Battle of the Rhyndacus (73 BC) 73 BC
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 73 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Turkey | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Third Mithridatic War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 40.2125, 28.3978 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Rhyndacus occurred in 73 BC between a Roman Republican force under the command of the proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus and a division of the army of Mithridates VI of Pontus as part of the Third Mithridatic War. The Romans were victorious.
Lucullus, based in Cilicia, had foregone his planned invasion of Pontus from the south to come north and rescue his colleague, proconsul Marcus Aurelius Cotta, whom Mithridates had besieged at Cyzicus on the Sea of Marmara. Lucullus's army caught the Pontic army off guard and lay an effective counter-siege, trapping the Mithridatic army on the Cyzicus peninsula.
With the onset of winter and running low on supplies, Mithridates decided to send his sick, his wounded, and his cavalry east into Bithynia. The Pontic column was commanded by Neoptolemus, who was the brother of Archelaus. In the middle of a snowstorm, Lucullus met these forces with ten cohorts along the banks of the Rhyndacus. The Romans had a small advance guard of auxiliaries and cavalry on the opposite bank of the river. The combined Roman forces attacked. The Pontic forces turned to defend themselves. The battle was hard, and the Pontic forces fought bravely, but were unable to withstand the pressure of the Roman attack.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Rhyndacus (73 BC) (revision 1370601960), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Third Mithridatic War
- Battle of Chalcedon (74 BC) 74 BC
- Battle of Lemnos (73 BCE) 73 BC
- Siege of Cyzicus 73 BC
- Battle of Cabira 72 BC
- Battle of Tigranocerta 69 BC
- Battle of Artaxata 68 BC
- Battle of Zela (67 BC) 67 BC
- Battle of the Lycus 66 BC
All 9 battles of the Third Mithridatic War →
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