Siege of Athens and Piraeus | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the First Mithridatic War | |||||||
Map of the Athenian city wall encompassing both Athens and Piraeus. |
|||||||
|
|||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Roman Republic |
Kingdom of Pontus Athenian City-State |
||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix Lucius Licinius Lucullus Caius Scribonius Curio Burbulieus |
Archelaus Aristion |
||||||
Strength | |||||||
5 Roman Legions 20,000 Auxiliary |
Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Low | 200,000 dead, 200,000 taken prisoner |
The Siege of Athens and Piraeus was a siege of the First Mithridatic War that took place from Autumn of 87 BC to the Spring and Summer of 86 BC. The battle was fought between the forces of the Roman Republic, commanded by Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix and the forces of the Kingdom of Pontus and the Athenian City-State. The Greek Pontian forces were commanded by Aristion and Archelaus.
In the spring of 87 BC Sulla landed at Dyrrachium, in Illyria. Asia was occupied by the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus under the command of Archelaus. Sulla’s first target was Athens, ruled by a Mithridatic puppet; the tyrant Aristion. Sulla moved southeast, picking up supplies and reinforcements as he went. Sulla’s chief of staff was Lucullus, who went ahead of him to scout the way and negotiate with Bruttius Sura, the existing Roman commander in Greece. After speaking with Lucullus, Sura handed over the command of his troops to Sulla. At Chaeronea, ambassadors from all the major cities of Greece (except Athens) met with Sulla, who impressed on them Rome's determination to drive Mithridates from Greece and Asia Province. Sulla then advanced on Athens.
The invasion of Mithridates VI of Pontus, the king of the Kingdom of Pontus into the Kingdom of Bithynia, an ally of Rome, coupled with the assassination of Roman Citizens in the Asiatic Vespers, caused war between Rome and Pontus. Allegedly up to 80,000 Roman citizens were massacred. Before long, Mithridates VI had won over all the Greek city states who had previously been under Roman rule. After the arrival of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the majority of the Greek city states returned to the Roman banners. Athens was not amongst the cities that returned to Roman dominance as their tyrant Aristion, imposed by Mithridates VI was not disposed to capitulate to the invaders.