138-78 B.C. page 15
The chief cause of
this meeting was Fimbria; for he, having assassinated Flaccus, the
consul of the contrary faction, and worsted the Mithridatic
commanders, was advancing against Mithridates himself, who, fearing
this, chose rather to seek the friendship of Sylla.
And so met at Dardanus in the Troad, on one side Mithridates,
attended with two hundred ships, and land-forces consisting of
twenty thousand men at arms, six thousand horse, and a large train
of scythed chariots; on the other, Sylla with only four cohorts and
two hundred horse. As Mithridates drew near and put out his hand,
Sylla demanded whether he was willing or no to end the war on the
terms Archelaus had agreed to, but seeing the king made no answer,
"How is this?" he continued, "ought not the petitioner to speak first,
and the conqueror to listen in silence?"
And when Mithridates,
entering upon his plea, began to shift off the war, partly on the
gods, and partly to blame the Romans themselves, he took him up,
saying that he had heard, indeed, long since from others, and now he
knew it himself for truth, that Mithridates was a powerful speaker,
who in defence of the most foul and unjust proceedings, had not wanted
for specious pretences.
Then charging him with and inveighing bitterly
against the outrages he had committed, he asked again whether he was
willing or no to ratify the treaty of Archelaus?
Mithridates answering
in the affirmative, Sylla came forward, embraced and kissed him. Not
long after he introduced Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes, the two kings,
and made them friends. Mithridates, when he had handed over to Sylla
seventy ships and five hundred archers, set sail for Pontus.
Sylla, perceiving the soldiers to be dissatisfied with the peace (as
it seemed indeed a monstrous thing that they should see the king who
was their bitterest enemy, and who had caused one hundred and fifty
thousand Romans to be massacred in one day in Asia, now sailing off
with the riches and spoils of Asia, which he had pillaged, and put
under contribution for the space of four years), in his defence to
them alleged, that he could not have made head against Fimbria and
Mithridates, had they both withstood him in conjunction.
Thence he set
out and went in search of Fimbria, who lay with the army about
Thyatira, and pitching his camp not far off, proceeded to fortify it
with a trench. The soldiers of Fimbria came out in their single coats,
and saluting his men, lent ready assistance to the work; which
change Fimbria beholding, and apprehending Sylla as irreconcilable,
laid violent hands on himself in the camp.
Sylla imposed on Asia in general a tax of twenty thousand talents,
and despoiled individually each family by the licentious behaviour and
long residence of the soldiery in private quarters. For he ordained
that every host should allow his guest four tetradrachms each day, and
moreover entertain him, and as many friends as he should invite,
with a supper; that a centurion should receive fifty drachms a day,
together with one suit of clothes to wear within doors, and another
when he went abroad.
Having set out from Ephesus with the whole navy, he came the third
day to anchor in the Piraeus. Here he was initiated in the
mysteries, and seized for his use the library of Apellicon the
Teian, in which were most of the works of Theophrastus and
Aristotle, then not in general circulation.
When the whole was
afterwards conveyed to Rome, there, it is said, the greater part of
the collection passed through the hands of Tyrannion the grammarian,
and that Andronicus the Rhodian, having through his means the
command of numerous copies, made the treatises public, and drew up the
catalogues that are now current. The elder Peripatetics appear
themselves, indeed, to have been accomplished and learned men, but
of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus they had no large or
exact knowledge, because Theophrastus bequeathing his books to the
heir of Neleus of Scepsis, they came into careless and illiterate
hands.
During Sylla's stay about Athens, his feet were attacked by a
heavy benumbing pain, which Strabo calls the first inarticulate sounds
of the gout. Taking, therefore, a voyage to Aedepsus, he made use of
the hot waters there, allowing himself at the same time to forget
all anxieties, and passing away his time with actors.
As he was
walking along the seashore, certain fishermen brought him some
magnificent fish. Being much delighted with the gift, and
understanding, on inquiry, that they were men of Halaeae, "What," said
he, "are there any men of Halaeae surviving?"
For after his victory at
Orchomenus, in the heat of a pursuit, he had destroyed three cities of
Boeotia, Anthedon, Larymna, and Halaeae. The men not knowing what to
say for fear, Sylla, with a smile, bade them cheer up and return in
peace, as they had brought with them no insignificant intercessors.
The Halaeans say that this first gave them courage to re-unite and
return to their city.