The Great Sieges of History

Chapter 128: SINOPE.

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About This Book

This work examines a series of notable sieges from history, narrating events and technical details while extracting practical lessons about siegecraft. It describes assault and defense methods, engineering and logistics, and the endurance and courage of combatants, and highlights how leadership, training, and preparation shape outcomes. Through comparative anecdotes the author critiques unpreparedness and faulty command, and reflects on the moral and civic costs inflicted by prolonged blockades and urban capture. Aimed at soldiers, planners, and general readers, the book combines narrative episodes with analytical commentary to illustrate principles of military operations and the human consequences of siege warfare.

SINOPE.

A.C. 71.

There is very little to relate of this siege; but the interest it has acquired by a recent melancholy event, and the contrast between Lucullus and the emperor of Russia, entitle it to a notice.

Irritated by the presumption and vanity of Tigranes, who refused to give up his father-in-law Mithridates, after Lucullus had conquered him, the Roman consul marched into Pontus, and took its cities as fast as he came to them. Among these was Sinope, known to classical readers as the birthplace and residence of the Cynic Diogenes, and of which Mithridates, king of Pontus, had made his capital. Lucullus easily made himself master of the place; he treated the inhabitants with the greatest humanity, restoring them, the moment the Roman power was acknowledged, their liberty and their civic privileges.