Second Mithridatic War — Inconclusive Clash
A Roman governor started a second war with Mithridates in 83 BC without authority and lost it. The first war had ended in 85 BC with a negotiated peace at Dardanus. Sulla had beaten Mithridates in Greece, needed to get back to Italy to fight his own civil war, and settled for terms that left the king of Pontus on his throne, paying an indemnity and giving up his conquests. Lucius Licinius Murena was left in the province of Asia with two legions, and he had ambitions of his own. He invaded Pontic territory in 83 BC on the pretext that Mithridates was rearming, which he was, and that the treaty had never been ratified in writing, which it had not. Mithridates protested to Rome. A commissioner arrived with instructions to stop, Murena ignored him, invaded again the following year, and was defeated on the river Halys. Sulla, by then dictator, ordered him to desist and confirmed the peace, and Murena went home and was awarded a triumph. The whole episode is small in itself and useful as illustration. It shows how far a Roman promagistrate could go on his own initiative, how weak the senate's control over its own commanders had become, and why provincials found Roman rule unpredictable. It also left Mithridates convinced that no agreement with Rome was worth anything, which is part of why the third war began in 73 BC and ran for more than a decade under Lucullus and then Pompey. Murena's son is better known than his father. He was defended by Cicero in 63 BC on a charge of electoral bribery, in a speech that survives, and the case was heard during the Catilinarian crisis.
- Year: 83 BCE
- Category: Military
