their loose organization could not stand
against the disciplined force of Rome. Mithridates himself had something
of genius; but Mithridates was old.

The progress of the campaign showed that Lucullus was right. Entering
Pontus in the late autumn, he overran the rich country without meeting
with any serious opposition; Mithridates' armies had been scattered at
Cyzicus; he had not yet collected fresh ones. Immense plunder--slaves
and cattle, gold and silver, ivory and precious stones, rare stuffs and
wondrous embroideries--were sent home to Rome. In the following spring
when Mithridates did advance with his new army Lucullus defeated it
decisively. Cabira was taken and Lucullus spent the winter with the
royal palace as his head-quarters, training his army for the work before
it. Here the defects of his character came into play. Proud and
passionate, Lucullus had an inordinate sense of his own dignity and of
the greatness of his own purpose; he forgot that the greatest general is
only the leader of other men, on whom his triumphs depend. To Lucullus
his soldiers were mere instruments, not human beings; the army a
machine. Great generals like Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, Alexander and,
in his degree, Sertorius, owe their lasting success to the power they
have to make each man in the army feel that he is a man, whose devotion
matters, on whom in the last resort everything depends. When soldiers
feel this, when they feel that they and their general are part of one
living thing, they can perform miracles. Lucullus had no such power. He
was harsh, tyrannical, and inhuman in his attitude and, overwhelmed by a
mass of work, never found time to relax. The sternness of discipline
never unbent. He seemed to grudge the soldiers any share in the vast
booty sent to Rome. He had no kindly word or look for individuals. It
was this growing feeling of bitterness that the discontented officers in
his army, and especially his brother-in-law Clodius, who was secretly
working for Pompeius against him, used to sow the seeds of mutiny.

Lucullus, absorbed in the mighty design he had conceived, did not
realize what was happening, even when after the capture of Amisus his
men paid no heed to his orders that the city should be spared, but
sacked and looted it. By the autumn all Pontus was in Roman hands.
Lucullus, again refusing to await orders from Rome, pushed on into
Armenia and attacked Tigranes, with whom Mithridates had taken refuge.
This ca