Plutarch, Lucullus
Bernadotte Perrin, Ed.

11. Mithridates, as long as his generals deceived him into ignorance of the famine in his army, was vexed that the Cyzicenes should successfully withstand his siege. But his eager ambition quickly ebbed away when he perceived the straits in which his soldiers were involved, and their actual cannibalism. For Lucullus was not carrying on the war in any theatrical way, nor for mere display, but, as the saying is, was ‘kicking in the belly,’ and devising every means for cutting off food. [2] Accordingly, while Lucullus was laying siege to some outpost or other, Mithridates eagerly took advantage of the opportunity, and sent away into Bithynia almost all his horsemen, together with the beasts of burden, and those of his foot-soldiers who were disabled. On learning of this, Lucullus returned to his camp while it was still night, and early in the morning, in spite of a storm, took ten cohorts of infantry and his calvary, aid started in pursuit, although snow was falling and his hardships were extreme. Many of his soldiers were overcome with the cold and had to be left behind, but with the rest he overtook the enemy at the river Rhyndacus [3] and inflicted such a defeat upon them that the very women came forth from Apollonia and carried off their baggage and stripped their slain. Many fell in the battle, as it is natural to suppose. Six thousand horses and fifteen thousand men were captured, besides an untold number of beasts of burden. All these followed in the train of Lucullus as he marched back past the camp of the enemy. [4] Sallust says, to my amazement, that camels were then seen by the Romans for the first time. He must have thought that the soldiers of Scipio who conquered Antiochus before this, and those who had lately fought Archelaüs at Orchomenus and Chaeroneia, were unacquainted with the camel.

[5] Mithridates was now resolved upon the speediest possible flight, but with a view to drawing Lucullus away, and holding him back from pursuit, he dispatched his admiral, Aristonicus, to the Grecian sea. Aristonicus was just on the point of sailing when he was betrayed into the hands of Lucullus, together with ten thousand pieces of gold which he was carrying for the corruption of some portion of the Roman army. Upon this, Mithridates fled to the sea, and his generals of infantry began to lead the army away. [6] But Lucullus fell upon them at the river Granicus, captured a vast number of them, and slew twenty thousand. It is said that out of the whole horde of camp-followers and fighting men, not much less than three hundred thousand perished in the campaign.