ered them in the war
against Aristonicus. He was assassinated about B.C. 120, and was
succeeded by his son Mithridates VI., commonly called the Great, who was
then only about twelve years of age. His youth was remarkable, but much
that has been transmitted to us respecting this period of his life wears
a very suspicious aspect; it is certain, however, that when he attained
to manhood he was not only endowed with consummate skill in all martial
exercises, and possessed of a bodily frame inured to all hardships, but
his naturally vigorous intellect had been improved by careful culture.
As a boy he had been brought up at Sinope, where he had probably
received the elements of a Greek education, and so powerful was his
memory that he is said to have learned not less than twenty-five
languages, and to have been able in the days of his greatest power to
transact business with the deputies of every tribe subject to his rule
in their own peculiar dialect. As soon as he was firmly established on
the throne he began to turn his arms against the neighboring nations. On
the west his progress was hemmed in by the power of Rome, and the minor
sovereigns of Bithynia and Cappadocia enjoyed the all-powerful
protection of the Republic. But on the east his ambition found free
scope. He subdued the barbarian tribes between the Euxine and the
confines of Armenia, including the whole of Colchis and the province
called Lesser Armenia; and he even added to his dominions the Tauric
Chersonesus, now called the _Crimea_. The Greek kingdom of Bosphorus,
which formed a portion of the Chersonesus, likewise submitted to his
sway. Moreover, he formed alliances with Tigranes, king of Armenia, to
whom he gave his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, as well as with the
warlike nations of the Parthians and Iberians. He thus found himself in
possession of such great power and extensive resources, that he began to
deem himself equal to a contest with Rome itself. Many causes of
dissension had already arisen between them. Shortly after his accession,
the Romans had taken advantage of his minority to wrest from him the
province of Phrygia. In B.C. 93 they resisted his attempt to place upon
the throne of Cappadocia one of his own nephews, and appointed a
Cappadocian named Ariobarzanes to be king of that country. For a time
Mithridates submitted; but the death of Nicomedes II., king of Bithynia,
shortly afterward, at length brought matters to a crisis. That monarch
w