Lucullus

It is said also that of the unmarried sisters, one drank off her poison with many abusive imprecations on her brother; but that Statira did so without uttering a single reproachful or ungenerous word. She rather commended her brother because, when his own life was at hazard, he had not neglected them, but had taken measures to have them die in freedom and under no insults. Of course these things gave pain to Lucullus, who was naturally of a gentle and humane disposition.

Lucullus pushed on in pursuit as far as Talaura, whence, four days before, Mithridates had succeeded in escaping to Tigranes, in Armenia; then he turned aside. After subduing the Chaldaeans and the Tibareni, he occupied Lesser Armenia, reducing its fortresses and cities, and then sent Appius to Tigranes with a demand for Mithridates. He himself, however, came to Amisus, which was still holding out against the siege.

Its success in this was due to Callimachus, its commander, who, by his acquaintance with mechanical contrivances and his power to employ every resource which the siege of a city demands, had given the Romans the greatest annoyance. For this he afterwards paid the penalty. But at this time, he was simply outgeneralled by Lucullus, who made a sudden attack at just that time of day when Callimachus was accustomed to draw his soldiers off from the ramparts and give them a rest. When the Romans had got possession of a small part of the wall, Callimachus abandoned the city, first setting fire to it with his own hands, either because he begrudged the visitors their booty, or because his own escape was thus facilitated.

For no one paid any attention to those who were sailing away, but when the flames increased mightily and enveloped the walls, the soldiers made ready to plunder the houses. Lucullus, out of pity for the perishing city, tried to bring aid from outside against the fire, and gave orders to extinguish the flames, but no one paid any heed to his commands. The soldiers all clamoured for the booty, and shouted, and clashed their shields and spears together, until he was forced to let them have their way, hoping that he could at least save the city itself from the flames.

But the soldiers did just the opposite. Ransacking everything by torch-light and carrying lights about everywhere, they destroyed most of the houses themselves. When Lucullus entered the city at daybreak, he burst into tears, and said to his friends that he had often already deemed Sulla happy, and on that day more than ever he admired the man’s good fortune, in that when he wished to save Athens, he had the power to do so.