Third Mithridatic War — Lucullus and Pompey vs Mithridates
The third war with Mithridates ran for a decade, made Lucullus's reputation and Pompey's fortune, and ended with a suicide that had to be assisted. It began in 73 BC over Bithynia, whose last king had left his kingdom to Rome in his will and whose neighbour objected. Lucullus was given the command and was extremely good at it. He relieved Cyzicus by cutting the besiegers' supply rather than fighting them, drove Mithridates out of Pontus, invaded Armenia, and destroyed a much larger army under Tigranes at Tigranocerta in 69 BC. He also reorganised the finances of the province of Asia, capping interest rates and cancelling the compound interest that the tax farmers had piled onto the indemnity Sulla imposed, which reduced a debt of 120,000 talents to something payable in four years. That is what destroyed him. The equestrian financiers who lost by it worked against him in Rome, his own troops mutinied over a war with no plunder in it, and he was superseded in 66 BC. Pompey arrived with an extraordinary command, finished a campaign that was substantially won, and reorganised the whole east. Mithridates fled to the Crimea, was deposed by his own son, and attempted poison — which failed, since he had taken small doses all his life as a precaution — and had a bodyguard kill him. Lucullus retired to his gardens and his table and became a byword for both. Pompey's settlement of the east is the substantial result and Lucullus's is the instructive one. A commander who protected provincials against Roman financiers was destroyed by them at home, which every subsequent governor understood.
- Year: 73 BCE
- Category: Military
