on Sulla to let him go to Mithridates, and he promised to effect a peace on Sulla’s own terms, or to kill himself.  Sulla accordingly sent Archelaus to Mithridates, and in the mean time he invaded Maedike,[256] and having ravaged the greater part of it, returned to Macedonia and found Archelaus at Philippi,[257] who reported that all was favourable, but that Mithridates much wished to have an interview with him.  Mithridates was minly induced to this by the circumstance that Fimbria, after murdering the consul Flaccus, who belonged to the opposite faction, and defeating the generals of Mithridates, was advancing against the king himself.  It was fear of Fimbria that made Mithridates more inclined to make a friend of Sulla.

XXIV.  Accordingly they met at Dardanus[258] in the Troad:  Mithridates had there two hundred rowing-ships, twenty thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six thousand horsemen, and many of his scythe-bearing chariots:  Sulla had four cohorts and two hundred horsemen.  Mithridates advanced to meet Sulla and held out his hand, on which Sulla asked him if he would put an end to the war on the terms agreed to by Archelaus.  As the king made no reply, Sulla said, “Well, those who sue must speak first; conquerors may remain silent.”  Mithridates began an apology, in which he partly imputed the origin of the war to the deities, and partly threw the blame on the Romans; but Sulla cut him short by saying, that he had long ago been told, and now he knew by his own experience, that Mithridates was a most skilful speaker, inasmuch as he had no difficulty in finding words to justify acts which were so base and so contrary to all right.  Sulla went on to recapitulate all that Mithridates had done, reproaching him in bitter terms, and he then asked him again, if he would abide by the agreement of Archelaus.  Mithridates said that he would; on which Sulla embraced him, threw his arms round him and kissed him; he then brought forward the kings Ariobarzanes and Nikomedes, and reconciled Mithridates to them.  After surrendering to Sulla seventy ships and five hundred bowmen, Mithridates sailed off to the Pontus.  Sulla perceived that his soldiers were dissatisfied at the settlement of the war:  they thought it a shame that the greatest enemy of the Romans, who had contrived the massacre of one hundred and fifty thousand Romans in Asia in one day, should be seen sailing off with the wealth and the spoils of Asia, which he had been plundering and levying contributions on for four years; Sulla apologised to the soldiers by saying that he should not be able to oppose both Fimbria and Mithridates, if they were united against him.