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45Pompey was at first making ready to sail to Crete against Metellus, and when he learned of the decree that had been passed, pretended to be annoyed as before, and charged the members of the opposite faction with always loading tasks upon him so that he might meet with some reverse. In reality he received the news with the greatest joy, 2and no longer regarding as of any importance Crete or the other maritime points where things had been left unsettled, he made preparations for the war with the barbarians.
Meanwhile, wishing to test the disposition of Mithridates, he sent Metrophanes to him with friendly proposals. 3Now Mithridates at that time held him in contempt; for as Arsaces, king of the Parthians, had recently died, he expected to conciliate Phraates, his successor. But Pompey anticipated him by quickly establishing friendship with Phraates on the same terms and persuading the latter to invade promptly the part of Armenia belonging to Tigranes. When Mithridates ascertained this, he was alarmed and straightway sent an embassy and tried to arrange a truce. 4But when Pompey demanded that he lay down his arms and deliver up the deserters, he had no opportunity to deliberate; for the large number of deserters who were in his camp, hearing of it and fearing they should be delivered up, and likewise the barbarians, fearing that they should be compelled to fight without them, raised an uproar. 5And they would have done some harm to the king, had he not by pretending that he had sent the envoys, not for a truce, but to spy out the Roman strength, with difficulty held them in check.
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