Career
Climbing the cursus honorum,the sequential mixture of military and political administrative positions held by aspiring politicians in the early Roman Republic, [5] [6] it is assumed that he held the post of praetor in 77. [7] Elected consul in 74 BC alongside Lucius Licinius Lucullus,he was soon concerned with the escalating situation in the east brought about by the acquisition of the new province of Bithynia and the subsequent renewal of conflict with King Mithridates VI of Pontus who had invaded Bithynia. Having received Bithynia as his proconsular command [8] he received command of a fleet to protect his province and was dispatched to the east towards the end of his period as consul. [9]
The original plan was that Cotta should tie down Mithridates' fleet,while Lucullus attacked by land. Cotta was therefore ordered to station his fleet at Chalcedon,while Lucullus marched through Phrygia with the intention of invading Pontus. Lucullus had not advanced far when news came through that Mithridates had made a rapid march westward,attacked Cotta,and forced him to flee behind the walls of Chalcedon. Sixty-four Roman ships had been captured or burnt,and Cotta had lost three thousand men. [10] Cotta was forced to remain in Chalcedon until Lucullus could to come to his rescue. [11] Mithridates left Cotta under siege at Chalcedon while he himself marched his main army westwards. Lucullus caught Mithridates besieging Cyzicus and established a counter-siege successfully trapping Mithridates' army before the city. Famine and disease did the work for Lucullus at the Siege of Cyzicus. Mithridates left his army to its fate and fled by ship to Nicomedia. [12]
Having made his way to Nicomedia,Cotta watched in frustration as Mithridates,learning that his fleet had been destroyed by Lucullus,escaped the city and sailed down the Bosporus to the town of Heraclea Pontica. [13] Joined by Lucullus at Nicomedia in 73,Cotta was assigned the task of securing Lucullus' rear by capturing Heraclea Pontica,which Mithridates had reinforced with 4,000 troops. [14] After reducing the Pontic coast,Cotta began besieging Heraclea Pontica,which took him two years to capture,sacking the city in 71. [15] During this time he dismissed one of his quaestors,P. Oppius,charging him with bribery and conspiracy. [16]
Returning to Rome in 70 BC,Cotta was at first widely acclaimed for his victory at Heraclea Pontica. [17] However,around 67 BC he was accused of appropriation of war booty by Gaius Papirius Carbo. He was convicted of the offence and expelled from the Senate. [18]
This article concerns the period 79 BC – 70 BC.
Year 75 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Octavius and Cotta. The denomination 75 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Pontic coast, and Phrygia to the southeast towards the interior of Asia Minor.
Nicomedes IV Philopator was the king of Bithynia from c. 94 BC to 74 BC. He was the first son and successor of Nicomedes III of Bithynia.
Lucius Licinius Lucullus was an optimas politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In the culmination of over twenty years of almost continuous military and government service, he became the conqueror of the eastern kingdoms in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary generalship in diverse situations, most famously during the Siege of Cyzicus in 73–72 BC, and at the Battle of Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene in 69 BC. His command style received unusually favourable attention from ancient military experts, and his campaigns appear to have been studied as examples of skillful generalship.
Mithridates I Ctistes, also known as Mithridates III of Cius, was a Persian nobleman and the founder of the Kingdom of Pontus in Anatolia.
The Third Mithridatic War, the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, was fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. Both sides were joined by a great number of allies dragging the entire east of the Mediterranean and large parts of Asia into the war. The conflict ended in defeat for Mithridates, ending the Pontic Kingdom, ending the Seleucid Empire, and also resulting in the Kingdom of Armenia becoming an allied client state of Rome.
The siege of Cyzicus took place in 73 BC between the armies of Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman-allied citizens of Cyzicus in Mysia and Roman Republican forces under Lucius Licinius Lucullus. It was in fact a siege and a counter-siege. It ended in a decisive Roman victory.
The Battle of Cabira was fought in 72 or 71 BC between forces of the Roman Republic under proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus and those of the Kingdom of Pontus under Mithridates the Great. It was a decisive Roman victory.
The Battle of Lemnos was fought on the island of Lemnos in 73 BC between a Roman fleet and a Mithridatic fleet; it was a decisive event during the Third Mithridatic War. The primary chroniclers of the battle are Appian, Cicero and Memnon, but there remain debates about the specifics in these different accounts.
Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus was a Roman politician and general who was one of two Consuls of the Republic in 72 BC along with Lucius Gellius. Closely linked to the family of Pompey, he is noted for being one of the consular generals who led Roman legions against the slave armies of Spartacus in the Third Servile War.
The Kingdom of Pontus was a Hellenistic kingdom, centered in the historical region of Pontus and ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty of Persian origin, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great and the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC. The Kingdom of Pontus reached its largest extent under Mithridates VI the Great, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Bithynia, the Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos, and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia. After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars, Pontus was defeated. The western part of it was incorporated into the Roman Republic as the province Bithynia et Pontus; the eastern half survived as a client kingdom until 62 AD.
Bithynia and Pontus was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus. The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces.
Marcus Marius was a quaestor of the Roman Republic in 76 BC and proquaestor under Quintus Sertorius's government in exile in Spain. Marius was sent by Sertorius to Mithradates of Pontus as an advisor and military commander in the Third Mithridatic War. He is named as or more likely confused with a Varius in Appian.
The Battle of Zela, not to be confused with the more famous battle in 47 BC, was fought in 67 BC near Zela in the Kingdom of Pontus. The battle resulted in a stunning Pontic victory and King Mithridates' successful reclamation of his kingdom. Mithridates' victory was short-lived however, as within a few years he would be completely defeated by Pompey the Great.
The Battle of Chalcedon was a land and naval battle between the Roman Republic and king Mithridates VI of Pontus near the city of Chalcedon in 74 BC. The battle was the first major clash of the Third Mithridatic War. The Roman forces were led by Marcus Aurelius Cotta, one of the consuls for 74 BC, while Mithridates had the overall command of the Pontic forces. The Mithridatic forces were victorious on both land and sea.
The Battle of the Rhyndacus occurred in 73 BC between a Roman Republican force under the command of the proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus and a division of the army of Mithridates VI of Pontus as part of the Third Mithridatic War. The Romans were victorious.
The Fimbrian or Valerian legions were two Roman legions which served and fought in all three wars against King Mithridates of Pontus, one of the Roman Republic's chief adversaries during the 80s, 70s and 60s BC. They became a body of long serving legionaries known for their fierce fighting reputation and also, more infamously, for mutiny and abandoning their commander. The legions take their name from the consul Lucius Valerius Flaccus, who first recruited them in 86 BC, and from his subordinate, Flavius Fimbria, who took command of the legions after inciting a mutiny and murdering Flaccus.
The Siege of Heraclea was a military investment of the city of Heraclea Pontica during the Third Mithridatic War. The siege was conducted by the Roman proconsul Marcus Aurelius Cotta and the legate Gaius Valerius Triarius. They were besieging the adherents of Mithridates of Pontus, who held the city for the Pontic king. Heraclea was located on the strategically important northern land route into the kingdom of Pontus and had been taken and garrisoned by Mithridates on his retreat from the Siege of Cyzicus. The 4,000-man strong Mithridatic garrisoned was commanded by Connacorex, one of the king's generals, and held out for almost two years. After taking Heraclea, the Romans plundered the city extensively.
Gaius Valerius Triarius was a First Century BC Roman politician and general, a member of the gens Valeria. During the Third Mithridatic War he served as a legate to Lucius Licinius Lucullus, the Roman commander in charge of the war effort against king Mithridates VI of Pontus. He played a pivotal role in the capture of Heraclea Pontica, but was later defeated by Mithridates at the Battle of Zela in 67 BC.
Roman Republic