LUCULLUS.
the Romans with the same determination, as in former cam-
paigns. We have a detailed description of the excitions with
which it was besieged by sea and by land7: Mithridates had
landed his troops in the island which contained a part of the
city, and was connected with the main land only by a dam ;
from that island and from the sea he conducted the siege with
the greatest vigour; but without being supported by the
Romans, the citizens of Cyzicus repelled every attack.
In the meanwhile, LucuIIus arrived in Asia. He was a deter-
mined champion of the party of Sulla, and immensely rich : he
has acquired an unfortunate importance, as having more than
any one else familiarised his countrymen with Asiatic luxuries.
He was a distinguished general, and must have had other
estimable qualities besides, as Cicero esteemed him highly:
but his exorbitant riches cannot have been acquired in an
honest way; they must have been accumulated in time of
war. He brought a fresh army with him to Asia, at the time
when Mithridates was engaged with the siege of Cyzicus, and
took up a favourable position on the Aesepus in Phrygia; by
this means he rendered it so difficult for Mithridates to obtain
the necessary supply of provisions, that the king at last felt
obliged to raise the blockade and to retreat. The circumstance
of his having continued the siege of Cyzicus too long was but
a slight mistake and must not be urged too much against him;
for even the greatest generals of the eighteenth century com-
mitted similar blunders. Frederic the Great and Napoleon
made great mistakes: the duke of Wellington is, perhaps, the
only general in whose conduct of war we cannot discover any
important mistake. Pyrrhus committed very great faults, and
Hannibal was probably not altogether free from them. After
leaving Cyzicus, Mithridates retreated, and could not maintain
himself anywhere; and, when he had escaped to the interior of
Pontus, we entirely lose sight of him. LucuIIus set out in pursuit
of him, and transferred the war into Pontus. Here too Mith-
ridates did not know how to render the sieges of his towns diffi-
cult for the Romans, although the towns themselves, as Amisus,
Sinope and others, held out very bravely. He actually allowed
himself to be driven out of his own country, and threw himself
into the arms of his son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia.8
7 Appian, I. c. 73, foil; Plutarch, Lucull. 9.
β Appian, l-с- IG—78; PIutarch Lucull. 9—14.
SUCCESSES OF LUCULLUS.
LECTURE XCL
It was, as we have seen, in his second campaign, that for-
tune turned against Mithridates. His armies, amounting to
hundreds of thousands of hoplites were dispersed, his principal
towns in the west of Pontus, which is the most beautiful part
of it, were taken, and he himself sought refuge with Tigranes,
his son-in-law. After having completed the conquest of west-
ern Pontus, LucuIIus followed him across the mountains into
Armenia, and laid siege to Tigranocerta, the capital of Tigranes,
whose Armenian army was routed and dispersed like chaff.
The capital itself, although defended with somewhat greater
energy than the Armenians had shewn in the open field, was
taken after a short siege, and Tigranes retreated before Lucul-
lus. Gibbon justly remarks, that the character of a nation
often undergoes a surprising change even under apparently
unfavourable circumstances, but that sometimes it changes
only slightly, or even remains the same, notwithstanding the
influence of the greatest vicissitudes; as an instance of which
we may mention the Spaniards. Some nations grow worse;
but the Armenians improved. Towards Lucullus, and even
long before, during the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks,
they behaved in as cowardly a way as the Persians under
Xerxes did towards the Greeks ; but during the period of
the eastern empire, and down to a late period of the
middle ages, they were the bravest among the Asiatics,
and were the flower of the Byzantine armies. It has been
remarked, with equal justice, that their cowardice can be the
less acounted for, as Armenia is a very cold country, and in
its mountains the winter is much more severe than in Germany.
In the neighbourhood of Erzeroum, snow often falls even
before the end of September, and in October it is very common.1
Lucullus penetrated into Mesopotamia, and took his head-
quarters at Nisibis (the ancient Zaba in the second book of
1 Gibbon did not sufficiently consider the fact, that the Armenians embraced
Christianityrvithgreat enthusiasm; and that, as Christians, they were for the
most part hostile towards the Persians and the Magian religion, and attached to
the Christian emperors OfByzantium. At a later peiɪod, they were enthusiastic
adherents of the Paulician doctrines. — N.