Greece and Asia Minor.

[Sidenote: Death of Sulla.]

The civil war between Sulla and the chiefs of the popular faction that
had been created by Marius, which ended in his complete ascendency in
Italy, stopped for a while the Roman conquests in the East. Sulla,
having undone the popular measures of the last half century, and reigned
supreme over all factions as dictator, died B.C. 78, after a most
successful career, and left his mantle to the most enterprising of his
lieutenants, Cnaeus Pompey, who was destined to complete the Mithridatic
war.

[Sidenote: Character of Sulla.]

If Sulla had not been so inordinately fond of pleasure and luxurious
self-indulgence, he might have seized the sceptre of universal dominion,
and have made himself undisputed master of the empire. He was a man of
extraordinary genius, fond of literature, and a great diplomatist. But
he was not preeminently ambitious like Caesar, and was diverted by the
fascinations of elegant leisure; nor was he naturally cruel, though his
passions, when aroused, were fierce and vindictive. He lived in an age
of exceeding corruption, when it was evident to contemplative minds that
Roman liberties could not be much longer preserved. He had, for a time,
restored the ascendency of the senatorial families, but faction was at
work among the unprincipled chiefs of the republic.

[Sidenote: Lucullus marches against Mithridates.]

On the death of the great dictator, Mithridates broke the peace he had