In his dream the king began to tell his friends how pleased he was to have reached so safe a haven, when suddenly the wind rose, lashing the sea into fury. The king grasped a spar, but his strength failed, and he was beginning to sink, when he awoke, and lo! it was a dream.
At that moment his officers rushed into his tent, to tell him that the Romans were preparing to attack them.
Swiftly the king shook off the effects of his dream, and ordered his troops to defend their camp to the last.
Now, as the Romans approached the enemy, the moon rose behind them and cast their shadows on the ground.
The soldiers of Mithridates saw the black flitting forms and grew bewildered. In the indistinct light they thought the shadows were the real soldiers, and they flung their darts at these imaginary foes.
Then with a great shout the Romans rushed in upon the puzzled enemy, fear was at once added to their confusion, and in sheer panic they turned and fled. But more than ten thousand were killed, and their camp was taken.
Mithridates himself once more escaped. At the head of about eight hundred horse he made a desperate charge through the enemy’s lines, and then in the darkness of the night he was seen no more.
Pompey did not follow the king further. But he stayed in the East to fight, and by his skill he won many new territories for Rome.
He even marched to Palestine, where the city of Jerusalem soon surrendered to the powerful enemy that had surrounded her walls. But the Jews refused to give up their temple, and for two or three months they defended their holy place bravely against every attack.
In December 63 B.C., however, it was taken, and Pompey, who had entered many temples and seen many pagan gods, now entered the temple of the Jews.