Editing Lucius Afranius (consul) (section)

===Mithridates===
Despite the unprecedented size of Pompey's corps of legates—he received the right to appoint 24 of these senior adjutants—for his scourge of the [[pirate]]s from the [[Mediterranean]], Afranius did not number amongst them, as his [[patron]] chose to cultivate his links with the Roman aristocracy by appointing only men of distinguished family. After the success of this campaign, however, Pompey was given the command in the east and appointed Afranius as his legate for this new campaign. After the initial successes against [[Mithradates VI]] of [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus]] and [[Tigranes the Great]] of the [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Kingdom of Armenia]], Pompey began to pursue the defeated enemy northwards.

Pompey left Armenia under the military supervision of Afranius. Looking to take advantage of a defeated neighbour, [[Phraates III of Parthia]] invaded Armenia at [[Corduene]] and began pillaging. According to historian [[Cassius Dio]] (XXXVII, 5), Afranius retook the district without a conflict with Phraates' forces. However, [[Plutarch]] (''Pompey'' 36) asserts that Afranius marched against the Parthians, drove them out of Armenia, and pursued them as far as the district of Arbela (modern [[Erbil]], [[Iraq]]) within the borders of the Parthian Empire.<ref>Bivar (1983), p. 47; see footnote #1; John Leach, ''Pompey the Great'', p.83 and p.86.</ref>

After his second victory over Mithridates, Pompey realised that pursuing him was futile and instead invested forces to defend Pontus from Mithridates' return. Afranius was given command against the [[Arabia]]ns of [[Amanus]], and his victory against them cleared the way for Pompey's advance into [[Syria]].