Battle of the Lycus

Battle of the Lycus
Part of Third Mithridatic War
Date66 BC
Location
Lycus River, Ionia
(modern-day Kelkit River, Turkey)
Result
  • Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic Pontic Empire
Commanders and leaders
Pompey the Great Mithridates VI
Strength
c. 50,000[1] c. 30,000 infantry[2] and 2,000–3,000 cavalry[3]
Casualties and losses
Unknown More than 10,000[4]

The Battle of the Lycus was fought in 66 BC between an army of Roman Republic under the command of Pompey the great and the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus. The Romans won the battle with few losses; their victory turned out to be decisive with Mithridates fleeing to the Kingdom of the Bosporus (north of the Black Sea) and committing suicide a few years later (in 63 BC), finally ending the Third Mithridatic War.[5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ Leach, John (1978). Pompey the Great (Routledge Revivals). New York: Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-41574-733-2.
  2. ^ John Leach (1978). Pompey the Great page 76.
  3. ^ Appian Historia Romana. Book XII (12th), The Mithridatic Wars, section 97
  4. ^ Appian, Historia Romana, Book XII (12th), The Mithridatic Wars, section 100
  5. ^ Lee L., Brice (2014). Warfare in the Roman Republic: From the Etruscan Wars to the Battle of Actium. California: ABC-CLIO. p. 292. ISBN 978-1-61069-298-4.
  6. ^ Appian, Mithridatica, 100; Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 32; Cassius Dio, 36.48; Livy, Epitome, 101
  7. ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 80
  8. ^ Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the Great, Rome's Indomitable Enemy, 10