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Updated: June 5, 2025
III. VII. Gracchus IV. I. War against Aristonicus IV. I. Mancinus II. III. Licinio-Sextian Laws II. III. Its Influence in Legislation IV. I. War against Aristonicus II. III. Attempts at Counter-Revolution
That the Roman senate asserted its general policy of keeping down the states more or less dependent on it also in dealing with that of Pontus, is shown by its attitude on occasion of the succession to the throne after the sudden death of Mithradates V. From the boy in minority who followed him there was taken away Great Phrygia, which had been conferred on his father for his taking part in the war against Aristonicus or rather for his good money, and this region was added to the territory immediately subject to Rome.
Relying on the aversion of the Asiatics to the foreign rule which awaited them, Aristonicus, a natural son of Eumenes II, made his appearance in Leucae, a small seaport between Smyrna and Phocaea, as a pretender to the crown.
A scene of angry recrimination might have been the result of an encounter between the rival commanders; but this was avoided by Perperna's sudden death at Pergamon. It is possible that Aristonicus was saved the shame of a Roman triumph, although one tradition affirms that he was reserved for the pageant which three years later commemorated Aquillius's success in Asia.
Even Aristonicus, his favourite eunuch, who was of the same age as himself, and had been brought up as his playfellow, passed him in the manly virtues of his age, and earned the praise of the country for setting him a good example, and checking him in his career of vice.
The Romans had their hands full, and Aristonicus might have so established himself as to give them trouble, had not some of the Asiatic cities headed by Ephesus, and aided by the kings of Cappadocia and Bithynia, opposed him. But when the Senate found time to send commissioners, he was already in possession of Thyatira, Apollonia, Myndus, Colophon, and Samos.
Even after the revolt of Aristonicus was known, they persisted in the idea that the commission, which would doubtless in any case have been sent out to inspect the new dependency, was an adequate means of meeting the emergency.
Archias, formerly an actor, was their captain, and was thence called the exile-hunter. This Archias finding Hyperides the orator, Aristonicus and Himeraeus in Aegina, took them by force out of the temple of Aeacus, whither they had fled for safety, and sent them to Antipater, and put them all to death; and Hyperides, they say, had his tongue cut out.
Organised resistance was for the moment impossible. There were no Roman troops in Asia, and the protected kings, to whom Rome had sent an urgent summons, could not have mustered their forces with sufficient speed to prevent Aristonicus sweeping towards the south.
For this honour eleven cities strove, with equal ambition, though different in power: nor did the pleas urged by all, greatly vary; namely, "the antiquity of their original, and their distinguished zeal for the Roman People, during their several wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other kings."
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