Tigranes.] On the east he annexed
Lesser Armenia, and entered into the closest alliance with Tigranes,
King of Greater Armenia, which had lately become a powerful kingdom,
giving him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage. If the allies had any
defined scheme of conquest, it was that Mithridates should occupy Asia
Minor and the coast of the Black Sea, and Tigranes the interior and
Syria. How the King intrigued and meddled in Cappadocia and Bithynia
has been previously related; and when he had marched into Cappadocia
it was at the head of 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 600 scythed
chariots.

Such was the history, the power, and the character of the great
potentate who had yielded to the demands of Sulla, the propraetor,
but who now awaited the attack of Sulla, the proconsul, with proud
disdain. Much, indeed, had happened since the year 92 to justify such
feelings. Hardly had Sulla reinstated Ariobarzanes when Tigranes drove
him out again, and restored the son of Mithridates; while in Bithynia
the younger son of Nicomedes, Socrates, appeared in arms against his
elder brother, Nicomedes II., who on his father's death had been
acknowledged as king by Rome. Socrates had soldiers from Pontus with
him; but Mithridates, though his hand was plain in these disturbances,
outwardly stood aloof; and the Senate, sending Manius Aquillius to
restore the two kings, ordered Mithridates to aid him with troops if
they were wanted. [Sidenote: Mithridates submits to Aquillius.] The
king submitted as before, not, indeed, sending troops, but without
resisting, and as a proof of his complacency put Socrates to death.
This happened in the year 90, when Rome was pressed hardest by the
Italians, and at first sight it seems astonishing that he should not
have seized on so favourable a moment. But in those days news would
travel from the west of Italy to Sinope but slowly and uncertainly,
and Mithridates would have the fate of Antiochus in mind to warn him
how the foes of the great republic fared, and the history of Pergamus
to testify to the prosperity of those who remained its friends.
Sulla's proud tone in 92 would not have lessened this impression;
and, before he appealed to force, the crafty king hoped to make his
position securer by fraud. Partly, therefore, from real awe, partly
because he was not yet ready, he obeyed Aquillius as he had obeyed
Sulla. But Aquillius, who had once put up Phrygia to auction, knew
what pickings there were for a sena