In addition to his present extraordinary
command, Pompey was entrusted with the conduct of the war in Asia, and he
was left unfettered to act at his own discretion. He crossed the Bosphorus
with fifty thousand men; he invaded Pontus; he inflicted a decisive defeat
on Mithridates, and broke up his army; he drove the Armenians back into
their own mountains, and extorted out of them a heavy war indemnity. The
barbarian king who had so long defied the Roman power was beaten down at
last, and fled across the Black Sea to Kertch, where his sons turned
against him. He was sixty-eight years old, and could not wait till the
wheel should make another turn. Broken down at last, he took leave of a
world in which for him there was no longer a place. His women poisoned
themselves successfully. He, too fortified by antidotes to end as they
ended, sought a surer death, and fell like Saul by the sword of a slave.
Rome had put out her real strength, and at once, as before, all opposition
went down before her. Asia was completely conquered up to the line of the
Euphrates. The Black Sea was held securely by a Roman fleet. Pompey passed
down into Syria. Antioch surrendered without resistance. Tyre and Damascus
followed. Jerusalem was taken by storm, and the Roman general entered the
Holy of Holies. Of all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Egypt
only was left independent, and of all the islands only Cyprus.
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