For, when Marcus Cicero was consul with Gaius Antonius, and Mithridates
no longer inflicted any injury upon the Romans but had destroyed his own
self, Catiline undertook to set up a new government, and by banding
together the allies against the state threw the people into fear of a
mighty conflict. Now each of these occurrences came about as follows.

[-11-] Mithridates himself did not give way under his disasters, but
trusting more in his will than in his power, especially while Pompey was
lingering in Syria, planned to reach the Ister through Scythia, and from
that point to invade Italy. As he was by nature given to great projects
and had experienced many failures and many successes, he regarded
nothing as beyond his ability to venture or to hope. If he missed he
preferred to perish conjointly with his kingdom, with pride unblemished,
rather than to live deprived of it in inglorious humility. On this idea
he grew strong. For in proportion as he wasted away through weakness of
body, the more steadfast did he grow in strength of mind, so that he
even revived the infirmity of the former by the reasonings of the
latter.

The rest who were his associates, as the position of the Romans kept
getting always more secure and that of Mithridates weaker,--among other
things the greatest earthquake that had ever occurred destroyed many of
their cities--became estranged; the military also mutinied and unknown
persons kidnapped some of his children, whom they conveyed to Pompey.

[-12-] Thereupon he detected and punished some; others he chastised from
mere suspicion: no one could any longer trust him; of his remaining
children, even, he put to death one of whom he grew suspicious. Seeing
this, one of his sons, Pharnaces, impelled at once by fear of the king