[273] The Caspian sea or lake was also called the Hyrkanian, from the province of Hyrkania which bordered on the south-east coast. The first notice of this great lake is in Herodotus (i. 203).
[274] The Elymæi were mountaineers who occupied the mountainous region between Susiana and Media. Gordyene was in the most south-eastern part of Armenia. Tigranocerta was in Gordyene. Appianus says that in his time Sophene and Gordyene composed the Less Armenia (Mithridatic War, c. 105). In the territory of Arbela, where the town of Arbil now is, Alexander had defeated Darius, the last king of Persia.
[275] Another Greek woman, as we may infer from the name. The story of the surrender of the fort by Stratonike is told by Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 107) with some additional particulars. Dion Cassius (37. c. 7) names this fort Symphorium.
The narrative of Plutarch omits many circumstances in the campaigns of Pompeius, which Appianus has described (c. 105, 106) a happening between the arrangement with Tigranes and the surrender of the fort by Stratonike. Among these events was the war in Judæa and the capture of Jerusalem. Pompeius entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, into which only the high priest could enter, and that on certain occasions. Jerusalem was taken B.C. 63 in the consulship of Cicero. The events of this campaign are too confused to be reduced into chronological order. Drumann has attempted it (Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 451, &c.)
[276] Plutarch means the fort which he has mentioned in the preceding chapter without there giving it a name; the Symphorium of Dion. It was on the river Lycus, not quite 200 stadia from Cabira (Strabo, 556), and was an impregnable place.
[277] Ὑπομνήματα: probably written in Greek, with which Mithridates was well acquainted. These valuable memoirs were used by Theophanes in his history of the campaigns of Pompeius. Theophanes was a native of Mitylene in Lesbos and accompanied Pompeius in several of his campaigns. He is often mentioned by Cicero (Cicero, Ad Attic., ii. 4, and the notes in the Variorum edition).
[278] The character of Mithridates is only known to us from his enemies. But his own memoirs, if the truth is here stated, prove his cruel and vindictive character. He spared neither his friends nor his own children. Among others he put to death his son Xiphares by Stratonike to revenge himself on the mother for giving up the fort Kænum.
[279] See the Life of Sulla, c. 6. The registration of dreams and their interpretation, that is the events which followed and were supposed to explain them, were usual among the Greeks. There is still extant one of these curious collections by Artemidorus Daldianus in five books, entitled Oneirocritica, or The Interpretation of Dreams. The fifth book of 'Results' contains ninety-five dreams of individuals and the events which happened.
[280] See the Life of Lucullus, c. 18.
[281] Publius Rutilius Rufus was consul B.C. 105. He was exiled in consequence of being unjustly convicted B.C. 92 at the time when the Judices were chosen from the body of the Equites. He was accused of Repetundæ and convicted and exiled. He retired to Smyrna, where he wrote the history of his own times in Greek. All the authorities state that he was an honest man and was unjustly condemned. (Velleius Paterculus, ii. 13; Tacitus, Agricola, c. 1: and the various passages in Orelli, Onomasticon, P. Rutilius Rufus.)