responsible. Some of the latter have been derived from the edition of this speech by Richter and Eberhard (Leipzig, 1876).

The only title for this oration known to the ancient grammarians and rhetoricians and found in the best MSS. is de Imperio Cn. Pompei: the superscription pro Lege Manilia appears only in some inferior MSS., but it has become so familiar, that it may perhaps be retained as an alternative title.

MANCHESTER, June, 1879.

1.

INTRODUCTION.

MITHRIDATES' VI. EUPATOR, the most dangerous foreign foe with whom Rome had had to deal since the days of Hannibal, was a man of unusual mental and physical powers, a brave soldier and an enterprising general, but heartless and cruel in pursuance of his dynastic aims, as only an Asiatic despot is. Since he had succeeded to the government of his paternal kingdom, he had been restlessly scheming for the extension of his dominion. His first plans had been directed against the barbarous tribes and the Greek

1) On Greek inscriptions and coins the form of the name is Mopadárns, which is interpreted to mean 'given by Mithras' [the name of the sun-god among the Persians. Cp. Diodotus, Zenodotus, etc. among the Greeks]. 2) His power of

acquiring foreign languages is well known: he is said to have spoken more than twenty dialects of the tribes under his sway (cp. esp. Gell. XVII. 17); so that he was the Mezzofanti of antiquity. Hence Adelung chose for his well-known polyglot work the title Mithridates. 3) Appian Mithr. 112, he was of tall stature...and so robust that to the end of his life he rode and shot, and travelled a thousand furlongs a day, on relays of horses.' Sall. Hist. frag. v. 4, peractis septuaginta annis armatus equum insilire. Cp. the masterly sketch in Mommsen's History, Vol. III. pp. 275-278. 4) Frandsen (Gesch.

des Mithridates, Altona 1847) assumes from Strabo, xII. 3, 1 that the kingdom of Pontus, when Mithridates succeeded to the throne, extended from the river Porthenius to the town of Trapezus (Trebizonde). Cp. also Mommsen, III. 279.

colonies, which lay around the Black Sea; it was only after he had greatly strengthened his power by long and successful struggles in the North, where he had established a second kingdom", that of Bosporus, that he began to embrace Western Asia also in his plans of conquest. Its subjugation was to be the main object of his life. With this purpose in view, he left his kingdom secretly, accompanied by a few faithful followers, travelled incognito through all Asia Minor, and made himself acquainted with the situation of all the towns and districts. The most powerful enemies who confronted him here, were the Romans, who after reducing Aristonicus, had made out of the kingdom of Pergamus the provincia Asia in B. C. 129. But powerful in the extended empire which he had won by his own exertions, and trusting to his veteran army, he felt a match for the Romans; and he was the more ready to engage in a struggle with them, that he could never forget how the possession of Phrygia Magna, which M'. Aquillius, the conqueror of Aristonicus, had been induced by a large bribe to cede to his father, had been lost to him by the refusal of the senate to confirm the cession".

2. The immediate occasion of his being involved with Rome was furnished towards the beginning of the first century B. C., by the disputes which broke out as to the thrones of Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and

5) For the details see Mommsen, III. 280 ff. I. c. 12. 57. Mommsen, III. 56, 120 note.

Appian,