- Asiatic Vespers
The Asiatic Vespers (also known as the Vespers of 88 BC) refers to an infamous episode during the
First Mithridatic War . In response to increasing Roman power in Anatolia, the king ofPontus , Mithridates the Great tapped into local discontent with the Romans and their taxes to orchestrate the execution of roughly 80,000 Roman citizens and other foreigners in Asia Minor.cite book|last=Hooper|first=Finley|title=Roman Realities|publisher=Wayne State University Press|date=January 1979|isbn=0814315941|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QCYDPVx7LQkC&pg=PA199&dq=%22Asiatic+Vespers%22&as_brr=3&ei=6YCISOX7AY2AsgO72LyXBg&sig=ACfU3U2lbUD7yI4u1FrZPK9KuyQC3xL5Lw#PPA199,M1] cite book|last=Cicero|title=Political Speeches|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2006-04-20|pages=p103|isbn=0192832662|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_fSw_2I1jBoC&pg=PA103&vq=%22Asiatic+Vespers%22&dq=%22Asiatic+Vespers%22&as_brr=3&source=gbs_search_s&sig=ACfU3U362EWID2GG9XZHDN2RDNEW7i-JVw] Needless to say, this act led to the usually prudentRoman Senate committing a huge invasion force aimed at breaking the power of the Kingdom of Pontus and eventually annexing their territory in a series of conflicts known as theMithridatic Wars .Notes
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