to come out to the soldiers, and take a share in the administration of affairs, which were going on well.  This made many people think that Sertorius was naturally a man of mild temper, and well disposed to a quiet life; but that, owing to uncontrollable causes, and contrary to his wishes, he entered on the career of a commander, and then, when he could not ensure his safety, and was driven to arms by his enemies, he had recourse to war as the only means by which he could protect his life.

XXIII.  His negociations with Mithridates also were a proof of his magnanimity; for now that Mithridates, rising from the fall that he had from Sulla, as it were, to a second contest, had again attacked Asia, and the fame of Sertorius was great, and had gone abroad to all parts, and those who sailed from the West had filled the Pontus with the reports about him, as if with so many foreign wares, Mithridates was moved to send an embassy to him, being urged thereto mainly by the fulsome exaggerations of his flatterers, who compared Sertorius to Hannibal and Mithridates to Pyrrhus, and said that if the Romans were attacked on both sides, they could not hold out against such great abilities and powers combined, when the most expert of commanders had joined the greatest of kings.  Accordingly, Mithridates sent ambassadors to Iberia, with letters to Sertorius and proposals.  On his part he offered to supply money and ships for the war, and he asked from Sertorius a confirmation of his title to the whole of Asia, which he had given up to the Romans pursuant to the treaty made with Sulla.  Sertorius assembled a council, which he called a senate, and all the members advised to accept the king’s proposal, and to be well content with it; they said the king only asked of them a name and an empty answer touching things that were not in their power, in return for which they were to receive what they happened to stand most in need of.  But Sertorius would not listen to this; he said he did not grudge Mithridates having Bithynia and Cappadocia; these were nations that were accustomed to a king, and the Romans had nothing to do with them; but the province which belonged to the Romans by the justest of titles, which Mithridates took from them and kept, from which, after a contest, he was driven out by Fimbria, and which he gave up by treaty with Sulla,[161] -that province he would never allow to fall again into the power of Mithridates; for it was fit that the Roman state should be extended by his success, not that his success should be owing to her humiliation.  To a generous mind, victory by honest means was a thing to desire, but life itself was not worth having with dishonour.