man
interference to forego the fruits of his victories, since he was not yet
prepared for war with Rome. In 91 B. C. he occupied the kingdom of
Bithynia, which lay between Pontus and the Roman province of Asia, but
again he yielded to Rome's demands and withdrew. However, when Roman
agents encouraged the King of Bithynia to raid his territory and refused
him satisfaction he decided to challenge the Roman arms, seeing that Rome
was now involved in the war with her Italian allies. War began late in 89
B. C.

*The conquests of Mithradates in Asia, 89-88 B. C.* Mithradates was well
prepared; he had a trained army and a fleet of three hundred ships. He
experienced no difficulty in defeating the local levies raised by the
Roman governor of Asia, and speedily overran Bithynia and most of the
Roman province. Meanwhile his fleet swept the Aegean Sea. The Roman
provincials who had been unmercifully exploited by tax gatherers and
money-lenders greeted Mithradates as a deliverer. At his order on a set
date in 88 B. C. they massacred the Romans and Italians resident in Asia,
said to have numbered 80,000, a step which bound them firmly to the cause
of the king.

*Athens and Delos.* In the same year, 88 B. C. the populace of Athens, in
the hope of overthrowing the oligarchic government which had been set up
in the city with the support of Rome, seized control of the state and
threw themselves into the hands of Mithradates. One of the king's
generals, Archelaus, while on his way to Athens, exterminated the Italian
colony at Delos, the center of the Roman commercial and banking interests
in the East. From this blow the island port never fully recovered.
Archelaus soon won over most of southern Greece to his master's cause,
while Mithradates sent a large army to enter Hellas by the northerly route
through Thrace and Macedonia.

*Disorders in Rome.* This situation produced a crisis in Rome. Sulla, who
had been elected consul for 88 B. C., was allotted the command in the East
upon the outbreak of hostilities. However, he had been unable to leave
Italy where he was conducting the siege of Nola in Campania. Marius,
although in his sixty-eighth year, was as ambitious as ever and schemed to
secure the command against Mithradates for himself. In this he was
supported by the equestrians, who knew Sulla to be a firm upholder of the
Senate. Accordingly the Marians joined forces with the tribune Publius
Sulpicius Rufus, who had brought forward a