WI Pontus wins the First Mithridatic War?

Well the title says it all. As far as i know, the Pontians were originally very successful in their war against Rome, but were eventually defeated by Sulla and his know how of Alexandrian style warfare. So what if a less competent Roman commander fought the Pontian army in Greece? Or what if the Pontian army was less of a phalanx based army? Is it plausible to see Pontus holding on to Greece and Asia minor? And what would the effects in the far future be?
 
If one considers the long term, it is impossible for Pontus to emerge victorious. Even if a Roman commander less competent then Lucius Cornelius Sulla is sent to fight Mithridates -- someone like the old, mad, and senile Gaius Marius perhaps -- Pontus still can’t expect to hold on to any Roman territory after the massacres in Asia province and the invasion of Greece. At most, the initial Roman expeditionary army may be defeated, and a Roman response delayed due to civil war, but ultimately Pontus cannot win -- it simply does not have the necessary strength to fight head to head with the Roman Republic, which precisely what Mithridates was trying to do. The most interesting effects on the future would most likely be in internal Roman politics -- whomever looses against Mithridates, whether Gaius Marius or a Sullan partisan will be thoroughly discredited as a political force.
 
Well, im thinking that the more successful long term option for Mithridates would be to ditch the phalax based army earlier. Prehaps this, along with the loyalty and resources of Asia Minor and Greece could match the manpower advantages of Italy. However, if the Romans are peristant enough, I could easily see Mithridates eventually being overwhelmed. And since there are 80,000 Roman and Italian dead in Asia, I would agree that the Romans would not allow the Pontians to hold on to any formerly Roman territory. This is, however, only if the Romans are the ones dictating the terms of peace.

Another important factor to take into account is the fact there was a civil war going on in Rome at the time. I know that the Marian rememnants in Spain allied with Mithridates in the 3rd Mithridatic war, but would either of the Roman factions be willing to ally with Mithridates during the 1st Mithridatic war?
 
Well, im thinking that the more successful long term option for Mithridates would be to ditch the phalax based army earlier. Prehaps this, along with the loyalty and resources of Asia Minor and Greece could match the manpower advantages of Italy. However, if the Romans are peristant enough, I could easily see Mithridates eventually being overwhelmed. And since there are 80,000 Roman and Italian dead in Asia, I would agree that the Romans would not allow the Pontians to hold on to any formerly Roman territory. This is, however, only if the Romans are the ones dictating the terms of peace.

The problem is that Mithridates only raised the corps of the so-called ‘imitation legionaries’ prior to the Third Mithridatic War, due to the poor performance phalangite phalanxes against the Roman legions, and even then he was mainly forced to draw on Pontic subject peoples, hellenized Anatolians, and hired Thracian, Galatian, and Bosphoran mercenary infantry. Although thereuporoi and thorakitai type troops had very probably fought in Pontic armies much earlier, the real impetus for the creation of the ‘imitation legionaries’ was Mithridates’ defeats in the First Mithridatic War. Holding on to Greece proper might give him a few extra ‘imitation legionary’ type troops, as the Greek city-states had adopted the thureophoroi style soldier when fighting Macedon, but the impetus for a large-scale reformation of the Pontic army would not exist. Also, although the Asian Greeks, and those of Hellas were very pleased to see the Romans defeated, I don’t believe there would be the potential for large scale Pontic recruitment. There is also the fact that even in the so-called ‘Pontic legions’ Mithridates was forced to recruit freed slaves and retrain phalangite soldiers, which only goes to demonstrate his manpower problems.

Another important factor to take into account is the fact there was a civil war going on in Rome at the time. I know that the Marian rememnants in Spain allied with Mithridates in the 3rd Mithridatic war, but would either of the Roman factions be willing to ally with Mithridates during the 1st Mithridatic war?

Well, in most respects, following the Marian coup d’etat, Sulla was already operating entirely independent of the populares clique in control of Rome. Although the Marians did dispatch a force under L. Valerius Flaccus and G. Flavius Fimbria to battle Mithridates, in many respects both the Marian faction and Pontus both desired the same thing -- the destruction of Sulla. The best chance for Mithridates VI and Pontus would be if Sulla fares less successfully in the battles in Greece proper -- Chaeronea and Orochmenus, and hastening to return to Rome, grants Mithridates control over the former Asia province in a more lenient treaty of Dardanus. This would most likely be a purely temporary measure, but it might enable Mithridates to consolidate his hold over Asia and Anatolia.
 
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