BOOK XCVIII.
A treaty of friendship was made by Machares, son of Mithridates, king of Bosphorus, with Lucius Lucullus. Cneius Lentulus and Caius Gellius, the censors, exercised their office with extreme rigour; expelling sixty-four senators. The lustrum was closed, and the number of citizens amounted to four hundred and fifty thousand. [y. r. 683. b. c. 69.] Lucius Metellus, the prætor, was successful against the pirates in Sicily. The temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, having been consumed by fire, was rebuilt, and dedicated by Quintus Catulus. [y. r. 684. b. c. 68.] Lucius Lucullus defeated Mithridates and Tigranes, with their vast armies, in Armenia, in several battles. The war against the Cretans being committed to the charge of the proconsul, Quintus Metellus, he laid siege to the city of Cydonia. [y. r. 685. b. c. 67.] Lucius Triarius, a lieutenant-general of Lucullus, was defeated in a battle against Mithridates. Lucullus was prevented, by a sedition in his army, from pursuing Mithridates and Tigranes, and completing his victory; the Valerian legions refused to follow Lucullus, alleging that they had served out their time.
BOOK XCIX.
The proconsul, Quintus Metellus, took Gnossus, Lyctus, Cydonia, and many other cities. Lucius Roscius, the plebeian tribune, carried a law, that the fourteen lower seats in the theatre shall be allotted to the Roman knights. Cneius Pompeius, being ordered by a law, which had the sanction of the people, to proceed against the pirates, who had interrupted the commerce of corn, in forty days drove them wholly from the sea; and having finished the war against them in Cilicia, and reduced them to submission, assigned them lands and towns. This book contains, moreover, the history of the successes of Metellus against the Cretans, the letters between Metellus and Pompeius. Metellus complained that Pompeius had robbed him of the glory of his actions, in sending a deputy of his own to receive the submission of the Cretans. Pompeius alleged that he had a right to do so.
BOOK C.
Caius Manilius, the tribune of the people, [y. r. 686. b. c. 66,] to the great dissatisfaction of the nobility, proposed that the Mithridatic war should be committed to the conduct of Pompeius. He made an admirable speech on the occasion. Quintus Metellus, having subdued Crete, imposed laws upon that hitherto free island. Cneius Pompeius, on setting out for the war against Mithridates, renewed the treaty of friendship with Phraates, king of Parthia; he overcame Mithridates in an engagement between their cavalry. This book contains also the history of the war between Phraates, king of Parthia, and Tigranes, king of Armenia; afterwards, between the father and son Tigranes.