Asiatic Vespers

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Asia Minor and surrounding region at the start of the First Mithridatic War, in 89 BC

The Asiatic Vespers (also known as the Asian Vespers, Ephesian Vespers, or the Vespers of 88 BC) refers to the genocide of Roman and other Latin-speaking peoples living in parts of western Anatolia in 88 BC by forces loyal to Mithridates VI Eupator, ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus, who orchestrated the massacre in an attempt to rid Asia Minor of Roman influence. An estimated 80,000 people were killed during the episode, which is considered one of the deadliest recorded genocides in Classical antiquity. The incident served as the casus belli or immediate cause of the First Mithridatic War between the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Pontus.

Background[]

By the beginning of the 1st century BC, long-standing disputes between the Kingdom of Bithynia and the neighboring Kingdom of Pontus, located side by side in northern Anatolia on the south shore of the Black Sea, had erupted into full-scale war. The ruling families of each kingdom had descended from Persian satrapies unincorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great. Roman troops had been drawn into Anatolia as allies of the Republic of Rhodes, which had holdings there. The warring kings, Nicomedes III and Mithridates VI, asked the Roman Senate to arbitrate.

After deliberation the Senate decided to back Bithynia. King Mithridates VI, hitherto a friend of Rome, whose ancestors had sent ships to Rome's aid in the Third Punic War, was willing to accept this decision. The Senate's control over its troops in the field, however, was minimal. At the instigation of the soldiers, the Roman officers in Anatolia began to urge the Bithynians to ravage Pontus, falsely claiming the decree of the Senate had created an armed conflict. The Senate had actually instructed the army that, in the event of war between Bithynia and Pontus, they were to assist the Bithynian army.[citation needed] In that capacity they would have a share in the spoils of war accrued from plundering the rich towns of Anatolia.

Massacre[]

Eager to please their Roman advisors, the Bithynians began to ravage Pontus assisted by Roman soldiers of mercenary intent. In vain Mithridates attempted to object through diplomatic channels. Despairing of that course of action he turned to his friends and allies in Anatolia, offering gifts and promises in exchange for their support. He would rid them of the Romans with a single blow. He convinced them to orchestrate the assassination of all Roman citizens and, more broadly, Italian peoples in Asia Minor.[1] The massacre was planned scrupulously to take place on the same day in several major towns and cities with large Roman populations scattered across Anatolia: Ephesus, Pergamon, Adramyttion, Caunus, Tralles, Nysa, and the island of Chios.[2]

Estimates of the number of men, women, and children killed range from 80,000[3] to 150,000.[4] Slaves who helped to kill their Roman masters and those who spoke languages other than Latin were spared. Although successful for the short term, the blow fell short of ridding Anatolia of Roman people. All who could fled across the Aegean to seek refuge in the port of Rhodes, firm allies of Rome, and henceforward to be deadly enemies of Mithridates. When word of the massacre reached Rome, public sentiment turned to outrage. The Senate in special session declared war on Mithridates, formulating a mandate to be given to the consuls of the year.

Roman response[]

The declaration of war was immediate, but implementation of the mandate was delayed by an unrelated civil war already ongoing within the Roman Republic. Sulla received it first from the Senate. After he had taken command of the legions at Nola, a Roman Assembly passed a law stripping him of his authority in favor of Gaius Marius. At the instigation of his men, he marched on Rome to assert the authority of the Senate. Assured of its and his authority, he crossed the Adriatic with minimal troops and no heavy warships, after one year of doing nothing on the eastern front.

Meanwhile, Mithridates had created a large fleet that scoured the Aegean of Romans. Pontic forces occupied many vacated parts of the Hellenic world. Mithridates subverted the city of Athens, making use of his partisans there, including the peripatetic philosophers. He could not, however, despite maximum effort, take the port of Rhodes, as the Rhodians were master mariners, on whose ships the Romans had redesigned their own. When Sulla's men finally arrived to conduct a siege of Athens, all mainland Greece had rallied to the Roman cause. A series of conflicts known as the Mithridatic Wars followed.[5]

Dating of the massacre[]

The precise date of the massacre is disputed by modern historians, who have written about the question at length. A. N. Sherwin-White places the event in late 89 or early 88 BC.[6] Ernst Badian, saying "precision seems impossible", places it in the first half of 88 BC, no later than the middle of that year.[7] The name "Vèpres éphésiennes" was coined in 1890 by historian Théodore Reinach to describe the massacre, making a retrospective analogy with the Sicilian Vespers of 1282.[8] Subsequent historians have adopted some variation of the phrase, using Vespers as a euphemism for "massacre".

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Appian, The Mithridatic Wars 5.22". www.livius.org. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  2. ^ Orosius, 6.2.2-3; Eutropius, 5.5.2.
  3. ^ Valerius Maximus 9.2.3; Memnon 22.9.
  4. ^ Plutarch, 24.4.
  5. ^ Mayor, pp. 13–24.
  6. ^ Sherwin-White, pp. 1981–1995.
  7. ^ Badian, pp. 105–128.
  8. ^ Reinach, p. 131.

References[]

Further reading[]

  • Mayor, Adrienne, 2010. The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12683-8
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