Huius futuram magnitudinem etiam caelestia ostenta praedixerant. Nam et eo, quo genitus est, anno, et eo, quo regnare primum coepit, stella cometes per utrumque tempus LXX diebus ita luxit, ut caelum omne conflagrare videretur. Puer tutorum insidias {5} passus est, qui eum fero equo impositum equitare iacularique cogebant: qui conatus cum eos fefellissent, supra aetatem regente equum Mithridate, veneno eum appetivere. Veritus deinde, ne inimici, quod veneno non potuerant, ferro peragerent, venandi {10} studium finxit, quo per septem annos neque urbano neque rustico tecto usus est, sed per silvas vagatus, diversis montium regionibus pernoctabat ignaris omnibus, quibus esset locis; adsuetus feras cursu aut fugere aut persequi, cum quibusdam etiam viribus {15} congredi. Quibus rebus et insidias vitavit, et corpus ad omnem virtutis patientiam duravit. [Linenotes: 1. +Huius.+ Mithridates (_Mithras_ = Persian sun-god) ‘second only to Hannibal in inextinguishable, life-long hostility to Rome, as also in military genius.’ Ihne. 5. +tutorum+ = (_at the hands_) _of his guardians_. Cf. _tueor._ 17. +ad omnem virtutis patientiam+ = _to all manly endurance_.] B. _His Preparations for Conquest._ Ad regni deinde administrationem cum accessisset, statim non de regendo, sed de augendo regno cogitavit. Itaque Scythas invictos antea ingenti {20} felicitate perdomuit. Hieme deinde appetente, non in convivio, sed in campo, nec in avocationibus, nec inter sodales, sed inter aequales, aut equo aut cursu aut viribus contendebat. Exercitum quoque suum ad parem laboris patientiam cotidiana exercitatione {25} durabat, atque ita invictus ipse inexpugnabilem exercitum fecerat. JUSTINUS, xxxvii. 2, 3, 4. [Linenotes: 19. +de augendo regno.+ He subdued all the coast districts of the Euxine, East, North and West, as far as the Hister (Danube). 22. +avocationibus+ = _in diversions_ (very rare). 24. +exercitum.+ At the outbreak of the War with Rome, 88 B.C., he had collected a motley force of 250,000 foot and 40,000 horse.] +Mithridates.+ ‘With one blow he overthrew the Roman dominion in Asia, carried the war into Europe, united almost the whole Eastern world in an attack on the Republic, and resisted for 25 years the first generals of his time,--a Sulla, a Lucullus, and a Pompeius.’ --Ihne. +Historic Parallels.+ Alexander, Hannibal, Peter the Great. B13 FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR, 88-84 B.C. (1)?] _The Battle of Chaeronea, 86 B.C. Brilliant Tactics of Sulla._