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IV. THRACE.

87. The Thracian kingdom of Lysimachus has no history that need detain us. Unlike Egypt or Syria under Macedonian rule, it contributed nothing to literature, science, or general civilization. The several tribes were powerful by reason of their numbers, their hardy contempt of danger and exposure, and their untamable love of freedom; but their strength was too often wasted in fighting against each other, and thus they were reduced either to subjects or humble allies of the more civilized nations to the southward. At the same time, their position on the Danube rendered them the most exposed of all the ancient kingdoms, to the incursions of the northern barbarians; and the history of Thrace under the Romans is only a record of wars and devastations.

V. KINGDOM OF PERGAMUS.

88. Beside the four great monarchies already described, a number of smaller kingdoms arose from the ruins of Alexander's empire. A few of these will be briefly mentioned. Pergamus, on the Ca'icus in Mysia, possessed a strong fortress, which was used by Lysimachus as a place of safe keeping for his treasures, under the charge of Phileta'rus, of Tium, an officer in whom he reposed the greatest confidence. This person, provoked by ill-treatment from the Thracian queen, made himself independent, and by means of the ample treasures of Lysimachus, maintained his principality undisturbed for twenty years, B. C. 283–263. (See ?? 30, 31.)

His nephew, Eumenes, who succeeded him, increased his territories by a victory over Antiochus I., near Sardis. After reigning twenty-two years (B. C., 263–241), he was succeeded by his cousin, Attalus I., who gained a great victory over the Gauls, and, first of his family, took the title of king. Ten years later, he defeated Antiochus Hierax (see ? 33), and included in his own dominions all the countries west of the Halys and north of the Taurus. In wars with the kings of Syria, he lost these conquests, and was limited for seven years to his own principality of Pergamus; but by the aid of Gallic mercenaries and his own good management, he won back most of the territories. He earned the favor of Rome by joining that Republic against Philip V. of Macedon. The country was ravaged by Philip in the interval of his Roman wars (see 80); but the great victory off Chios compensated Attalus for his losses, and the treasures he amassed made his name proverbial for wealth. His exertions in behalf of his allies, during the second war of Rome and Macedon, ended his life at an advanced age, B. C. 197.

89. Eumenes II., his eldest son and successor, aided the Roman operations against the kings of Syria and Macedonia, with so much energy and

talent, that he was rewarded with an increase of territory on both sides of the Hellespont, and his kingdom was for a time one of the greatest in Asia. He continued his father's liberal policy in the encouragement of art and literature, founded the great Library of Pergamus, which was second only to that of Alexandria, and beautified his capital with many magnificent buildings. At his death his crown was assumed by his brother, Attalus II. (Philadelphus), as the son of Eumenes was still a child. More than half the twenty-one years of Philadelphus's reign were occupied by wars, especially against Pru'sias II., king of Bithynia. By aiding the revolt of Nicomedes, who gained that kingdom instead of his father, Attalus secured some years of peace, which he employed in building cities and increasing his library. Chief of the cities were Eumeni'a, in Phrygia; Philadelphia, in Lydia; and Attali'a, in Pamphylia.

90. Philadelphus died B. C. 138, leaving the kingdom to his nephew, Attalus III. (Philometor), the son of Eumenes II. This king crowded into the short period of five years more crimes and atrocities than can be found in all the other reigns of his dynasty put together. He murdered all the old friends of his father and uncle, with their families; all who still held any office of trust in the kingdom; and, finally, his own nearest relatives, including his mother, for whom he had professed the warmest affection by the surname he adopted. At last he retired from this atrocious career of misgovernment, to the more innocent pursuits of painting, sculpture, and gardening. He died of a fever, leaving his kingdom a legacy to the Roman people. Aristoni'cus, a half-brother of Attalus III., successfully resisted the Roman claims for three years, even defeating and capturing Licin'ius Crassus, who was sent to take possession; but he was in turn made prisoner, and Pergamus was added to the territories of Rome, B. C. 130.

VI. BITHYNIA.

91. This tributary province of Persia regained its independence upon the overthrow of that empire, and resisted all the efforts of Alexander's generals to reduce it. Among its kings were Nicomedes I., who founded Nicomedia on the Propontis; Zeilas, who gained his crown by the aid of the Gauls; and Prusias, his son, who extended his kingdom by constant wars, and would have raised it to great importance but for the offense he gave the Romans, by making war against Pergamus and by sheltering Hannibal. He was forced to surrender to Eumenes some important territories.

Prusias II. suffered still greater disasters, owing to his own contemptible wickedness. He sent his son Nicomedes to Rome, with secret orders for his assassination. But the plot failed; and Nicomedes II., whose popularity had excited his father's jealousy, now returned with the support of the

Romans and the Pergamene king, and gained possession of the throne. He reigned fifty-eight years with the title Epiphanes (Illustrious). His son, Nicomedes III., in alliance with the Romans, made war seven years with Mithridates, king of Pontus, their most able and resolute opponent. He was twice expelled from his dominions; but after the close of the first Mithridatic War, he reigned peacefully ten years, and, having no children, left his kingdom to the Romans, B. C. 74.

VII. PONTUS.

92. Cappadocia under the Persians had been a satrapy, governed by the descendants of that Ota'nes who conspired with Darius I. against the false Smerdis. (See Book II.) In 363 B. C., a son of the satrap Mithridates revolted, and made himself king of that portion of Cappadocia which lay next the sea, and was thence called Pontus by the Greeks. This kingdom was for a short time subject to the Macedonian power; but Mithridates I., in 318 B. C., became again independent. The annals of the next two reigns are of no great importance. Mithridates III. (B. C. 245-190) enlarged and strengthened his dominion by alliances with the Asiatic monarchs, as well as by wars. His son Phar'naces conquered Sinope from the Greeks, and made it his capital. The next king, Mithridates IV. (B. C. 160-120), aided Rome against Carthage and Pergamus, and was rewarded by the addition of the Greater Phrygia to his dominions.

93. Mithridates V., the Great, came to the throne at the age of eleven years, his father having been murdered by some officers of the court. The young prince, distrusting his guardians, began in his earliest years to accustom himself to antidotes against poison, and to spend much of his time in hunting, which enabled him to take refuge in the most rough and inaccessible portions of his kingdom. He had, however, received a Greek education at Sinope; and when, at the age of twenty, he assumed the government, he possessed not only a soul and body inured to every sort of peril and hardship, but a mind furnished with all the knowledge needful to a king. He spoke twenty-five languages, and could transact business with every tribe of his dominions, in its own peculiar dialect.

The Romans had already seized his province of Phrygia, and he clearly saw the conflict which must soon take place with the all-absorbing Republic. He determined, therefore, to extend his kingdom to the eastward and northward, thus increasing its power and wealth, so as to make it more nearly a match for its great western antagonist. In seven years he added to his dominions half the shores of the Black Sea, including the Cimmerian peninsula - now the Crimea—and extending westward to the Dniester. He made alliances with the wild and powerful tribes upon the Danube, and with the kings of Armenia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. From

the last two countries he afterward drove out their hereditary kings, placing his own son on the throne of Cappadocia, and Socrates, a younger brother of Nicomedes III., on that of Bithynia.

94. The Roman Senate now interfered, and with their favor Nicomedes invaded Pontus. Mithridates marched into Cappadocia and drove out its newly reinstated king; then into Bithynia, where he routed the army of Nicomedes and defeated the Romans. He speedily made himself master of all Asia Minor, except a few towns in the extreme south and west; and from his headquarters at Pergamus, gave orders for a general massacre of all Romans and Italians in Asia. Eighty thousand persons fell in consequence of this atrocious act, but from that moment the tide turned against Mithridates. Two large armies which he sent into Greece, were defeated by Sulla at Charonea. A great battle in Bithynia was lost by the Pontic generals. Pontus itself was invaded, and its king became a fugitive.

Peace was at length made, on terms most humiliating to Mithridates. He surrendered all his conquests, and a fleet of seventy vessels; agreed to pay 2,000 talents; and recognized the kings of Cappadocia and Bithynia, whom he had formerly expelled. The reverses of Mithridates naturally led the subject nations on the Euxine to throw off his yoke. He was preparing to march against them, when a second Roman war was kindled by a sudden and unprovoked aggression of Murena, the general of the Republic in the East. The Romans were defeated on the Halys, and peace was restored, B. C. 82.

95. In the seven years' breathing-space which followed, Mithridates subdued all his revolted subjects, and recruited his forces with the utmost energy. His army, drawn largely from the barbarous nations on the Danube and Euxine, was drilled and equipped according to the Roman system, and his navy was increased to four hundred vessels. Both the Pontic king and the Romans would willingly have remained some years longer at peace, but, in 74 B. C., the legacy of Bithynia to the latter power, by Nicomedes III., brought them into unavoidable collision. Mithridates first seized the country, and gained a double victory over Cotta, by sea and land. But he failed in the sieges of Chalcedon and Cyzicus, and in the second year he was repeatedly worsted by Lucullus. His fleet was first defeated off Tenedos, and then wrecked by a storm. In the third year Mithridates was driven out of his own dominions, and those of his son-inlaw, Tigranes. For three years the war was carried on in Armenia, where the two kings were twice defeated by Lucullus.

In 68 B. C., Mithridates returned to his kingdom, and defeated the Romans twice within a few months. But in 66 B. C., Pompey assumed the command, and Mithridates, after the loss of nearly his whole army, abandoned Pontus, and retired into the barbarous regions north of the Euxine, where the Romans did not care to pursue him. With a spirit

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untamed either by years or misfortunes, he plotted the bold design of gathering to his standard the wild tribes along the Danube, and marching upon Italy from the north. But his officers did not share his enthusiasm. A conspiracy against him was headed by his own son; and the old king, deserted by all whom he would have trusted, attempted to end his life by poison. His constitution had been for many years so guarded by antidotes, that the drugs had no effect, and he was finally dispatched by one of his Gallic soldiers. Pontus became a Roman province, only a small portion of its territory continuing, a century or more, under princes of the ancient dynasty.

VIII. CAPPADOCIA.

96. The southern part of Cappadocia remained loyal to the Persian kings until their downfall at Arbela. It was conquered by Perdiccas after the death of Alexander, but within six years became independent, and

continued under native kings until it was absorbed into the Roman dominions, A. D. 17. The history of these monarchs is of little importance, except so far as it is included in that of the neighboring nations. The fifth king, Ariara'thes IV., made, in his later years, a close and friendly alliance with the Romans, which continued unbroken under his successors.

Ariarathes V. (B. C. 131-96) presents the sole example of a "blameless prince" in the three centuries following Alexander. No act of deceit or cruelty is recorded against him. Cappadocia, under his reign, became a celebrated abode of philosophy, under the patronage and example of the king. With Ariarathes VIII., the royal Persian line became extinct, and the Cappadocians chose a new sovereign in Ariobarza'nes I. (B. C. 93-64). This king was three times driven out of his dominions by the sovereigns of Armenia and Pontus, and three times reinstated by the Romans. The last king, Archelaus (B. C. 36-A. D. 17), was summoned by Tibe'rius to Rome, where he died, and his kingdom became a Roman province.

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Coin of Ariarathes V., twice the size of original.

IX. ARMENIA.

97. Armenia was included in the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, from the battle of Ipsus to that of Magnesia, B. C. 190. Two generals of Antiochus

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