ounded at Magnesia.
Mithridates in person was forced to abandon the siege of Rhodes. His
revenge was sated; he was tired of the hardships of a war which he
meant his generals to conduct in future; and with a new wife he went
back to Pergamus, to his rings, and his music, and debaucheries, at
the very time that a shudder had gone through Italy at the tidings of
the massacre, and when Sulla was on his way to avenge it.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XII.

SULLA IN GREECE AND ASIA.

[Sidenote: Aristion at Athens.] A citizen of Athens, named Aristion,
whose mother was an Egyptian slave, and who was the son or adopted
son of one Athenion, had been sent by the Athenians as ambassador to
Mithridates. He had been a schoolmaster and teacher of rhetoric,
and professed the philosophy of Epicurus. He gained the ear of
Mithridates, and sent home flaming accounts of the king's power, and
of his intention of restoring the democracy at Athens. The Athenians
sent some ships of war to bring him home from Euboea, with a present
of a silver-footed litter; and in this, clothed in purple, and with
a fine ring on his finger, which he had got probably from his friend
Mithridates, he came back to Athens with much parade. [Sidenote:
Revolt of Athens from Rome.] In a set speech he dilated on the king's
splendid successes, and advised the people to declare themselves
independent and elect him their general. They did so, and he very soon
massacred his opponents and made himself despot. Thus Athens and
the Piraeus passed into the hands of Mithridates. The spirit of
disaffection to Rome spread rapidly. [Sidenote: Revolt of the
Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians.] When Archelaus appeared in
Greece, the Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians, with the exception of
Thespiae, joined him, while the Pontic fleet seized Euboea and
Demetrias, a town at the head of the gulf of Pagasae.

Sura was sent by the Roman governor of Macedonia to make head against
the invaders. He won a naval battle and captured Sciathus, where all
the spoils of the enemy were stored. [Sidenote: Conflicts between the
Romans and the forces of Mithridates in Boeotia.] Then he marched into
Boeotia, and, after a three days' engagement with the combined forces
of Archelaus and Aristion, pushed Archelaus back to the coast. The
war, perhaps, might have been ended here; but at this moment Lucullus
came to announce the approach of Sulla, and to warn Sura that the