Note 298 — LIFE OF POMPEIUS.

The body of Mithridates was interred at Sinope. Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 113) says that Pharnakes sent the dead body of his father in a galley to Pompeius to Sinope, and also those who had killed Manius Aquilius, and many hostages Greeks and barbarians. There might be some doubt about the meaning of the words 'many corpses of members of the royal family' πολλα σώματα τῶν βασιλικῶν but Plutarch appears from the context to mean dead bodies. Two of the daughters of Mithridates who were with him when he died, are mentioned by Appianus (c. 111) as having taken poison at the same time with their father. The poison worked on them, but had no effect on the old man, who therefore prevailed on a Gallic officer who was in his service to kill him. (Compare Dion Cassius, 39. c. 13, 14.)