ed
his father, Mithridates marched against and assassinated him. Then he
set on the throne his own son, to whom he gave his nephew's name, and
made Gordius his guardian. Him the Cappadocians expelled, and raised
to the throne another nephew of Mithridates; but Mithridates instantly
drove him from power. Nicomedes now appealed to the Senate, and
produced, as he asserted, a third nephew of Mithridates as a claimant
for the crown. To support his assertion he sent his wife to Rome to
swear she had had three sons. Mithridates, as if in burlesque of the
imposture, sent Gordius to swear that the youth on the throne was son
of a Cappadocian king who had died more than thirty years before. The
Senate decided as a lion might between two jackals quarrelling over
a carcase. It took Cappadocia from Mithridates and Paphlagonia from
Nicomedes, and declared both countries free. But the Cappadocians
clamoured for a king, and so, in 93, the Senate appointed Ariobarzanes
I. Mithridates then stirred up Tigranes, King of Armenia, to expel
Ariobarzanes, who fled to Rome. Sulla was sent to restore him, and
did so in 92, after defeating the Cappadocians under Gordius and the
Armenians. [Sidenote: The Romans come in contact with the Parthians.]
It was when he was on this mission that the Romans and Parthians
confronted each other for the first time. The Parthians sent an
embassy to ask for the alliance of Rome. Three chairs were set for
Ariobarzanes, Sulla, and Orobazus; and Sulla, who was only propraetor,
took the central seat. This incensed the Parthian king; and he
revenged himself not on Sulla, but on the unfortunate Orobazus, whom
he put to death. A Chaldean in the Parthian's suite, after studying
Sulla's face, predicted great things for him; which pleased Sulla as
much as it would have done Marius, for he believed in his luck just as
his rival did in his seventh consulship. But when he came home he was
impeached for taking bribes from Ariobarzanes, and no doubt he had
made his trip which was so gratifying to his pride not less profitable
also, and had had his appetite whetted for a second taste of eastern
treasures. Mithridates, meanwhile, was brooding over his humiliation
and meditating revenge. He went on a journey incognito through the
Roman province of Asia and Bithynia, intending to attack both if he
found himself strong enough. When he came back he found that his wife,
who was also his sister, had been unfaithful to him, and he put h