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[83]
Sinope continued to resist him vigorously, and the inhabitants fought him on the water not without success, but when they were besieged they burned their heavier ships, embarked on the lighter ones, and went away. Lucullus at once made it a free city, being moved thereto by the following dream. It is said that Autolycus, the companion of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons, was driven by a tempest into Sinope and made himself master of the place, and that his consecrated statue gave oracles to the Sinopeans. As they were hastening their flight they could not embark it on shipboard, but wrapped it up with linen cloths and ropes. Nobody told Lucullus of this beforehand and he knew nothing about it, but he dreamed that he saw Autolycus calling him, and the following day, when some men passed him carrying the image wrapped up, he ordered them to take off the covering and then he saw what he thought he had seen in the night. This was the kind of dream he had. After Sinope Lucullus restored to their homes the citizens of Amisus, who had fled by sea in like manner, because he learned that they had been settled there by Athens when she held the empire of the sea; that they had had a democratic form of government at first, and afterward had been subject for a long time to the kings of Persia; that their democracy had been restored to them by decree of Alexander; and that they had finally been compelled to serve the kings of Pontus. Lucullus sympathized with them, and in emulation of the favor shown to the Attic race by Alexander he gave the city its freedom and recalled the citizens with all haste. Thus did Lucullus desolate and repeople both Sinope and Amisus. He entered into friendly relations with Machares, the son of Mithridates and ruler of the Bosporus, who sent him a crown of gold. He demanded the surrender of Mithridates from Tigranes. Then he went back to the province of Asia. When the instalment of tribute imposed by Sulla became due he levied upon one-fourth of the harvest, and imposed a house-tax and a slave-tax. He offered a triumphal sacrifice to the gods for the successful termination of the war.
