s of a
surgeon cause pain to the patient, when by their means he is
endeavouring to force back dislocated limbs into their proper
position. For this reason, methinks, neither Kimon nor Lucullus
deserve blame.

III. Lucullus accomplished by far the greater exploits of the two, as
he marched beyond the Mount Taurus with an army, being the first
Roman who ever did so, and also crossed the river Tigris, and took and
burned the royal cities of Asia, Tigranocerta, Kabeira, Sinope, and
Nisibis, in the sight of their kings. Towards the north, he went as
far as the river Phasis; towards the east as far as Media; and
southwards as far as the Red Sea and the kingdom of Arabia, subduing
it all to the Roman Empire. He destroyed the power of two mighty
kings, and left them in possession of nothing but their lives, forcing
them to hide themselves like hunted beasts, in trackless wastes and
impassable forests. A great proof of the completeness of Lucullus's
success is to be found in the fact that the Persians soon after
Kimon's death, attacked the Greeks as vigorously as if they had never
been defeated by Kimon at all, and defeated a large Greek army in
Egypt; while Tigranes and Mithridates never recovered from the
overthrow they sustained from Lucullus. Mithridates was so crushed and
broken in strength that he never dared to march out of his
entrenchments and fight with Pompeius, but retired to Bosporus and
died there; while Tigranes of his own accord came into the presence of
Pompeius naked and unarmed, and cast down his royal diadem at his
feet, not flattering him for the victories which he had won, but for
those for which Lucullus had triumphed. He was well pleased to be
allowed to resume the ensigns of royalty, and thereby admitted that he
had before been deprived of them. He, therefore, is to be held the
better general, as he is the better wrestler, who leaves his enemy
weakest for his successor to deal with. Moreover, Kimon found the
power of the Persians impaired, and their spirit broken by the series
of defeats which they had sustained from Themistokles, Pausanias, and
Leotychides, and was easily able to conquer men whose hearts were
already vanquished: whereas Lucullus met Tigranes when he was full of
courage, and in the midst of an unbroken career of victory. As for
numbers, one cannot compare the multitudes who were opposed to
Lucullus with the troops who were defeated by Kimon. Thus it appears
that from whatever point of