The Romans in the late autumn and…

Lucullus has by early 68 won victories in many battles against Mithridates, including those at Cyzicus, Cabira, and Tigranocerta.

Lucullus marches against Tigranes in the summer of 68 BCE.

Crossing the Ante-Taurus range, he forces his way north, heading for the old Armenian capital Artaxata.

Once again Tigranes is provoked to attack and in a major battle at the Arsanias River, Lucullus once again routs the Armenian army.

He now prepares to subjugate the rest of Armenia, but he had launched this campaign too late in the year.

When the wintry season comes on early in the Armenian Tablelands, frustrated by the rough mountainous terrain and inhospitable winter climate, and seeing the worsening morale of his troops, Lucullus moves back south.

Both sides open negotiations during the winter of 69-68 BCE with the Parthian king, Arsaces XVI, who is presently defending himself against a major onslaught from his rival Phraates III coming from Bactria and the far east.

The Romans have disrupted the Armenian state; Antiochus XIII of the Seleucid dynasty tries unsuccessfully to unify the Syrian state.

Powerful political interests in Rome, their hopes of profit from the Asian conquests thwarted by Lucullus' judicious handling of financial matters, begin to agitate for the replacement of the mutiny-plagued Lucullus as commander in Asia.

Pompey begins to intrigue for the Asian command, with some help from Lucullus' brother-in-law, Publius Clodius, called Clodius Pulcher, who in 68 instigates mutiny among Lucullus’ troops.

Caesar gains popularity among the Transpadane Gauls by supporting their agitation for Roman citizenship.

In the same year, he marries Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla and relative of Pompey.

Lucullus, having restoring the Seleucid kingdom, now intends to confront Mithridates in Pontus, but comes under attack from powerful interests in Rome whose hopes of profit from the Asian conquests have been thwarted by Lucullus's judicious management of financial matters.

During the winter of 68-67 BCE at Nisibis, Lucullus’ authority over his army is more seriously undermined by the efforts of his young brother-in-law Publius Clodius Pulcher, apparently acting in the interests and pay of Pompey, who is eager to succeed Lucullus in the eastern command.

The long campaigning and hardships that Lucullus' troops have endured for years, combined with a perceived lack of reward in the form of plunder, have led the troops to become gradually insubordinate.

Encouraged by Clodius Pulcher, this discontent has led to three successive outbreaks of mutiny among the legions in 68-67 BCE.

Despite his continuous success in battle, Lucullus has still not captured either Mithridates or Tigranes.

Tarsus, a prosperous port city on the Tarsus (Cydnus) River in the heart of the fertile Cilician plain in southern Turkey, about two hundred and fifty miles (four hundred kilometers) southeast of modern Ankara, was already largely influenced by Greek language and culture by the time Alexander the Great passed through with his armies in 333 BCE, and as part of the Seleucid Empire it has become increasingly Hellenized.

Strabo praises the cultural level of Tarsus in this period with its philosophers, poets and linguists.

The schools of Tarsus rival Athens and Alexandria.

2 Maccabees (4:30) records its revolt in about 171 BCE against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had renamed the town Antiochia on the Cydnus.

In his time, the library of Tarsus held two hundred thousand books, including a huge collection of scientific works.

The name didn't last, however, due to the confusion of so many cities named Antioch.

Pompey, having in 67 cleared the sea of the pirate menace to Rome’s grain supply, spends the rest of that year and the beginning of the next visiting the cities of Cilicia and Pamphylia, and providing for the government of newly conquered territories.

He subjects Tarsus to Rome, and in 67 BCE it becomes capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, the metropolis where the governor resides.

Judea under the Hasmonean Dynasty has become comparable in extent and power to the ancient Davidic dominion described in the Bible.

Internal political and religious discord runs high, however, especially between the Pharisees, who interpret the written law by adding a wealth of oral law, and the Sadducees, who call for strict adherence to the written law.

Salome Alexandra dies in 67 and her son assumes the rulership of Judaea as Hyrcanus II, but after a troubled reign of three months, his warlike brother Aristobulus drives him from power.

Those cities of Crete yet unconquered by Metellus in 67 BCE appeal to Pompey, who has control over the Mediterranean to eliminate piracy under the proposal of Gabinius.

The Cretans offer to surrender to Pompey, perhaps believing he will be less harsh than Metellus.

Pompey ignores Metellus' command over the island and accepts the Cretans’ surrender.

Pompey orders Metellus to leave the island with his troops, but Metellus persists, defeating the island after a ferocious three-year campaign and making it a province of Rome.

The Roman conquest of Ierapetra occurs about the same time as that of Knossos, Cydonia and Lato.

Remains of the Roman harbor today can still be seen in the shallow bay.

At the archaeological sites, there seems to be little evidence of widespread damage associated with the transfer to Roman power: a single palatial house complex seems to have been razed.

Ierapetra’s importance as independent state ends in 67 BCE when this last free city in Crete is conquered by the Romans and is surpassed by …

…the city of Gortyn, which seems to have been pro-Roman and will later be rewarded by being made the capital of the joint province of Creta et Cyrenaica, a senatorial province of the Roman empire created in 20 BCE and comprising the island of Crete and the region of Cyrenaica in north Africa (modern Eastern Libya).

Marcus Aurelius Cotta, who had returned to Rome in 70 BCE for his successful prosecution of the Third Mithridatic War, had at first been widely acclaimed for his victory at Heraclea.

Accused, however, around 67 BCE by Gaius Papirius Carbo of appropriation of war booty and convicted of the offense, he is expelled from the Senate.

Julius Caesar, on his return to Rome in 67 BCE, marries Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla.

The tribune Aulus Gabinius finally forces a bill through the popular assembly in 67 empowering Pompey to settle the pirate problem, giving Pompey command of the Mediterranean and all the land within fifty miles (eight-one kilometers) of its coast as a means of controlling the depredations of pirates.

The object of another Gabinian measure, which checks the lending of money to foreign ambassadors at Rome, is to prevent the bribing of senators.

By another measure of Gabinius, the Senate is ordered to give audience to foreign envoys on certain fixed days (February 1 - March 1).