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The historians of Antiquity considered Mithridates of Pontus
one of the most ruthless adversaries the Roman Republic ever had.
Rome and Pontus fought three wars known as the Mithridatic Wars in the first half of the 1st century BC.
These conflicts not only killed hundreds of thousands but also brought the end of Republican rule closer.
In this video we will describe the first of these wars.
The Kingdom of Pontus was one of the states formed during the Diadochi Wars.
Its first king Mithridates wrestled away Northern Cappadocia and Eastern Paphlagonia from Antigonus
and created the kingdom in 280 BC.
Pontus managed to defend its initial territory
and expanded to the north by conquering the Greek colonies along the Black Sea coast
and part of Galatia in the first half of the 2nd century BC.
By the end of the 2nd century BC, the Roman Republic had control over Greece
and had established the provinces of Asia and Cilicia in Anatolia.
Neighboring Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Cappadocia became Roman client states.
In 113 BC, Mithridates VI came to power.
He was far more ambitious than his predecessors and in the next 10 years took control of Colchis,
won a war against the Scythians
and forced Bosphorus to submit to his rule in exchange for protection against the nomads.
Mithridates was eager to subjugate other kingdoms in Anatolia
and in 108 BC, he allied himself with Bithynian king Nicomedes III and partitioned Paphlagonia.
The Romans were fighting against the Cimbri and the Numidians,
so they only sent an emissary which was ignored by both kings.
Between 102 BC and 97 BC, Mithridates took Cappadocia.
However, the Romans were not at war anymore
so when the Senate ordered the kings to leave Paphlagonia and Cappadocia in 95 BC,
they chose to obey.
Governor of Cilicia Lucius Cornelius Sulla installed a new king, Ariobarzanes, in Cappadocia
but the situation was not entirely resolved.
In 94 BC, Mithridates married his daughter to the king of Armenia Tigranes.
Three years later, he asked his son-in-law to invade Cappadocia while his army moved to occupy Bithynia.
Although Rome was now involved in the Social War against its Italic allies,
it was able to send a small force led by former consul Manius Aquillius
to restore their clients to the Cappadocian and Bithynian thrones.
Aquillius had just a few thousand legionaries under his command but he was able to raise allied troops
and as neither Mithridates nor Tigranes wanted to go to war against Rome,
he achieved his goals by the end of 90 BC.
Aquillius tried to provoke the Bithynians into attacking Pontus and succeeded in 89 BC.
Mithridates asked the Romans to restrain the Bithynians but was ignored
and had no other choice but to reinvade Cappadocia.
That was the last straw that triggered the First Mithridatic War.
The Romans had a single legion in the area
but they quickly raised three auxiliary armies that contained 40,000 warriors
and they were supported by 50,000 Bithynians of the King Nicomedes that were already in Paphlagonia.
Mithridates had between 150,000 and 200,000 troops.
The vanguard of his army met the Bithynian forces near the Amnias River in Paphlagonia
and his outnumbered generals Neoptolemus and Archelaus won the first battle of the war.
Only 20,000 Bithynian troops were able to retreat to the Roman positions.
The Roman army now had more than 40,000 soldiers,
but Mithridates' main force still outnumbered them at least 2 to 1.
The Pontic king moved swiftly into Bithynia and easily defeated Aquillius in the Battle of Protopachium,
killing half of his troops.
The locals killed the legionaries and handed Aquillius to Mithridates
who executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.
The second Roman army led by Cassius was heavily outnumbered
and retreated to the island of Rhodes under Pontic pressure.
The third army tried to flee to the province of Asia and sheltered behind the walls of Laodicea.
When Mithridates' forces approached the town, its citizens handed the Romans to him to get amnesty.
The campaign of 89 BC broke Roman rule in the province of Asia.
Mithridates gained popularity with the locals by promising not to collect taxes for 5 years.
In Rome, Sulla was appointed to lead an army against Pontus
but he was handicapped by the ongoing internal turmoil.
Mithridates was not going to waste any time
and in 88 BC, ordered all Romans and Italics in Asia Minor to be killed.
100,000 were executed in what was later called the Asiatic Vespers
and is widely considered to be one of the first genocides in history.
Greece still hoped to gain independence.
In the spring of 88 BC, the leader of the anti Roman party in Athens,
Ariston, was elected the Strategos and invited Mithridates to Greece.
The latter sent Archelaus whose arrival caused anti-Roman rebellions in southern Greece.
Rome had two legions in the area but they were busy fighting the Thracians
so only a small force was able to somewhat block the movement of Archelaus and the rebels to the north.
Sulla landed in Aetolia in 87 BC.
He moved towards Attica and besieged Athens and Piraeus.
As Mithridates had a naval advantage
it was not possible to prevent supplies and reinforcements from helping Piraeus.
A new Pontic army was moving through Thrace and Macedon
so Sulla had to finish the sieges as soon as possible.
On the 1st of March 86 BC, the Romans finally broke into Athens
and slaughtered most of the members of the anti-Roman party.
With his rear safe, Sulla was now free to move to Boeotia.
The two armies met near Chaeronea, where Philip II once put an end to the freedom of Greece.
The Pontic army led by Archelaus had 70,000 troops,
among them were 30,000 infantrymen
20,000 skirmishes from Asia
15,000 Macedonian-style phalangists
2,000 cavalrymen and a few hundred chariots.
Sulla had six legions under his command that amounted to 30,000 legionaries,
5,000 allied Greek infantry and 2,000 cavalrymen for a total of less than 40,000.
Sulla's army was occupying a hill and the two forces were divided by the river Cephissus.
The Romans had an excellent defensive position
but their supply lines were susceptible to attack as the narrow pass guarded by the old Acropolis
could be quickly taken by the Pontic forces.
Both generals attempted to take the Acropolis
but it was the Romans who succeeded
and they also blocked the Pontic units from taking Chaeronea from the west.
Archelaus then tried to go for the city by moving around the nearby mountains and attacking from the north,
but he was eventually blocked by the full force of Sulla's army.
The armies were now facing each other.
The Romans had the river Cephissus to their left and their flank occupied Mount Thurium.
The Pontic army positioned itself in a broader formation
with its right side threatening the Roman left with encirclement.
The battle started with the Pontic right flank trying to take the hill from the Roman left
but this position was too strong and the attacking forces lost 3,000 men.
Archelaus' chariots tried to attack the Roman center,
but the Legionaries allowed them to pass through gaps in the line and then killed most of the crews.
The battle in the center between the legionaries and the phalagists was inconclusive.
The Pontic general still thought that the Roman left was the weakest link so he ordered more forces to attack.
Sulla was able to read that movement
and his reserves from the center arrived just in time to block the flanking units Archelaus sent.
The Pontic army had more reserves that were moving to attack the Roman left
and Sulla had no other choice but to lead all of his cavalry to help.
Archelaus tried to use the fact that the Roman right was now weakened by sending more troops to attack it,
but Sulla understood this maneuver, returned to his right flank and then led it in the attack.
The Pontic left was pushed towards the river and separated from the center
and the Pontic right was being surrounded and destroyed by the Roman left.
The Pontic center still stood and Archelaus tried to retreat to the camp,
but that only increased the number of casualties.
Only 10,000 Pontic troops were able to escape by sea.
Sulla's situation was still precarious as Archelaus received 80,000 reinforcements
and Mithridiates controlled the seas.
He also had political problems as his rivals in the Senate appointed consul Flaccus to replace Sulla.
Flaccus landed in Greece shortly after.
Sulla wasn't interested in being replaced
and he positioned himself in central Greece to be able to fight either Flaccus or Archelaus.
The latter decided that he was prepared to take on Sulla again and landed in Boeotia.
Their two armies met near Orchomenus.
The Pontic forces outnumbered the Romans at least 3 to 1.
Archelaus constructed his camp to the north of the now drained Lake Copais.
Sulla's troops were formed in three lines, and he left lanes to lead the chariots into.
The legionaries were ordered to build defensive spikes in front of the second line
and dig trenches on both ends to avoid being outflanked.
The Pontic general responded by sending his cavalry in on both sides,
and while the attack on the Roman right failed, the attack on the Roman left almost succeeded
but Sulla saved the day by personally moving there.
Archelaus sent in his chariots and phalanx in the center.
The Romans retreated behind the stakes and the chariot drivers panicked, retreated and disrupted their phalanx.
Archelaus tried to move his cavalry to help his center
but that only added to the panic, while also freeing up Roman cavalry to counterattack
the disorganized phalanx and drive all Pontic forces back to their camp with the help of the infantry line.
Once the Pontic army was in camp, Sulla ordered his troops to dig ditches to besiege it.
His counterpart attempted to disrupt the Roman investment
but failed and a later Roman assault took his camp.
Most of the Pontic army was destroyed.
Mithridates sued for peace but Sulla's demands were too high.
The defeats weakened Mithridates' hold over Anatolia and many of his holdings rebelled.
The second Roman army led by Flaccus was moving through Thrace.
Although the soldiers mutinied, killed Flaccus and appointed Fimbria in his stead,
the movement of this army into Asia Minor continued.
The Pontic army sent against them was defeated.
Mithridates had to sue for peace once again.
The peace was signed at Dardanus in 85 BC.
Mithridates had to give up all of his conquests in Asia Minor along with 80 warships
and Pontus had to pay 3,000 talents of war indemnity.
Sulla restored Roman rule in Asia,
dealt with Fimbria and in 84 BC, returns to Italy to fight his political enemies.
Mithridates would go on to fight two more wars against Rome, but that is a documentary for another day.
Thank you for watching our documentary on the First Mithridatic War.
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