Gnaeus Pompeius was sent as propraetor to Sicily, and, when he appeared on the coast with 120 sail and six legions, the island was evacuated by Perpenna without resistance.  Pompeius sent a squadron thence to Cossyra, which captured the Marian officers sojourning there.  Marcus Brutus and the others were immediately executed; but Pompeius had enjoined that the consul Carbo should be brought before himself at Lilybaeum in order that, unmindful of the protection accorded to him in a season of peril by that very man,(17) he might personally hand him over to the executioner (672).

Africa

Having been ordered to go on to Africa, Pompeius with his army which was certainly far more numerous, defeated the not inconsiderable forces collected by Ahenobarbus and Hiarbas, and, declining for the time to be saluted as -imperator-, he at once gave the signal for assault on the hostile camp.  He thus became master of the enemy in one day; Ahenobarbus was among the fallen:  with the aid of king Bogud, Hiarbas was seized and slain at Bulla, and Hiempsal was reinstated in his hereditary kingdom; a great razzia against the inhabitants of the desert, among whom a number of Gaetulian tribes recognized as free by Marius were made subject to Hiempsal, revived in Africa also the fallen repute of the Roman name:  in forty days after the landing of Pompeius in Africa all was at an end (674?).  The senate instructed him to break up his army—­ an implied hint that he was not to be allowed a triumph, to which as an extraordinary magistrate he could according to precedent make no claim.  The general murmured secretly, the soldiers loudly; it seemed for a moment as if the African army would revolt against the senate and Sulla would have to take the field against his son-in-law.  But Sulla yielded, and allowed the young man to boast of being the only Roman who had become a triumphator before he was a senator (12 March 675); in fact the “Fortunate,” not perhaps without a touch of irony, saluted the youth on his return from these easy exploits as the “Great.”

Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates

In the east also, after the embarkation of Sulla in the spring of 671, there had been no cessation of warfare.  The restoration of the old state of things and the subjugation of individual towns cost in Asia as in Italy various bloody struggles.  Against the free city of Mytilene in particular Lucius Lucullus was obliged at length to bring up troops, after having exhausted all gentler measures; and even a victory in the open field did not put an end to the obstinate resistance of the citizens.