have been at this time in a similar plight.
The number of towns newly established by Pompeius in
these provinces is, including the Cilician settlements,
stated at thirty-nine, several of which attained
great prosperity. The most notable of these
townships in the former kingdom of Pontus were Nicopolis,
the “city of victory,” founded on the spot
where Mithradates sustained the last decisive defeat(24)—the
fairest memorial of a general rich in similar trophies;
Megalopolis, named from Pompeius’ surname, on
the frontier of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, the
subsequent Sebasteia (now Siwas); Ziela, where the
Romans fought the unfortunate battle,(25) a township
which had arisen round the temple of Anaitis there
and hitherto had belonged to its high-priest, and
to which Pompeius now gave the form and privileges
of a city; Diopolis, formerly Cabira, afterwards Neocaesarea
(Niksar), likewise one of the battle-fields of the
late war; Magnopolis or Pompeiupolis, the restored
Eupatoria at the confluence of the Lycus and the Iris,
originally built by Mithradates, but again destroyed
by him on account of the defection of the city to the
Romans;(26) Neapolis, formerly Phazemon, between Amasia
and the Halys. Most of the towns thus established
were formed not by bringing colonists from a distance,
but by the suppression of villages and the collection
of their inhabitants within the new ring-wall; only
in Nicopolis Pompeius settled the invalids and veterans
of his army, who preferred to establish a home for
themselves there at once rather than afterwards in
Italy. But at other places also there arose
on the suggestion of the regent new centres of Hellenic
civilization. In Paphlagonia a third Pompeiupolis
marked the spot where the army of Mithradates in 666
achieved the great victory over the Bithynians.(27)
In Cappadocia, which perhaps had suffered more than
any other province by the war, the royal residence
Mazaca (afterwards Caesarea, now Kaisarieh) and seven
other townships were re-established by Pompeius and
received urban institutions. In Cilicia and Coelesyria
there were enumerated twenty towns laid out by Pompeius.
In the districts ceded by the Jews, Gadara in the
Decapolis rose from its ruins at the command of Pompeius,
and the city of Seleucis was founded. By far
the greatest portion of the domain-land at his disposal
on the Asiatic continent must have been applied by
Pompeius for his new settlements; whereas in Crete,
about which Pompeius troubled himself little or not
at all, the Roman domanial possessions seem to have
continued tolerably extensive.