Mithridates at the commencement
with eight hundred horsemen cut his way through the Romans, but the
rest were soon dispersed and he was left alone with three persons, one
of whom was his concubine Hypsikratia,[255] who on all occasions
showed the spirit of a man and desperate courage; and accordingly the
king used to call her Hypsikrates. On this occasion, armed like a
Persian and mounted on horseback, she was neither exhausted by the
long journeys nor ever wearied of attending to the King's person and
his horse, till they came to a place called Inora,[256] which was
filled with the King's property and valuables. Here Mithridates took
costly garments and distributed among those who had flocked to him
after the battle. He also gave to each of his friends a deadly poison
to carry about with them, that none of them might fall into the hands
of the Romans against his will. Thence he set out towards Armenia to
Tigranes, but Tigranes forbade him to come and set a price of a
hundred talents upon him, on which Mithridates passed by the sources
of the Euphrates and continued his flight through Colchis.[257]
XXXIII. Pompeius invaded Armenia at the invitation of young
Tigranes,[258] who had now revolted from his father, and he met
Pompeius near the river Araxes,[259] which rises in the same parts
with the Euphrates, but turns to the east and enters the Caspian Sea.
Pompeius and Tigranes received the submission of the cities as they
advanced: but King Tigranes, who had been lately crushed by Lucullus,
and heard that Pompeius was of a mild and gentle disposition, admitted
a Roman garrison into his palace,[260] and taking with him his friends
and kinsmen advanced to surrender himself.
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