Building on my previous thread, after Kos was taken, Mithridates besieged Rhodes, seeing fit to reduce this staunch Roman ally and premier naval power, after receiving the surrender of Mytilene as well. Mithridates attempted to envelop the Rhodian fleet, but the endeavor failed. The Rhodians would launch quick hit-and-run attacks and decided to opportunistically strike at lightning speed at his fleet. During one of these engagements, the Rhodians encountered a royal supply ship, which believed that the Rhodians were constrained in their harbor, and swiftly captured it with a bireme. The Pontic fleet engaged, but was defeated, with the Rhodians returning with great spoils. Soon afterwards, a Rhodian quinquereme was captured, but Mithridates kept his triumph a secret in the hopes that the Rhodians would look for it, and they did, sending out a search party of 6 ships. Mithridates dispatched 26 ships against them. The Rhodian commander used the speed of his ships to avoid action until sunset, then, when the Pontic ships broke off their pursuit, the Rhodian ships wheeled and hit the Pontic ships in the rear, which resulted in no Rhodian losses, and the loss of 2 Pontic ships. In the chaos following it, Mithridates' flagship was accidentally rammed by a ship from Chios. While he survived, it would cause Mithridates to distrust his Greek allies, having profound consequences later on in the war. What if Mithridates had been killed there? How would this affect the remaining campaign season, and would the Pontians withdraw from Greece to settle internal affairs? Would there be civil war within the Pontic kingdom? Or would a single heir rise to prominence and manage to consolidate power, continuing on the war? Or would they even make peace and confine themselves to Anatolia? How are the political and military careers of Sulla and Lucullus affected? Does this news somehow alter Sulla's coup and assumption of command against Mithridates and prevent the Marian faction from reassuming power? What happens to the Romans without the Mithridatic Wars? How are Roman internal politics, and the careers of certain figures affected?