74-63 BC - 3rd Mithridatic War with Rome (nov 12, 74 BC – nov 12, 63 BC)

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The Third Mithridatic War (74–63 BCE). The Roman forces were mainly led by Lucius Licinius Lucullus (75–66 BCE) and then by Pompey (66–63 BCE). Several states were drawn into the war through alliances on both Roman and Pontic sides, like the Kingdom of Armenia on Mithridates's side. The war started when the King of Bithynia, an allied client state of Rome, died in 74 BCE and granted his kingdom to Rome in his will, Mithridates launched an invasion as this would mean Rome only gained more influence in Asia Minor.[24] Mithridates launched the invasion around the time that Quintus Sertorius, an old supporter of Gaius Marius's Populist faction who still opposed the senate, was in the middle of a major revolt against Rome in Hispania.[25]

The Senate responded to Mithridates's invasion by sending the consuls Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Aurelius Cotta, Lucullus to Cilicia, and Cotta to Bithynia.[26] Lucullus's force would invade Pontus by land while Cotta's force would deal with the Pontic Navy. Cotta's forces engaged Mithridates's forces at Chalcedon, where Cotta was positioned with his navy. The Roman defenders sallied out of their defenses to fight the Pontic force. However, the Pontic army outnumbered the Roman one, forcing them to withdraw into the city, with at least 3,000 soldiers killed.[27] After this, Mithridates launched a raid on the harbor, destroying four ships and capturing the other 60, several thousand more Roman soldiers died in the fighting before Mithridates left Chalcedon.[28] Cotta's force was reduced to a fraction of what it once was, giving Mithridates impunity to take the nearby cities of Nicaea, Lampsacus, Nicomedia, and Apameia.

The city of Cyzicus resisted Mithridates's advance, forcing him to besiege it in 73 BCE. The city held out until Lucullus's arrival with reinforcements that counter-sieged the Pontic army. Mithridates sent a detachment away with the sick and wounded but they were ambushed by the Romans at the Battle of Rhyndacus.[29] Mithridates broke out in the winter of that year, marching towards Lampsacus; Lucullus pursued them, further depleting the Pontic army.

A Pontic navy led by Marcus Marius, a supporter of Sertorius and advisor to Mithridates, set sail into the Aegean Sea. Lucullus would fight the navy at an island near Lemnos, where it was camped, destroying or capturing 32 ships and taking Marius prisoner.[30] After dealing with both the army and navy, Lucullus and Cotta planned out an invasion of Pontus to end Mithridates's threat, however before they could, Mithridates seized the important city of Heraclea Pontica.[31] Cotta was tasked with retaking the city while Lucullus would march through the Galatian highlands into Pontus. Cotta began the siege of Heraclea Pontic in 73 BCE; it took two years until the city fell to the Romans in 71 BCE.[32]

In 72 BCE, Lucullus marched through Galatia into the Pontic Heartland without fighting the native Galatians who let the Roman force pass without engaging them.[33] Lucullus directed his army to raid the fertile Pontic heartlands, forcing Mithridates to assemble an army of 40,000 near Cabira to fight Lucullus.[34] Lucullus occupied an old fort overlooking Cabira, Mithridates attacked the Roman position, starting the Battle of Cabira. Mithridates's initial attack faltered, allowing the Romans to counterattack. The Pontic army broke and retreated before the Roman position. Mithridates fled eastward into Armenia to his son-in-law and ally, King Tigranes II.

After Mithridates fled Pontus, Lucullus used the opportunity to secure the kingdom, dispatching forces to occupy it. Lucullus directed the siege of Amisus, which was holding out against the Romans, before taking the city. After taking Amisus, Lucullus besieged Sinope, the main port city of Pontus, taking it after fierce resistance.[35] Lucullus stayed in Anatolia while Cotta returned to Rome in 70 BCE.

In 69 BCE, Tigranes brought Armenia into conflict with Rome after refusing to hand over Mithridates, his father-in-law, to the Romans; Lucullus invaded Armenia the following spring. Lucullus marched on the Armenian capital at Tigranocerta, where he engaged and destroyed a larger Armenian force in the subsequent Battle of Tigranocerta.[36] In the summer of 68 BCE, Lucullus marched on Artaxata and defeated another Armenian force at the Battle of Artaxata.[37] He then besieged the city of Nisibis, the main fort and treasury of Northern Mesopotamia. The city fell to Lucullus by the winter of 68 BCE.[38]

During the spring of 67 BCE, while Lucullus was still at Nisibis, Mithridates returned to Pontus and fought the Roman forces that were still in the region.[39] Legate Gaius Valerius Triarius, who was bringing troops to reinforce Lucullus at the siege of Nisibis, took command of Roman forces in Pontus to fight the sudden return of Mithridates. The Pontic and Roman forces engaged at the Battle of Zela, which the Romans lost, suffering 7,000 casualties, 24 tribunes, and 150 centurions.[40] The loss forced the Romans to withdraw from Pontus, restoring Mithridates to fully control his Kingdom once again.

In the winter of 67 BCE, while still sieging Nisibis, Lucullus faced unrest from his soldiers after continuously fighting throughout the war.[41] Lucullus convinced his troops to stay loyal but agreed to march back to Asia Minor and only protect the Roman provinces rather than invading Pontus or Armenia. In the following year, 66 BCE, the Senate granted Gnaeus Pompey, one of the influential generals of Rome, command of Roman forces in the east to end the war.[42]

Pompey led his forces into Pontus where he engaged Mithridates at the of the Lycus River in central Pontus by the end of the year. Pompey defeated Mithridates, inflicting at least 10,000 casualties on the Pontic side and causing Mithridates to flee to Colchis.[43] Mithridates crossed the Black Sea in the following year, 65 BCE, to the Crimean lands that his eldest son, Machares, held with the support of Rome. After Mithridates landed in Crimea, Machares died, letting Mithridates seize control of the lands from Roman-supported rule.[44]

Following the victory at the Lycus, Pompey marched into Armenia and came to terms with Tigranes, making Armenia an allied state of Rome.[45] By 64 BCE, Pompey had established a naval blockade of Bosporan Crimea to wear down Mithridates, before he marched south into Syria where Armenia held lands, he seized important cities across the region like Antioch.[46] In 63 BCE, he took cities like Damascus before involving himself in a civil war in Judea to establish it as a client state under Rome.

In 63 BCE, Mithridates retreated to the citadel at Panticapaeum where he would try to gather forces to fight the Romans. After his son, Pharnaces II, rebelled against him with the support of a weary populace, Mithridates killed himself.[47] Pharnaces sent his father's body to Pompey who granted him the Crimean lands he still held, also establishing him as a Roman ally.[48] The Anatolian and Syrian lands that were occupied would be incorporated as Roman provinces, while Armenia and Judea would become allied client kingdoms allied to Rome. Pompey's successes in the war further propelled his political career as the general, granting him a triumph in Rome for his efforts during the war.

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