nd was thus baulked of his prey. Another event had happened to
aggravate his irritation. [Sidenote: Lucullus off the coast of Asia
Minor. Overtures of Fimbria to him.] Lucullus, sent by Sulla to
collect a fleet, had, as has been related (p. 153), failed in Egypt.
But he had procured ships from Syria and Rhodes, induced Cos and
Cnidus to revolt, and driven out the Pontic partisans from Chios and
Colophon. He was now in the neighbourhood, when Mithridates was at
Pitane. [Sidenote: Mithridates meets Sulla and thy come to terms.]
But, he turned a deaf ear to Fimbria's request for aid, and after
defeating Neoptolemus, the king's admiral, met Sulla in the Thracian
Chersonese, and conveyed him across to Dardanus, in the Troad, where
Mithridates came to meet him. Each had one feeling in common--dread
lest the other should make terms with Fimbria; and the bargain was
soon struck in spite of Sulla's soldiers, who were thus after all
baulked of the long-looked-for Asiatic campaign and their desire to
take revenge for the great massacre. But Sulla, as we have seen (p.
153), got some money to quiet them; and they were in his power in Asia
almost as much as he had been in theirs at Rome. He at once led them
against Fimbria, who was near Thyatira, in Lydia. [Sidenote: Fimbria's
men desert to Sulla. Fimbria commits suicide.] He summoned that leader
to hand over his army, and the soldiers began to desert to him.
Fimbria tried to force them to swear obedience to him, and slew the
first who refused. Then he sent a slave to assassinate Sulla; and the
discovery of this attempt so maddened Sulla's soldiers that Fimbria
dared not trust even Sulla's promised safe-conduct and slew himself.
[Sidenote: Sulla's measures.] Sulla incorporated his troops with his
own army, and proceeded to regulate the affairs of Asia. Those towns
which had remained faithful to Rome or had sided with him were
liberally rewarded. All slaves who refused to return to their masters
were slain. The towns that resisted were punished and their walls
destroyed. The ringleaders in the massacre were put to death. The
taxpayers were forced to pay at once the previous five years' arrears
and a fine of 20,000 talents (4,880,000_l_.), and Lucullus was left
to collect it. In order to raise this sum the unhappy Asiatics
were obliged to mortgage their public buildings to the Italian
money-lenders; but Sulla got the whole of it, and scarcely was he
gone when pirates, hounded on by Mith