Mithridates Still Had A Small Float
Of Fifty Ships, On Board Of Which Were 10,000 Land Forces.
These were at
sea; but with what object does not appear:
They were met, however, near
Lemnos, by a Roman squadron, and entirely defeated; thirty-two of them
being captured, and the rest sunk. On receiving information of this
victory, the Roman senate ordered Lucullus to be paid 3000 talents to
repair and augment his fleet; but he refused them, answering, "that with
the succours he could get from their allies, he should be able to gain the
dominion of the sea, and conquer Mithridates:" at the same time he sent to
Rome 110 galleys, armed with beaks. Mithridates, however, was still
formidable at sea, and continued so, till the Romans gained another victory
over him, near the island of Tenedos, in which they took and sunk sixty
ships: after this, he was not able to fit out another fleet. As the
remainder of the war between him and the Romans was entirely confined to
land operations, we shall pass it by, and proceed to the other naval
enterprizes of the Romans about this period.
The war with Mithridates employed the attention and the resources of the
Romans so completely, that the pirates again infested the Mediterranean
seas without control. Their numbers and force were greatly augmented by the
destruction of Carthage and Corinth; for the inhabitants of these cities,
having neither a place of retreat, nor the means of subsistence, naturally
turned their thoughts to piracy, having been accustomed to sea affairs, and
to commerce. In this they were encouraged by Mithridates, and assisted by
some persons of considerable rank and wealth. The inability of the Romans
to attend to them, and the success and encouragement they obtained, induced
them to conduct their piracies on a regular, systematic, and extensive
plan. Their ships were constantly at sea: all commerce was interrupted;
with their 1000 galleys - for so numerous were they - they exercised a
complete sovereignty over all the coasts of the Mediterranean. They formed
themselves into a kind of commonwealth, selected magistrates and officers,
who appointed each fleet its respective station and object, and built
watch-towers, arsenals, and magazines. They depended chiefly on Cilicia for
the necessary supplies for their fleets. Emboldened by their success, and
by the occupation afforded to the Romans by Mithridates, they ravaged the
whole line of the Italian coast; sacked the towns and temples, from which
they expected a considerable booty; plundered the country seats on the
sea-shore; carried off the inhabitants for slaves; blocked up all the ports
of the republic; ventured as far as the entrance of the Tiber; sunk part of
the Roman fleet at Ostia, and even threatened Rome itself, which they more
than once deprived of its ordinary and necessary subsistence. The scarcity
of provisions was, indeed, not confined to Rome; but no vessel venturing to
sea in the Mediterranean without being captured, it extended to those parts
of Asia and Africa which lie on that sea. Their inveteracy, however, was
principally directed against the Roman commerce, and the Romans themselves.
If any of their captives declared himself to be a Roman, they threw
themselves in derision at his feet, begging his pardon, and imploring his
protection; but after they had insolently sported with their prisoner, they
often dressed him in a toga, and then, casting out a ship's ladder, desired
him to return home, and wished him a good journey. If he refused to leap
into the sea, they threw him overboard, saying, "that they would not by any
means keep a free-born Roman in captivity!"
In order to root out this dreadful evil, Gabinius, the tribune of the
people, proposed a law, to form, what he called, the proconsulate of the
seas. This law, though vigorously opposed at first, eventually was carried.
The person to whom this new office was to be entrusted, was to have
maritime power, without control or restriction, over all the seas, from the
Pillars of Hercules to the Thracian Bosphorus, and the countries lying on
these seas, for fifty miles inland: he was to be empowered to raise as many
seamen and troops as he deemed necessary, and to take, out of the public
treasury, money sufficient to pay the expence of paying them, equipping the
ships, and executing the objects of the law. The proconsulate of the
seas was to be vested in the same person for three years.
As Gabinius was the known friend of Pompey, all Pompey's enemies
strenuously opposed this law, as evidently intended to confer authority on
him; but the people not only passed it, but granted Pompey, who was chosen
to fill the office, even more than Gabinius had desired, for they allowed
him to equip 500 ships, to raise 120,000 foot, and to select out of the
senate twenty senators to act as his lieutenants.
As soon as Pompey was vested with the authority conferred by this law, he
put to sea; and, by his prudent and wise measures, not less than by his
activity and vigour, within four months (instead of the three years which
were allowed him) he freed the seas from pirates, having beaten their fleet
in an engagement near the coast of Cilicia, and taken or sunk nearly 1000
vessels, and made himself master of 120 places on the coast, which they had
fortified: in the whole of this expedition he did not lose a single ship.
In order effectually to prevent the pirates from resuming their
depredations, he sent them to people some deserted cities of Cilicia.
It might have been supposed that as the Romans had suffered so much from
the pirates, and as Rome itself was dependent for subsistence on foreign
supplies of corn, which could not be regularly obtained, while the pirates
were masters of the seas, they would have directed their attention more
than they did to maritime affairs and commerce, especially after the
experience they had had of the public calamities which might thus be
averted.
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