Hello, and welcome to the History Room.

Episode 37, Go East Young Man.

At the end of the last episode, I said that this week we would be covering the ill-conceived

conspiracy of Catalign.

However, it has come to my attention that the History Room's research assistant mixed

up the pages of my outline and the conspiracy of Catalign isn't actually scheduled until

next week.

There is a picture of my helpful assistant being helpful up on the website.

She is so helpful.

Anyway, this week we will be covering the events that led Pompey to really earn that Magnus

honorific he had been saddled with as a joke by Sala.

True detractors can still find reason to be unimpressed with Pompey's exploits in the

Eastern Mediterranean, but the fact is he took over a bog down campaign in Turkey, and

by the time he was done marching, he had set up a string of pro-Roman protectors across

the east and expanded the frontier of the empire.

More impressively, he nearly doubled the tax receipts coming into the Roman treasury.

I think it's safe to say that upon his return to Rome, Pompey the Great had truly become

Pompey the Great.

In 74 BC, while Pompey was still in Spain and Spartacus was a year away from his breakout,

King Nicometus of Bethinia died and willed his kingdom to Rome.

Bethinia was in the northwest corner of modern-day Turkey, and Rome had helped Nicometus retain

control of his kingdom in the face of Mithredati's ambition to control all of Anatolia.

...