Gaius Manilius had at the beginning of…

Pompey, in his absence from Rome in 66 BCE, has been nominated to succeed Lucullus as commander in the war in the east.

Pompey's command—proposed by the tribune Gaius Manilius, supported by Caesar, and justified by Cicero in pro Lege Manilia—is, like the Gabinian law, opposed by the aristocracy, but is carried nonetheless.

The majority of Lucullus' troops now openly refuse to obey his commands, but agree to defend Roman positions from attack.

Lucullus, a plebeian noble, is incensed at the prospect of his replacement by a "new man" such as Pompey.

The outgoing commander and his replacements trade insults.

Lucullus calls Pompey a "vulture" who feeds from the work of others.

Lucullus is referring not merely to Pompey's new command against Mithridates, but also his claim to have finished the war against Spartacus.

Lucullus returns to Rome.

Ptolemy XII Auletes continues to depend heavily upon Roman support for his quasi-legitimate royal status as the Macedonian king in Hellenistic Egypt.

Hyrcanus seeks counsel from Antipater, satrap of the neighboring province of Idumaea (the former Kingdom of Edom, whose inhabits had been conquered and forcibly converted, among others, to Judaism by Hyrcanus' grandfather John Hyrcanus I).

Antipater, seeing in the weak-willed Hyrcanus a possible tool for his own desire to control Judaea, induces him to wage war on Aristobulus.

Tigranes II of Armenia, under whom the country has become the strongest state in the Roman East, has penetrated as far south as Ptolemais (modern 'Akko, Israel), but in 66 BCE the Roman general Pompey finally defeats him.

Pompey receives him graciously and gives him back his kingdom in exchange for Syria and other southern conquests.

Lucius Sergius Catilina, known in English as Catiline, is a member of the oldest patrician families in Rome, gens Sergia.

Although his family is of consular heritage, they are on the decline in both social and financial fortunes.

Virgil later gave the family an ancestor, Sergestus, who had come with Aeneas to Italy, presumably because they were notably ancient; but they had not been prominent for centuries.

The last Sergius to be consul had been Gnaeus Sergius Fidenas Coxo in 380 BCE.

Later, these factors will dramatically shape Catiline's ambitions and goals as he desires above all else to restore the political heritage of his family along with its financial power.

An able commander, Catiline had a distinguished military career, serving in the Social War with Pompey and Cicero under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo in 89 BCE.

During the regime of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, Catiline had played no major role, but remained politically secure.

He later supported Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the civil war of 84 BC–81 BCE.

It was during Sulla's proscriptions that Catiline allegedly tortured, maimed and then killed and beheaded his brother-in-law, Marcus Marius Gratidianus, at the tomb of Catulus, then carried the head through the streets of Rome and deposited it at Sulla's feet at the Temple of Apollo.

He was also accused of murdering his first wife and son so that he could marry the wealthy and beautiful Aurelia Orestilla, daughter of the Consul of 71 BCE, Gnaeus Aufidius Orestes.

He had served abroad in the early 70s BCE, h, possibly with Publius Servilius Vatia in Cilicia.

In 73 BCE, he had been brought to trial for adultery with the Vestal Virgin, Fabia, who is a half-sister of Cicero's wife, Terentia, but Quintus Lutatius Catulus, the principal leader of the Optimates, had testified in his favor, and eventually Catiline was acquitted.

He was praetor in 68 BCE and for the past two years has served as the propraetorian governor for Africa.

Mithridates VI had quelled an uprising in the region of Colchis in 83 BCE and had given Colchis to his son Mithridates, who was soon executed being suspected in having plotted against his father.

During the Third Mithridatic War, Mithridates has made another son, Machares, king of Colchis, where Mithridates has regrouped.

At Pompey's approach, Mithridates strategically withdraws his forces.

Tigranes the Great refuses him refuge, so he makes his way to his own dominions in the Cimmerian Bosporus.

Pompey secures a treaty with Tigranes, and in 65 BCE sets out in pursuit of Mithridates, but meets resistance from the Caucasian Iberians and Albanians.

He advances to Phasis in Colchis and liaises with his legate Servilius, admiral of his Euxine fleet, before decisively defeating Mithridates.

Pompey now retraces his steps, …

…winters at Pontus, and makes it into a Roman province.

The democratic faction at Rome in 65 BCE, however, raises the issue of Ptolemy XII's legitimacy, producing a questionable will of Ptolemy XI Alexander II purporting to bequeath Egypt to the Roman people.

Auletes, through bribery in 65 BCE, prevents Roman annexation of Egypt, although …

…Rome seizes Ptolemaic-ruled Cyprus.