Complete Works of Eutropius

by Eutropius

  1

  M. Aemilio Lepido Q. Catulo consulibus, cum Sulla rem publicam conposuisset, bella nova exarserunt, unum in Hispania, aliud in Pamphylia et Cilicia, tertium in Macedonia, quartum in Dalmatia. Nam Sertorius, qui partium Marianarum fuerat, timens fortunam ceterorum, qui interempti erant, ad bellum commovit Hispanias. Missi sunt contra eum duces Q. Caecilius Metellus, filius eius, qui Iugurtham regem vicit, et L. Domitius praetor. A Sertorii duce Hirtuleio Domitius occisus est. Metellus vario successu contra Sertorium dimicavit. Postea, cum inpar pugnae solus Metellus putaretur, Cn. Pompeius ad Hispanias missus est. Ita duobus ducibus adversis Sertorius fortuna varia saepe pugnavit. Octavo demum anno per suos occisus est, et finis ei bello datus per Cn. Pompeium adulescentem et Q. Metellum Pium atque omnes prope Hispaniae in dicionem populi Romani redactae.

  I

  In the consulate of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Quintus Catulus, after Sulla had composed the troubles of the state, new wars broke out; one in Spain, another in Pamphylia and Cilicia, a third in Macedonia, a fourth in Dalmatia. Sertorius, who had taken the side of Marius, dreading the fate of others who had been cut off, excited the Spaniards to a war. The generals sent against him were Quintus Caecilius Metellus, the son of that Metellus who had subdued Jugurtha, and the praetor Lucius Domitius. Domitius was killed by Hirtuleius, Sertorius’s general. Metellus contended against Sertorius with various success. At length, as Metellus was thought singly unequal to the war, Cnaeus Pompey was sent into Spain. Thus, two generals being opposed to him, Sertorius often fought with very uncertain fortune. At last, in the eighth year of the war, he was put to death by his own soldiers, and an end made of the war by Cnaeus Pompey, at that time but a young man, and Quintus Metellus Pius; and nearly the whole of Spain was brought under the dominion of the Roman people.

  2

  Ad Macedoniam missus est Ap. Claudius post consulatum. Levia proelia habuit contra varias gentes, quae Rhodopam provinciam incolebant, atque ibi morbo mortuus est. Missus ei successor C. Scribonius Curio post consulatum. Is Dardanos vicit et usque ad Danubium penetravit triumphumque meruit et intra triennium bello finem dedit.

  II

  Appius Claudius, on the expiration of his consulate was sent into Macedonia. He had some skirmishes with different tribes that inhabited the province of Rhodopa, and there fell ill and died. Cnaeus Scribonius Curio, on the termination of his consulship, was sent to succeed him. He conquered the Dardanians, penetrated as far as the Danube, and obtained the honour of a triumph, putting an end to the war within three years.

  3

  Ad Ciliciam et Pamphyliam missus est P. Servilius ex consule, vir strenuus. Is Ciliciam subegit, Lyciae urbes clarissimas oppugnavit et cepit, in his Phaselida, Olympum, Corycum Ciliciae. Isauros quoque adgressus in dicionem redegit atque intra triennium bello finem dedit. Primus omnium Romanorum in Tauro iter fecit. Revertens triumphum accepit et nomen Isaurici meruit.

  III

  Publius Servilius, an energetic man, was sent, after his consulate, into Cilicia and Pamphilia. He reduced Cilicia, besieged and took the most eminent cities of Lycia, amongst them Phaselis, Olympus, and Corycus. The Isauri he also attacked, and compelled to surrender, and, within three years, put an end to the war. He was the first of the Romans that marched over Mount Taurus. On his return, he was granted a triumph, and acquired the surname of Isauricus.

  4

  Ad Illyricum missus est C. Cosconius pro consule. Multam partem Dalmatiae subegit, Salonas cepit et conposito bello Romam post biennium rediit.

  IV

  Cnaeus Cosconius was sent into Illyricum as proconsul. He reduced a great part of Dalmatia, took Salonae, and, having made an end of the war, returned to Rome after an absence of two years.

  5

  Isdem temporibus consul M. Aemilius Lepidus, Catuli collega, bellum civile voluit commovere, intra unam tamen aestatem motus eius oppressus est. Ita uno tempore multi simul triumphi fuerunt, Metelli ex Hispania, Pompeii secundus ex Hispania, Curionis ex Macedonia, Servilii ex Isauria.

  V

  About the same time, the consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the colleague of Catulus, attempted to kindle a civil war; but in one summer that commotion was suppressed. Thus there were several triumphs at the same time, that of Metellus for Spain, a second for Spain obtained by Pompey, one of Curio for Macedonia, and one of Servilius for Isauria.

  6

  Anno urbis conditae sexcentesimo septuagesimo sexto, L. Licinio Lucullo et M. Aurelio Cotta consulibus mortuus est Nicomedes, rex Bithyniae, et per testamentum populum Romanum fecit heredem. Mithridates pace rupta Bithyniam et Asiam rursus voluit invadere. Adversus eum ambo consules missi variam habuere fortunam. Cotta apud Chalcedonem victus ab eo acie, etiam intra oppidum coactus est et obsessus. Sed cum se inde Mithridates Cyzicum transtulisset, ut Cyzico capta totam Asiam invaderet, Lucullus ei, alter consul, occurrit. Ac dum Mithridates in obsidione Cyzici commoratur, ipse eum a tergo obsedit fameque consumpsit et multis proeliis vicit, postremo Byzantium, quae nunc Constantinopolis est, fugavit. Navali quoque proelio duces eius Lucullus oppressit. Ita una hieme et aestate a Lucullo ad centum fere milia regis extincta sunt.

  VI

  In the six hundred and seventy-sixth year from the building of the city, in the consulate of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Aurelius Cotta, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, died, appointing by his will the Roman people his heir.

  Mithridates, breaking the peace, again proceeded to invade Bithynia and Asia. Both the consuls being sent out against him, met with various success. Cotta, being defeated by him in a battle near Chalcedon, was even forced into the town, and besieged there. But Mithridates, having marched from thence to Cyzicus, that, after capturing that city, he might overrun all Asia, Lucullus, the other consul, met him; and, whilst Mithridates was detained at the siege of Cyzicus, besieged him in the rear, exhausted him with famine, defeated him in several battles, and at last pursued him to Byzantium, now called Constantinople. Lucullus also vanquished his commanders in a sea-fight. Thus, in a single winter and summer, almost a hundred thousand men on the king’s side were cut off by Lucullus.

  7

  Anno urbis Romae sexcentesimo septuagesimo octavo Macedoniam provinciam M. Licinius Lucullus accepit, consobrinus Luculli, qui contra Mithridatem bellum gerebat. Et in Italia novum bellum subito commotum est. Septuaginta enim et quattuor gladiatores ducibus Spartaco, Crixo et Oenomao effracto Capuae ludo fugerunt. Et per Italiam vagantes paene non levius bellum in ea, quam Hannibal moverat, paraverunt. Nam multis ducibus et duobus simul Romanorum consulibus victis sexaginta fere milium armatorum exercitum congregaverunt, victique sunt in Apulia a M. Licinio Crasso pro consule, et post multas calamitates Italiae tertio anno bello huic est finis inpositus.

  VII

  In the six hundred and seventy-eighth year of Rome, Marcus Licinius Lucullus, the cousin of that Lucullus who had carried on the war against Mithridates, obtained the province of Macedonia. A new war, too, suddenly sprung up in Italy; for eighty-four gladiators, led by Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus, having broken out of a school at Capua, made their escape; and, wandering over Italy, kindled a war in it, not much less serious than that which Hannibal had raised; for, after defeating several generals and two consuls of the Romans, they collected an army of nearly sixty thousand men. They were, however, defeated in Apulia by the proconsul Marcus Licinius Crassus; and, after much calamity to Italy, the war was terminated in its third year.

  8

  Sexcentesimo octogesimo primo anno urbis conditae, P. Cornelio Lentulo et Cn. Aufidio Oreste consulibus duo tantum gravia bella in imperio Romano erant, Mithridaticum et Macedonicum. Haec duo Luculli agebant, L. Lucullus et M. Lucullus. L. ergo Lucullus post pugnam Cyzicenam, qua vicerat Mithridatem, et navalem, qua duces eius oppresserat, persecutus est eum et recepta Paphlagonia atque Bithynia etiam regnum eius invasit, Sinopen et Amison, civitates Ponti nobilissimas, cepit. Secundo proelio apud Caberam civitatem, quo ingentes copias ex omni regno adduxerat Mithridates, cum XXX milia lectissim
a regis a quinque milibus Romanorum vastata essent, Mithridates fugatus est, castra eius direpta. Armenia quoque minor, quam tenuerat, eidem sublata est. Susceptus tamen est Mithridates post fugam a Tigrane, Armeniae rege, qui tum ingenti gloria imperabat, Persas saepe vicerat, Mesopotamiam occupaverat et Syriam et Phoenices partem.

  VIII

  In the six hundred and eighty-first year from the founding of the city, in the consulate of Publius Cornelius Lentulus and Cnaeus Aufidius Orestes, there were but two wars of any importance throughout the Roman empire, the Mithridatic and the Macedonian. Of these the two Luculli, Lucius and Marcus, had the direction. Lucius Lucullus, after the battle at Cyzicus, in which he had conquered Mithridates, and the sea-fight, in which he had overcome his generals, pursued him; and, recovering Paphlagonia and Bithynia, invaded his very kingdom. He took Sinope and Amisus, two most eminent cities of Pontus. In a second battle, near the city Cabira, where Mithridates had assembled a vast army from all parts of his kingdom, thirty thousand of the king’s chosen troops were cut in pieces by five thousand of the Romans, and Mithridates was put to flight and his camp plundered. Armenia Minor, also, of which he had taken possession, was wrested from him. Mithridates was, however, received after his flight by Tigranes, the king of Armenia, who at that time reigned in great glory; for he had frequently defeated the Persians, and had made himself master of Mesopotamia, Syria, and part of Phoenicia.

  9

  Ergo Lucullus repetens hostem fugatum etiam regnum Tigranis qui Armeniis imperabat ingressus est. Tigranocertam, civitatem Arzanenae, nobilissimam regni Armeniaci, cepit, ipsum regem cum septem milibus quingentis clibanariis et centum milibus sagittariorum et armatorum venientem decem et octo milia militum habens ita vicit, ut magnam partem Armeniorum deleverit. Inde Nisibin profectus eam quoque civitatem cum regis fratre cepit. Sed hi, quos in Ponto Lucullus reliquerat cum exercitus parte, ut regiones victas et iam Romanorum tuerentur, neglegenter se et avare agentes occasionem iterum Mithridati in Pontum inrumpendi dederunt, atque ita bellum renovatum est. Lucullo paranti capta Nisibi contra Persas expeditionem successor est missus.

  IX

  Lucullus, therefore, still pursuing his routed enemy, entered even the kingdom of Tigranes, who ruled over both the Armenias. Tigranocerta, the most noble city of Armenia, he succeeded in taking; the king himself, who advanced against him with six hundred thousand cuirassiers, and a hundred thousand archers and other troops, he so completely defeated with a force of only eighteen thousand, that he annihilated a great part of the Armenians. Marching from thence to Nisibis, he took that city also, and made the king’s brother prisoner. But as those whom Lucullus had left in Pontus with part of the army in order to defend the conquered countries belonging to the Romans, grew negligent and avaricious in their conduct, they gave Mithridates an opportunity of again making an irruption into Pontus, and thus the war was renewed. While Lucullus, after the reduction of Nisibis, was preparing for an expedition against the Persians, a successor was sent out to take his place.

  10

  Alter autem Lucullus, qui Macedoniam administrabat, Bessis primus Romanorum intulit bellum atque eos ingenti proelio in Haemo monte superavit. Oppidum Uscudamam, quod Bessi habitabant, eodem die, quo adgressus est, vicit, Cabylen cepit, usque ad Danubium penetravit. Inde multas supra Pontum positas civitates adgressus est. Illic Apolloniam evertit, Callatim, Parthenopolim, Tomos, Histrum, Burziaonem cepit belloque confecto Romam rediit. Ambo triumphaverunt, tamen Lucullus, qui contra Mithridatem pugnaverat, maiore gloria, cum tantorum regnorum victor redisset.

  X

  The other Lucullus, who had the management of affairs in Macedonia, was the first of the Romans that made war upon the Bessi, defeating them in a great battle on Mount Haemus; he reduced the town of Uscudama, which the Bessi inhabited, on the same day in which he attacked it; he also took Cabyle, and penetrated as far as the river Danube. He then besieged several cities lying above Pontus, where he destroyed Apollonia, Calatis, Parthenopolis, Tomi, Histros, and Burziaone, and, putting an end to the war, returned to Rome. Both the Luculli however triumphed, but the Lucullus, who had fought against Mithridates, with the greater glory, because he had returned victorious over such powerful nations.

  11

  Confecto bello Macedonico, manente Mithridatico, quod recedente Lucullo rex collectis auxiliis reparaverat, bellum Creticum ortum est. Ad id missus Q. Caecilius Metellus ingentibus proeliis intra triennium omnem provinciam cepit appellatusque est Creticus atque ex insula triumphavit. Quo tempore Libya quoque Romano imperio per testamentum Appionis, qui rex eius fuerat, accessit, in qua inclutae urbes erant Berenice, Ptolomais, Cyrene.

  XI

  After the Macedonian war was ended, but while that with Mithridates still continued (which, on the departure of Lucullus, that king had renewed, collecting all his forces for the purpose), the Cretan war arose, and Caecilius Metellus being sent to conduct it, secured the whole province, by a succession of great battles, within three years, and received the appellation of Creticus, and a triumph on account of the island. About this time Libya also, by the will of Apion, the king of the country, was added to the Roman empire; in it were the celebrated cities, Berenice, Ptolemais, and Cyrene.

  12

  Dum haec geruntur, piratae omnia maria infestabant ita, ut Romanis toto orbe victoribus sola navigatio tuta non esset. Quare id bellum Cn. Pompeio decretum est. Quod intra paucos menses ingenti et felicitate et celeritate confecit. Mox ei delatum etiam bellum contra regem Mithridatem et Tigranem. Quo suscepto Mithridatem in Armenia minore nocturno proelio vicit, castra diripuit, quadraginta milia eius occidit, viginti tantum de exercitu suo perdidit et duos centuriones. Mithridates cum uxore fugit et duobus comitibus. Neque multo post, cum in suos saeviret, Pharnacis, filii sui, apud milites seditione ad mortem coactus venenum hausit. Hunc finem habuit Mithridates. Periit autem apud Bosphorum, vir ingentis industriae consiliique. Regnavit annis sexaginta, vixit septuaginta duobus, contra Romanos bellum habuit annis quadraginta.

  XII

  During these transactions, pirates infested all the seas, so that navigation, and that alone, was unsafe to the Romans, who were now victorious throughout the world. The war against these pirates, therefore, was committed to Cnaeus Pompey, who, with surprising success and celerity, finished it in the course of a few months. Soon after, the war against Mithridates and Tigranes was entrusted to him; in the conduct of which, he overcame Mithridates in Armenia Minor in a battle by night, and plundered his camp, killing at the same time forty thousand of his troops, while he lost only twenty of his own men, and two centurions. Mithridates fled with his wife and two attendants; and not long after, in consequence of his cruelty to his own family, he was reduced, through a sedition excited among his soldiers by his son Pharnaces, to the necessity of putting an end to his existence, and swallowed poison. Such was the end of Mithridates, a man of singular energy and ability; his death happened near the Bosporus. He reigned sixty years, lived seventy-two, and maintained a war against the Romans for forty.

  13

  Tigrani deinde Pompeius bellum intulit. Ille se ei dedidit et in castra Pompeii sexto decimo miliario ab Artaxata venit ac diadema suum, cum procubuisset ad genua Pompeii, in manibus ipsius conlocavit. Quod ei Pompeius reposuit honorificeque eum habitum regni tamen parte multavit et grandi pecunia. Adempta est ei Syria, Phoenice, Sophanene; sex milia praeterea talentorum argenti indicta, quae populo Romano daret, quia bellum sine causa Romanis commovisset.

  XIII

  Pompey next made war upon Tigranes, who surrendered himself, coming to Pompey’s camp at sixteen miles distance from Artaxata; and, throwing himself at his feet, pla,ced in his hands his diadem, which Pompey returned to him, and treated him with great respect, but obliged him to give up part of his dominions and to pay a large sum of money: Syria, Phoenicia, and Sophene, were taken from him, and six thousand talents of silver, which he had to pay to the Roman people because he had raised a war against them without cause.

  14

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p; Pompeius mox etiam Albanis bellum intulit et eorum regem Oroden ter vicit, postremo per epistulas ac munera rogatus veniam ei ac pacem dedit. Hiberiae quoque regem Artacen vicit acie et in deditionem accepit. Armeniam minorem Deiotaro, Galatiae regi, donavit, quia socius belli Mithridatici fuerat. Attalo et Pylaemeni Paphlagoniam reddidit. Aristarchum Colchis regem imposuit. Mox Ituraeos et Arabas vicit. Et cum venisset in Syriam, Seleuciam, vicinam Antiochiae civitatem, libertate donavit, quod regem Tigranen non recepisset. Antiochensibus obsides reddidit. Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret, delectatus loci amoenitate et aquarum abundantia. Inde ad Iudaeam transgressus est, Hierosolyma, caput gentis, tertio mense cepit XII milibus Iudaeorum occisis, ceteris in fidem acceptis. His gestis in Asiam se recepit et finem antiquissimo bello dedit.