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CHAPTER XII.

SULLA IN GREECE AND ASIA.

[Sidenote:  Aristion at Athens.] A citizen of Athens, named Aristion, whose mother was an Egyptian slave, and who was the son or adopted son of one Athenion, had been sent by the Athenians as ambassador to Mithridates.  He had been a schoolmaster and teacher of rhetoric, and professed the philosophy of Epicurus.  He gained the ear of Mithridates, and sent home flaming accounts of the king’s power, and of his intention of restoring the democracy at Athens.  The Athenians sent some ships of war to bring him home from Euboea, with a present of a silver-footed litter; and in this, clothed in purple, and with a fine ring on his finger, which he had got probably from his friend Mithridates, he came back to Athens with much parade. [Sidenote:  Revolt of Athens from Rome.] In a set speech he dilated on the king’s splendid successes, and advised the people to declare themselves independent and elect him their general.  They did so, and he very soon massacred his opponents and made himself despot.  Thus Athens and the Piraeus passed into the hands of Mithridates.  The spirit of disaffection to Rome spread rapidly. [Sidenote:  Revolt of the Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians.] When Archelaus appeared in Greece, the Achaeans, Laconians, and Boeotians, with the exception of Thespiae, joined him, while the Pontic fleet seized Euboea and Demetrias, a town at the head of the gulf of Pagasae.

Sura was sent by the Roman governor of Macedonia to make head against the invaders.  He won a naval battle and captured Sciathus, where all the spoils of the enemy were stored. [Sidenote:  Conflicts between the Romans and the forces of Mithridates in Boeotia.] Then he marched into Boeotia, and, after a three days’ engagement with the combined forces of Archelaus and Aristion, pushed Archelaus back to the coast.  The war, perhaps, might have been ended here; but at this moment Lucullus came to announce the approach of Sulla, and to warn Sura that the war had been entrusted to him.  So Sura retired to Macedonia. [Sidenote:  Sulla lands in Epirus, 87 B.C., and marches on Athens.] Sulla had left Brundusium in 87, and, landing on the coast of Epirus, gathered what supplies he could from Aetolia and Thessaly, and marched straight for Athens.  It was soon seen that the foundations of the empire of Mithridates were based on sand.  The Boeotians at once submitted, including Thebes, which had joined the king. [Sidenote:  Siege of the Piraeus and Athens.] Sulla then began two sieges, that of the Piraeus where Archelaus was, and that of Athens defended by Aristion.  Archelaus had before shown himself an intrepid soldier, and he baffled all Sulla’s efforts with equal ingenuity and courage.  After an unsuccessful attempt to storm the walls, Sulla retired to Eleusis and Megara, thus keeping up his communications with Thebes and