Battle of Chalcedon (74 BC)
battle of the Third Mithridatic War
The Battle of Chalcedon was a land and naval battle between the Roman Republic and King Mithridates VI of Pontus near the city of Chalcedon in 74 BC. It was the first major clash of the Third Mithridatic War. The Roman forces were led by Marcus Aurelius Cotta, one of the consuls for 74 BC, while Mithridates had the overall command of the Pontic forces. The Mithridatic forces were victorious on both land and sea.
Background
After his defeat at the hands of Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BC), King Mithridates had rebuilt his power and armies. The Second Mithridatic War (83-81 BC) had ended undecided. Then, in 74 BC, Nicomedes IV, the king of Bithynia died, and the Romans claimed he had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Bithynia, located between the Roman province of Asia and the Pontic Empire, functioned as a buffer state between Rome and Mithridates. Its annexation provoked Mithridates, and he invaded the new Roman territory.
Prelude
At the start of the Third Mithridatic War, the Roman consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta took his fleet into the Bosporus; he made his headquarters at Chalcedon, a major port city in Bithynia. Mithridates marched his army into Bithynia, while his fleet sailed to the Bosphorus.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2331925. Authority coordinates are 40.983, 29.033. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Chalcedon (74 BC)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.