The Grass Crown Read Online Free Page B

coastal access onto the Middle Sea, half a hundred superb seaports, and a fabulously rich hinterland. A king wouldn’t be human if he didn’t hunger after both lands.”
    “Well, Nicomedes of Bithynia I don’t worry about,” said Marius, interrupting. “He’s tied hand and foot to Rome, and he knows it. Nor do I think that—for the present, at any rate—our Roman Asia Province is in any danger. It’s Cappadocia.”
    Sulla nodded. “Exactly. Asia Province is Roman. And I don’t think King Mithridates is so different from the rest of his oriental colleagues that he’s shed his fear of Rome enough to attempt to invade our Asia Province, misgoverned shambles though it might be. But Cappadocia isn’t Roman. Though it does fall within our sphere, it seems to me that both Nicomedes and young Mithridates have assumed Cappadocia is a little too remote and a little too unimportant for Rome to go to war about. On the other hand, they move like thieves to steal it, concealing their motive behind puppets and relatives.”
    There came a grunt from Marius. “I wouldn’t call old King Nicomedes’s marrying the Queen Regent of Cappadocia furtive!”
    “Yes, but that situation didn’t last long, did it? King Mithridates was outraged enough to murder his own sister! He had her son back on the Cappadocian throne quicker than you can say Lucius Tiddlypuss.”
    “Unfortunately it’s Nicomedes is our official Friend and Ally, not Mithridates,” said Marius. “It’s a pity I wasn’t in Rome when all that was going on.”
    “Oh, come now!” said Rutilius Rufus indignantly. “The kings of Bithynia have been officially entitled Friend and Ally for over fifty years! During our last war against Carthage, so too was the King of Pontus an official Friend and Ally. But this Mithridates’s father destroyed the possibility of friendship with Rome when he bought Phrygia from Manius Aquillius’s father. Rome hasn’t had relations with Pontus since. Besides which, it’s impossible to grant the status of Friend and Ally to two kings at loggerheads with each other unless that status prevents war between them. In the case of Bithynia and Pontus, the Senate decided awarding Friend and Ally status to both kings would only make matters worse between them. And that in turn meant rewarding Nicomedes of Bithynia because the record of Bithynia is better than Pontus.”
    “Oh, Nicomedes is a silly old fowl!” said Marius impatiently. “He’s been ruling for over fifty years, and he wasn’t a child when he eliminated his tata from the throne, either. I’d guess his age at over eighty. And he exacerbates the Anatolian situation!”
    “By behaving like a silly old fowl, I presume is what you mean.” The retort was accompanied by a near-purple look from Rutilius Rufus’s eyes, very like his niece Aurelia’s, and just as direct, if a little softer. “Do you not think, Gaius Marius, that you and I are very nearly of an age to be called silly old fowls?”
    “Come, come, no ruffled feathers, now!” said Sulla, grinning. “I know what you mean, Gaius Marius. Nicomedes is well into his senescence, whether he’s capable of ruling or not—and one must presume he is capable of ruling. It’s the most Hellenized of all the oriental courts, but it’s still oriental. Which means if he dribbled on his shoes just once, his son would have him off the throne. Therefore he has retained his watchfulness and his cunning. However, he’s querulous and he’s grudging. Whereas across the border in Pontus is a man hardly thirty—vigorous, intelligent, aggressive and cocksure. No, Nicomedes can hardly be expected to give Mithridates his due, can he?”
    “Hardly,” agreed Marius. “I think we can be justified in assuming that if they do come to open blows, it will be an unequal contest. Nicomedes has only just managed to hang on to what he had at the beginning of his reign, while Mithridates is a conqueror. Oh yes, Lucius Cornelius, I must see