to his men, on account of his avarice, that he was slain by Caius Fimbria, his lieutenant-general, a man of consummate audacity, who assumed the command. Several cities in Asia were taken by Mithridates, who treated them with extreme cruelty. Macedon was invaded by the Thracians.
BOOK LXXXIII.
[y. r. 667. b. c. 85.] Caius Fimbria having defeated several of Mithridates’ generals in Asia, took the city of Pergamus, and was very near making the king captive. He took and destroyed the city of Ilion, which adhered to Sylla, and recovered a great part of Asia. Sylla overcame the Thracians in several battles. Lucius Cinna and Cneius Papirius Carbo, having declared themselves consuls, made preparations for war against Sylla; Lucius Valerius Flaccus, the chief of the senate, having made a speech among that body, by their assistance, with that of all who desired tranquillity, effected that ambassadors should be sent to Sylla, concerning a treaty of peace. Cinna, attempting to force his men to embark and go against Sylla, was slain by them. [y. r. 668. b. c. 84.] Carbo alone held the consulship. Sylla made peace in Asia with Mithridates, upon conditions that the king should evacuate Asia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia. Fimbria, deserted by his army, which went over to Sylla, put himself to death, by calling on his slave to cut off his head.
BOOK LXXXIV.
Sylla replied to deputies sent by the senate, that he would yield to the authority of the senate, upon condition that those who, being banished by Cinna, had fled to him, should be restored; which proposition appeared reasonable to the senate, but was opposed and rejected by Carbo and his faction, who conceived that they would derive more advantage from a continuance of the war. Carbo, requiring hostages from all the towns and colonies of Italy, to bind them more firmly in union against Sylla, was overruled by the senate. The right of voting was given to the new citizens by a decree of the senate. Quintus Metellus Pius, who had taken part with the chief men of the state, being prepared for war in Africa, was crushed by Caius Fabius, the prætor, [y. r. 660. b. c. 83.] Carbo’s faction and the Marian party procured a decree of the senate, that the armies should every where be disbanded. The sons of freed-men were distributed among the thirty-five tribes. Preparations were made for war against Sylla.