For, when Marcus Cicero was consul with Gaius Antonius, and Mithridates no longer inflicted any injury upon the Romans but had destroyed his own self, Catiline undertook to set up a new government, and by banding together the allies against the state threw the people into fear of a mighty conflict. Now each of these occurrences came about as follows.
[-11-] Mithridates himself did not give way under his disasters, but trusting more in his will than in his power, especially while Pompey was lingering in Syria, planned to reach the Ister through Scythia, and from that point to invade Italy. As he was by nature given to great projects and had experienced many failures and many successes, he regarded nothing as beyond his ability to venture or to hope. If he missed he preferred to perish conjointly with his kingdom, with pride unblemished, rather than to live deprived of it in inglorious humility. On this idea he grew strong. For in proportion as he wasted away through weakness of body, the more steadfast did he grow in strength of mind, so that he even revived the infirmity of the former by the reasonings of the latter.
The rest who were his associates, as the position of the Romans kept getting always more secure and that of Mithridates weaker,--among other things the greatest earthquake that had ever occurred destroyed many of their cities--became estranged; the military also mutinied and unknown persons kidnapped some of his children, whom they conveyed to Pompey.
[-12-] Thereupon he detected and punished some; others he chastised from mere suspicion: no one could any longer trust him; of his remaining children, even, he put to death one of whom he grew suspicious. Seeing this, one of his sons, Pharnaces, impelled at once by fear of the king and an expectation that he would get the kingdom from the Romans, being now of man's estate, plotted against him. He was detected, for many both openly and secretly meddled constantly with all he was doing; and if the body-guard had had even the slightest good will toward their aged sovereign, the conspirator would immediately have met his just deserts. As it was, Mithridates, who had proved himself most wise in all matters pertaining to a king, did not recognize the fact that neither arms nor multitude of subjects are of value to any one, without friendship on the part of the people; nay, the more dependents a person has (unless he holds them faithful to him) the greater burden they are to him. At any rate Pharnaces, followed both by the men he had made ready in advance, and by those whom his father had sent to arrest him (and these he very easily made his own) hastened straight on against the father himself. The old king was in Panticapaeum when he learned this, and sent ahead some soldiers against his son, saying that he himself would soon follow them. These also Pharnaces quickly diverted from their purpose, inasmuch as they did not love Mithridates either, and after receiving the voluntary submission of the city, put to death his father, who had fled for refuge into the palace.