ranes.
Cicero, then a praetor, supported the measure in his speech, _For the
Manilian Law_. His support was probably dictated by the fact that he was a
man without family backing and consequently had to have the friendship of
an influential personage if he was to secure the political advancement
which he desired. The Senate strongly opposed any extension of Pompey's
military authority, but the bill was passed and he took over the command
of Lucullus. He was clothed with power to make peace or war with whom he
chose, and enjoyed an unexampled concentration of authority in his hands.

*The campaigns of Pompey in the East.* Pompey at once advanced into Pontus
and attacked Mithradates. The latter was forced to withdraw into Lesser
Armenia where he was overtaken and his army scattered by Pompey. The king
fled to the neighborhood of the Sea of Asov. Upon the defeat of
Mithradates, Tigranes deserted his cause and submitted to Pompey. He was
permitted to retain his kingdom as a Roman ally. In the following year, 65
B. C., Pompey reduced to submission the peoples situated south of the
Caucasus, between the Black and the Caspian Seas, who had been in alliance
with Mithradates, and so completed the subjugation of Pontus, which he
made into a province (64 B. C.).

In 64 B. C. he turned his attention to Syria, where a state of chaos had
reigned since Lucullus had wrested it from Tigranes and where a scion of
the Seleucids had failed to find recognition. Pompey decided to treat
Syria as a Roman conquest and incorporate it within the empire. He then
interfered in a dynastic struggle in the kingdom of Judaea. After a brief
struggle, in which the temple of Jerusalem was stormed by the Romans, he
installed his nominee as High Priest at the head of the local government.
Judaea was then annexed to the province of Syria (63 B. C.).

While Pompey was in Judaea the death of Mithradates occurred. Deserted by
the Greek cities of the northern Euxine, he formed the plan of joining the
Celtic peoples of the Danube valley and invading Italy. But his army
deserted him for his son Pharnaces, who revolted against his father, and
Mithradates committed suicide. Thereupon Pharnaces made peace with Pompey.

The Mithradatic war was finally over and Pompey, after organizing affairs
in Asia Minor and the adjoining countries, started on a triumphal return
to Italy with his victorious army and rich spoils of war (62 B. C.).

VI. THE CON