[Footnote 387:  The embassy of Appius to Tigranes was in B.C. 71.  See c. 14, notes.]

[Footnote 388:  Compare Appian, Mithridat.  War, c. 82.]

[Footnote 389:  He is often mentioned by Cicero, De Orat. ii. 88, 90; and elsewhere.  He was celebrated for his powerful memory, and he is said to have perfected a certain artificial system which was began by Simonides.]

[Footnote 390:  Though Amphikrates intended to say that Seleukeia was small, it was in fact a large city.  This Seleukeia on the Tigris was built by Seleukus Nikator.  It was about 300 stadia or 36 miles from Babylon, which declined after the foundation of Seleukeia.  In Strabo’s time, Babylon was nearly deserted and Seleukeia was a large city.]

[Footnote 391:  Bacchides, according to Strabo, commanded in the city.  Sinope is described by Strabo (p. 545) as one of the chief towns of Asia in his day.  It was a Milesian colony.  It was the birth-place of this Mithridates, surnamed Eupator, who made it his capital.  It was situated on an isthmus which joined the mainland to the Chersonesus (peninsula) which is mentioned by Plutarch in this chapter.  There were harbours and stations for ships on each side of the isthmus.  The present condition of the town is described by Hamilton (Researches, i. 306, &c.):  “The population and prosperity of Sinope are not such as might be expected in a place affording such a safe harbour between Constantinople and Trebizond.  I observed also a general appearance of poverty and privation throughout the peninsula.”

In Strabo’s time Sinope had received a Roman colony, and the colonists had part of the city and of the territory.  The word Colonia in Greek ([Greek:  koloneia]) appears on a sarcophagus which was seen by Hamilton in a small village near Sinope.]

[Footnote 392:  Sthenis was a native of Olynthus and a contemporary of Alexander the Great.  He is mentioned by Plinius (34, c. 19) and by Pausanias (vi. 17).  Strabo says that Lucullus left everything to the Sinopians except the statue of Autolykus and a sphere, the work of Billarus, which he carried to Rome.]

[Footnote 393:  This is the word which the Greeks use for a peninsula.  Plutarch here means the Chersonesus, on the isthmus of which Sinope was built.  Hamilton says that “the peninsula extends about five miles from east to west and strictly coincides with the description given of it by Polybius (iv. 50).”]

[Footnote 394:  Socius et Amicus:  this was the title which the Romans condescended to give to a king who behaved towards them with due respect and submission. (Livius, 31, c. 11.)]

[Footnote 395:  Lucullus appears to have crossed the Euphrates at a more northern point than Zeugma, where the river was crossed by Crassus.  Sophene is a district on the east side of the river between the mountain range called Masius and the range called Antitaurus:  the capital or royal residence was Carcathiocerta. (Strabo, p. 527.)]