his history; but he was certainly an extraordinary man. He spoke the
unnumbered dialects of the Asiatic tribes among whom he had travelled. He
spoke Greek with ease and freedom. Placed, as he was, on the margin where
the civilizations of the East and the West were brought in contact, he was
at once a barbarian potentate and an ambitious European politician. He was
well informed of the state of Rome, and saw reason, perhaps, as well he
might, to doubt the durability of its power. At any rate, he was no sooner
fixed on his own throne than he began to annex the territories of the
adjoining princes. He advanced his sea frontier through Armenia to Batoum,
and thence along the coast of Circassia. He occupied the Greek settlements
on the Sea of Azof. He took Kertch and the Crimea, and with the help of
pirates from the Mediterranean he formed a fleet which gave him complete
command of the Black Sea. In Asia Minor no power but the Roman could
venture to quarrel with him. The Romans ought in prudence to have
interfered before Mithridates had grown to so large a bulk, but money
judiciously distributed among the leading politicians had secured the
Senate's connivance; and they opened their eyes at last only when
Mithridates thought it unnecessary to subsidize them further, and directed
his proceedings against Cappadocia, which was immediately under Roman
protection. He invaded the country, killed the prince whom Rome had
recognized, and placed on the throne a child of his own, with the evident
intention of taking Cappadocia for himself.

This was to go too far. Like Jugurtha, he had purchased many friends in
the Senate, who, grateful for past favors and hoping for more, prevented
the adoption of violent measures against him; but they sent a message to
him that he must not have Cappadocia, and Mithridates, waiting for a
better opportunity, thought proper to comply. Of this message the bearer
was Lucius Sylla. He had time to study on the spot the problem of how to
deal with Asia Minor. He accomplished his mission with his usual