His nearest and natural ally was the great-king Tigranes; but that shortsighted man declined the proposal of his father-in-law.

So there remained only the insurgents and the pirates.
Mithradates was careful to place himself in communication with both, by despatching strong squadrons to Spain and to Crete.
A formal treaty was concluded with Sertorius,( 11) by which Rome ceded to the king Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, and Cappadocia-- all of them, it is true, acquisitions which needed to be ratified on the field of battle.

More important was the support which the Spanish general gave to the king, by sending Roman officers to lead his armies and fleets.

The most active of the emigrants inthe east, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, were appointed by Sertorius as his representatives at the court of Sinope.

From the pirates also came help; they flocked largely to the kingdom of Pontus, and by their means especially the king seems to have succeeded in forming a naval force imposing by the number as well as by the quality of the ships.