🟡 GIVEN BY MITHRA, TAKEN BY MITHRA

“So died Mithridates, who was the sixteenth in descent from Darius, the son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians, and the eighth from that Mithridates who left the Macedonians and acquired the kingdom of Pontus. He lived sixty-eight or sixty-nine years, and of these he reigned fifty-seven, for the kingdom came to him when he was an orphan.

He subdued the neighboring barbarians and many of the Scythians, and waged a formidable war against the Romans for forty years, during which he frequently conquered Bithynia and Cappadocia, besides making incursions into the Roman province of Asia and into Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, and Macedonia.

He invaded Greece, where he performed many remarkable exploits, and ruled the sea from Cilicia to the Adriatic until Sulla confined him again to his paternal kingdom after destroying 160,000 of his soldiers. Notwithstanding these great losses he renewed the war without difficulty. He fought with the greatest generals of his time. He was vanquished by Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey, although several times he got the better of them also. Lucius Cassius, Quintus Oppius, and Manius Aquilius he took prisoners and carried them around with him. The last he killed because he was the cause of the war. The others he surrendered to Sulla.

He defeated Fimbria, Murena, the consul Cotta, Fabius, and Triarius. He was always high-spirited and indomitable even in misfortunes. Until finally overthrown he left no avenue of attack against the Romans untried. He made alliances with the Samnites and the Gauls, and he sent legates to Sertorius in Spain.

He was often wounded by enemies and by conspirators, but he never desisted from anything on that account, even when he was an old man. None of the conspiracies ever escaped his detection, not even the last one, but he voluntarily overlooked it and perished in consequence of it -- so ungrateful is the wickedness that has been once pardoned. He was bloodthirsty and cruel to all -- the slayer of his mother, his brother, three sons, and three daughters.

He had a large frame, as his armor, which he sent to Nemea and to Delphi, shows, and was so strong that he rode horseback and hurled the javelin to the last, and could ride 1000 stades in one day, changing horses at intervals. He used to drive a chariot with sixteen horses at once. He cultivated Greek learning, and thus became acquainted with the religious cult of Greece, and was fond of music. He was abstemious and patient of labor for the most part, and yielded only to pleasures with women.”

Appian, the foreign wars

🔵 LETTER FROM CONSTANTINE TO SHAPUR

A part:

3.11.10 “You may well see how delighted I am to hear that this company of my fellow servants—I mean Christians (for my whole message is about them)—abundantly adorns even the finest parts of Persia, in accord with my wishes. Now if you do what is proper and allow them to live happily, then may you accrue happiness, for they are your subjects.”

3.11.11 “Then God, the Lord of all, will be gentle, gracious, and kind toward you. Since you are so mighty and distinguished by piety, I commend them to you. I entrust the task of guiding them (I mean the Christians) to the overseers of the pious worship of God among them. Love them as befits your philanthropy. You will do an indescribable favor for yourself and for us through faith.”

3.11.12 “The all-excellent Emperor Constantine cared for those adorned with piety toward Christ so much that he not only looked after his own subjects but also took care for those living under other regimes, if possible. Therefore he enjoyed the care of God from above, and as he held the reins of all the inhabitants of the Roman world, even of the barbarians, his willing officials and subjects joyfully obeyed the bridle of his will.”

⚫️ HUMOUR AND LAUGHTER

“Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious force of its own which it is very hard to resist. It often breaks out against our will and extorts confession of its power, not merely from our face and voice, but convulses the whole body as well. Again, it frequently turns the scale in matters of great importance, as I have already observed: for instance, it often dispels hatred or anger. A proof of this is given by the story of the young men of Tarentum, who had made a number of scurrilous criticisms of Pyrrhus over the dinner table: they were called upon to answer for their statements, and, since the charge was one that admitted neither of denial nor of excuse, they succeeded in escaping, thanks to a happy jest which made the king laugh; for one of the accused said, "Yes, and if the bottle hadn't been empty, we should have killed you!" a jest which succeeded in dissipating the animosity which the charge had aroused.”

Quintilian, The Orator’s Education

🟡 KINGMAKER

“Pompey pardoned him for the past, reconciled him with his son, and decided that the latter should rule Sophene and Gordyene (which are now called Lesser Armenia), and the father the rest of Armenia, and that at his death the son should succeed him in that also. He required that Tigranes should at once give up the territory that he had gained by war. Accordingly he gave up the whole of Syria from the Euphrates to the sea; for he held that and a part of Cilicia, which he had taken from Antiochus, surnamed Pius.

Those Armenians who deserted Tigranes on the road, when he was going to Pompey, because they were afraid, persuaded his son, who was still with Pompey, to make an attempt upon his father. Pompey seized him and put him in chains. As he still tried to stir up the Parthians against Pompey, he was led in the latter's triumph and afterward put to death. And now Pompey, thinking that the whole war was at an end, founded a city on the place where he had overcome Mithridates in battle, which is called Nicopolis (the city of victory) from that affair, and is situated in Lesser Armenia.

To Ariobarzanes he gave back the kingdom of Cappadocia and added to it Sophene and Gordyene, which he had partitioned to the son of Tigranes, and which are now administered as parts of Cappadocia. He gave him also the city of Castabala and some others in Cilicia. Ariobarzanes intrusted his whole kingdom to his son while he was still living. Many changes took place until the time of Cæsar Augustus, under whom this kingdom, like many others, became a Roman province.”

Appian, the foreign wars

🔶 DEMETRIUS CLAIMS THE SELEUCID THRONE

“Antiochus, on returning to his kingdom, died, leaving a son quite a boy. Guardians being assigned him by the people, his uncle Demetrius, who was a hostage at Rome, and who had heard of the death of his brother, went to the senate, and said that "he had come to Rome as a hostage while his brother was alive, but that now he was dead, he did not know for whom he was a hostage. It was therefore reasonable," he added, "that he should be released to claim the throne, which, as he had conceded it to his elder brother by the law of nations, now of right belonged to himself, as he was superior to the orphan in age." But finding that he was not released by the senate (their private opinion being that the throne would be better in the hands of the young prince than in his), he left the city on pretence of going to hunt, and secretly took ship at Ostia, with such as attended him in his flight. On arriving in Syria, he was favourably received by the whole people, and the orphan being put to death, the throne was resigned to him by the guardians.”

Justinus

🔴 WINGS TO IRON

“The most useful and the most fatal instrument in the hand of mankind. For by the aid of iron we lay open the ground, we plant trees, we prepare our vineyard-trees, and we force our vines each year to resume their youthful state, by cutting away their decayed branches. It is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, and this, not only hand to hand, but from a distance even, by the aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines, now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with feathery wings. This last I regard as the most criminal artifice that has been devised by the human mind; for, as if to bring death upon man with still greater rapidity, we have given wings to iron and taught it to fly. Let us there- fore acquit Nature of a charge that here belongs to man himself.”

“In the treaty which Porsena granted to the Roman people, after the expulsion of the kings, we find it expressly stipulated, that iron shall be only employed for the cultivation of the fields.”

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder

🔘 ONE MORE VIGOUR, ONE MORE VIRTUE

“This was the end reserved by fortune for the party of Marcus Brutus. He was in his thirty-seventhyear, and had kept his soul free from corruption until this day, which, through the rashness of a single act, bereft him, together with his life, of all his virtuous qualities. Cassius was as much the better general as Brutus was the better man. Of the two, one would rather have Brutus as a friend, but would stand more in fear of Cassius as an enemy. The one had more vigour, the other more virtue. As it was better for the state to have Caesar rather than Antony as emperor, so, had Brutus and Cassius been the conquerors, it would have been better for is to be ruled by Brutus rather than by Cassius.”

Velleius Paterculus, Roman History

🔵 BATTLE OF BEDRIACUM, 69 AD

“A shout was raised on all sides, and the soldiers of the third legion saluted, as is the custom in Syria, the rising sun.”

“A vague rumour thus arose, or was intentionally suggested by the general, that Mucianus had arrived, and that the two armies had exchanged salutations. The men then charged as confidently as if they had been strengthened by fresh reinforcements, while the enemy's array was now less compact; for, as there was no one to command, it was now contracted, now extended, as the courage or fear of individual soldiers might prompt. Antonius, seeing that they gave way, charged them with a heavy column; the loose ranks were at once broken, and, entangled as they were among their waggons and artillery, could not be re-formed.”

Tacitus