Accordingly he now put his
army in motion that he might connect the circuit of his military
expeditions with the Erythraean sea; and besides, he saw that
Mithridates was difficult to be caught by an armed force, and was a
harder enemy to deal with when flying than when fighting.
XXXIX. Wherefore, remarking that he would leave behind him for
Mithridates an enemy stronger than himself, famine, he set vessels to
keep a guard on the merchants who sailed to the Bosporus; and death
was the penalty for those who were caught. Taking the great bulk of
his army he advanced on his march, and falling in with the bodies
still unburied of those who with Triarius[286] had fought
unsuccessfully against Mithridates and fallen in battle, he buried all
with splendid ceremonial and due honours. It was the neglect of this
which is considered to have been the chief cause of the hatred to
Lucullus. After subduing by his legate Afranius the Arabs in the
neighbourhood of the Amanus,[287] he descended into Syria, which he
made a province and a possession of the Roman people on the ground
that it had no legitimate kings; and he subdued Judaea[288] and took
King Aristobulus prisoner. He built some cities, and he gave others
their liberty and punished the tyrants in them. But he spent most time
in judicial business, settling the disputes of cities and kings, and
in those cases for which he had no leisure, sending his friends; as
for instance to the Armenians and Parthians, who referred to him the
decision as to the country[289] in dispute between them, he sent three
judges and conciliators.
Pages:
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357