The English text is first, (odd-numbered pages), followed by the Roman text, (even-numbered pages).
Click on the footnote number and you will jump to the corresponding note. There you may click on the number and you will jump up to where you were in the text.
KING, MITHRIDATES, to King Arsaces, Greeting. All those who in the time of their prosperity are asked to form an offensive alliance ought to consider, first, whether it is possible for them to keep peace at that time; and secondly, whether what is asked of them is wholly right and safe, honourable or dishonourable. If it were possible for you to enjoy lasting peace, if no treacherous foes were near your borders, if to crush the Roman power would not bring you glorious fame, I should not venture to sue for your alliance, and it would be vain for me to hope to unite my misfortunes with your prosperity. But the considerations which might seem to give you pause, such as the anger against Tigranes inspired in you by the recent war, and my lack of success, if you but consent to regard them in the right light, will be special incentives. For Tigranes is at your mercy and will accept an alliance on any terms which you may desire, while so far as I am concerned, although Fortune has deprived me of much, she has bestowed upon me the experience necessary for giving good advice; and since I am no longer at the height of my power,2 I shall serve as an example of how you may conduct your own affairs with more prudence, a lesson highly advantageous to the prosperous.
435In fact, the Romans have one inveterate motive for making war upon all nations, peoples and kings; namely, a deep-seated desire for dominion and for riches. Therefore they first began a war with Philip, king of Macedonia, having pretended to be his friends as long as they were hard pressed by the Carthaginians. When Antiochus came to his aid, they craftily diverted him from his purpose by the surrender of Asia, and then, after Philip’s power had been broken, Antiochus was robbed of all the territory this side Taurus, and of ten thousand talents. Next Perses, the son of Philip, after many battles with varying results, was formally taken under their protection before the gods of Samothrace; and then those masters of craft and artists in treachery caused his death from want of sleep, since they had made a compact not to kill him. Eumenes, whose friendship they boastfully parade, they first betrayed to Antiochus as the price of peace; later, having made him the guardian of a captured territory,3 they transformed him by means of imposts and insults from a king into the most wretched of slaves. Then, having forged an unnatural will,4 they led his son Aristonicus in triumph like an enemy, because he had tried to recover his father’s realm. They took, possession of Asia, and finally, on the death of Nicomedes, they seized upon all Bithynia, although Nysa, whom Nicomedes had called queen, unquestionably had a son.
Why should I mention my own case? Although I was separated from their empire on every side by kingdoms and tetrarchies, yet because it was reported 437 that I was rich and that I would not be a slave, they provoked me to war through Nicomedes. And I was not unaware of their design, but I had previously given warning of what afterwards happened, both to the Cretans, who alone retained their freedom at that time, and to king Ptolemy. But I took vengeance for the wrongs inflicted upon me; I drove Nicomedes from Bithynia, recovered Asia, the spoil taken from king Antiochus, and delivered Greece from cruel servitude. Further progress was frustrated by Archelaus, basest of slaves, who betrayed my army; and those whom cowardice or misplaced cunning kept from taking up arms, since they hoped to find safety in my misfortunes, are suffering most cruel punishment. For Ptolemy is averting hostilities from day to day by the payment of money, while the Cretans have already been attacked once and will find no respite from war until they are destroyed. As for me, I soon learned that the peace afforded by civil dissensions at Rome was really only a postponement of the struggle, and although Tigranes refused to join with me (he now admits the truth of my prediction when it is too late), though you were far away, and all the rest had submitted, I nevertheless renewed the war and routed Marcus Cotta, the Roman general, on land at Chalcedon, while on the sea I stripped him of a fine fleet. During the delay caused by my siege of Cyzicus with a great army provisions failed me, since no one in the neighbourhood rendered me aid and at the same time winter kept me off the sea. When I, therefore, without compulsion from the enemy, attempted to return into my kingdom, I lost the best of my 439 soldiers and my fleets by shipwrecks at Parium and at Heraclea. Then when I had raised a new army at Cabira and engaged with Lucullus with varying success, scarcity once more attacked us both. He had at his command the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, unravaged by war, while I, since all the country about me had been devastated, withdrew into Armenia. Thereupon the Romans followed me, or rather followed their custom of overthrowing all monarchies, and because they were able to keep from action a huge force hemmed in by narrow defiles, boasted of the results of Tigranes’ imprudence as if they had won a victory.
I pray you, then, to consider whether you believe that when we have been crushed you will be better able to resist the Romans, or that there will be an end to the war. I know well that you have great numbers of men and large amounts of arms and gold, and it is for that reason that I seek your alliance and the Romans your spoils. Yet my advice is, while the kingdom of Tigranes is entire, and while I still have soldiers who have been trained in warfare with the Romans, to finish far from your homes and with little labour, at the expense of our bodies, a war in which we cannot conquer or be conquered without danger to you. Do you not know that the Romans turned their arms in this direction only after Ocean had blocked their westward progress? That they have possessed nothing since the beginning of their existence except what they have stolen: their home, their wives, their lands, their empire? Once vagabonds without fatherland, without parents, created to be the scourge of the whole world, no laws, human or divine, prevent them from seizing 441 and destroying allies and friends, those near them and those afar off, weak or powerful, and from considering every government which does not serve them, especially monarchies, as their enemies.
Of a truth, few men desire freedom, the greater part are content with just masters; we are suspected of being rivals of the Romans and future avengers.5 But you, who possess Seleucea, greatest of cities, and the realm of Perses famed for its riches, what can you expect from them other than guile in the present and war in the future? The Romans have weapons against all men, the sharpest where victory yields the greatest spoils; it is by audacity, by deceit, and by joining war to war that they have grown great. Following their usual custom, they will destroy everything or perish in the attempt . . .6 and this is not difficult if you on the side of Mesopotamia and we on that of Armenia surround their army, which is without supplies and without allies, and has been saved so far only by its good fortune or by our own errors. You will gain the glory of having rendered aid to great kings and of having crushed the plunderers of all the nations. This is my advice and this course I urge you to follow; do not prefer by our ruin to put off your own for a time rather than by our alliance to conquer.
[blank]
1 In 69 B.C. Mithridates and Tigranes, both of whom had been decisively defeated by Lucullus, tried to add to their forces. Mithridates wrote this letter to Arsaces, king of the Parthians, to induce him to become his ally.
2 A euphemistic expression for one who had suffered total defeat.
3 Namely, his own kingdom, which he nominally ruled, while really governing it as a province of Rome.
4 So called because in it Eumenes bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, instead of leaving it to his son.
5 That is, of planning to arise at some future time (affuturi) and avenge mankind.
6 There is a lacuna at this point. Obviously Mithridates urged Arsaces to join him in an attack upon the Romans.
1 REX MITHRIDATES regi Arsaci salutem. Omnes qui secundis rebus suis ad belli societatem orantur considerare debent liceatne tum pacem agere, dein quod quaesitur satisne pium, tutum, gloriosum an indecorum sit. 2 Tibi si perpetua pace frui liceret , nisi hostes opportuni et scelestissumi, ni8 egregia fama, si Romanos oppresseris, futura est, neque petere audeam societatem et frustra mala mea cum bonis tuis misceri sperem. 3 Atque ea, quae te morari posse videntur, ira in Tigranem recentis belli et meae res parum9 prosperae, si vera existumare voles, maxume hortabuntur. 4 Ille enim obnoxius qualem tu voles societatem accipiet, mihi fortuna multis rebus ereptis usum dedit bene suadendi et, quod florentibus optabile est, ego non validissumus praebeo exemplum, quo rectius tua componas. 434
5 Namque Romanis cum nationibus, populis, regibus cunctis una et ea vetus causa bellandi est, cupido profunda imperi et divitiarum; qua primo cum rege Macedonum Philippo bellum sumpsere, dum a Carthaginiensibus premebantur amicitiam simulantes. 6 Ei subvenientem Antiochum concessione Asiae per dolum avortere, ac mox fracto Philippo Antiochus omni cis Taurum agro et decem milibus talentorum spoliatus est. 7 Persen deinde, Philippi filium, post multa et varia certamina apud Samothracas deos acceptum in fidem, callidi et repertores perfidiae, quia pacto vitam dederant, insomniis occidere. 8 Eumenen, cuius amicitiam gloriose ostentant, initio prodidere Antiocho, pacis mercedem: post, habitum custodiae agri captivi, sumptibus et contumeliis ex rege miserrumum servorum effecere, simulatoque impio testamento filium eius Aristonicum, quia patrium regnum petiverat, hostium more per triumphum duxere. 9 Asia ab ipsis obsessa est, postremo Bithyniam Nicomede mortuo diripuere, cum filius Nysa, quam reginam appellaverat, genitus haud dubie esset.
10 Nam quid ego me appellem? Quem diiunctum undique regnis et tetrarchiis ab imperio eorum, quia 436 fama erat divitem neque serviturum esse, per Nicomedem bello lacessiverunt, sceleris eorum haud ignarum et ea, quae accidere, testatum antea Cretensis, solos omnium liberos ea tempestate, et regem Ptolemaeum. 11 Atque ego ultus iniurias Nicomedem Bithynia expuli Asiamque spolium regis Antiochi recepi et Graeciae dempsi grave servitium. 12 Incepta mea postremus servorum Archelaus exercitu prodito impedivit, illique, quos ignavia aut prava calliditas, ut meis laboribus tuti essent, armis abstinuit, acerbissumas poenas solvunt, Ptolemaeus pretio in dies bellum prolatans, Cretenses impugnati semel iam neque finem nisi excidio habituri. 13 Equidem cum milhi ob ipsorum interna mala dilata proelia magis quam pacem datam intellegerem, abnuente Tigrane, qui mea dicta sero probat, te remoto procul, omnibus aliis obnoxiis, rursus tamen bellum coepi Marcumque Cottam, Romanum ducem, apud Chalcedona10 terra fudi, mari exui classe pulcherruma. 14 Apud Cyzicum magno cum exercitu in obsidio moranti frumentum defuit, nullo circum adnitente; simul hiems mari prohibebat. Ita, sine vi hostium regredi conatus in patrium regnum, naufragiis apud Parium et Heracleam 438 militum optumos cum classibus amisi. 15 Restituto deinde apud Cabiram11 exercitu et variis inter me atque Lucullum proeliis, inopia rursus ambos iucessit; illi suberat regnum Ariobarzanis bello intactum, ego vastis circum omnibus locis, in Armeniam concessi; secutique Romani non me, sed morem suum omnia regna subvortundi, quia multitudinem artis locis pugna prohibuere, imprudentiam Tigranis pro victoria ostentant.
16 Nunc, quaeso, considera nobis oppressis utrum firmiorem te ad resistundum, an finem belli futurum putes? Scio equidem tibi magnas opes virorum armorum et auri esse; et ea re a nobis ad societatem ab illis ad praedam peteris. Ceterum consilium est, Tigranis regno integro, meis militibus belli prudentibus, procul ab domo, parvo labore per nostra corpora bellum conficere, quo12 neque vincere neque vinci sine tuo periculo possumus. 17 An ignoras Romanos, postquam ad occidentem pergentibus finem Oceanus fecit, arma huc convortisse? Neque quicquam a principio nisi raptum13 habere, domum, coniuges, agros, imperium? Convenus olim sine patria, parentibus, pestem conditos orbis terrarum, quibus non humana ulla neque divina obstant, quin 440 socios, amicos, procul iuxta sitos, inopes potentisque trahant excindant, omniaque non serva et maxume regna hostilia ducant.
18 Namque pauci libertatem, pars magna iustos dominos volunt, nos suspecti sumus aemuli et in tempore vindices affuturi. 19 Tu vero, cui Seleucea, maxuma urbium, regnumque Persidis inclutis divitiis est, quid ab illis nisi dolum in praesens et postea bellum expectas? 20 Romani arma in omnis habent, acerruma in eos, quibus victis spolia maxuma; audendo et fallundo et bella ex bellis serundo magni facti. 21 Per hunc morem extinguent omnia aut occident . . . quod haud difficile est, si tu Mesopotamia, nos Armenia circumgredimur exercitum sine frumento, sine auxiliis, fortuna aut nostris vitiis adhuc incolumem. 22 Teque illa fama sequetur, auxilio profectum magnis regibus latrones gentium oppressisse. 23 Quod uti facias moneo hortorque, neu malis pernicie nostra tuam prolatare quam societate victor fieri.
7 Histories, iv. 69.
8 ni inserted by Madvig.
9 parum, Aldus; rarum, V.
10 Calchedona, V.
11 Cabira, Carrio; Cabera, V.
12 quo, Gerlach;; quō, V.
13 raptum, Ciacconius; partum, V.