Gaius Flavius Fimbria was a Roman

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 politician and a violent partisan of Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

. He fought in the First Mithridatic War

First Mithridatic War

The First Mithridatic War was a war challenging Rome's expanding Empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Rome were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Bithynia...

.

Partisan of Marius

Fimbria was the son of the Gaius Flavius Fimbria

Gaius Flavius Fimbria (consul 104 BCE)

Gaius Flavius Fimbria, according to Cicero, rose to the highest honours in the republic through his own merit and talent.In 105 BC, he was a candidate for the consulship, and the people gave him the preference to his competitor, Quintus Lutatius Catulus; and accordingly, Fimbria was the colleague...

 who was consul

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

 in 104 BC along with Marius. In 87 BC, the son as either a military tribune

Tribune

Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...

 or praefectus equitum commanded the cavalry troop that killed the elder son of P. Licinius Crassus

Publius Licinius Crassus Dives

Publius Licinius Crassus Dives was a member of the respected and prominent Crassi branch of the plebeian gens Licinia as well as the father of the famed Marcus Licinius Crassus...

, consul in 97 BC and father of the future triumvir

Marcus Licinius Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...

. Crassus then committed suicide. Fimbria may also have put to death some members of the Julian family

Julius

The gens Julia was one of the most ancient patrician families at Ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC...

.

In Asia

Fimbria was sent to the province of Asia in 86 BC as legate

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

 to Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect consul 86 BC)

Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect consul 86 BC)

Lucius Valerius Flaccus was the suffect consul who completed the term of Gaius Marius in 86 BC. He was sent as governor in that year to the Roman province of Asia, but was murdered in a mutiny by Fimbria during the turmoil of the Sullan civil wars and the Mithridatic Wars.Flaccus is also known for...

, but quarrelled with him and was dismissed. Taking advantage of the absence of Flaccus at Chalcedon

Chalcedon

Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...

 and the discontent aroused by his avarice and severity, Fimbria stirred up a revolt and killed Flaccus at Nicomedia

Nicomedia

Nicomedia was an ancient city in what is now Turkey, founded in 712/11 BC as a Megarian colony and was originally known as Astacus . After being destroyed by Lysimachus, it was rebuilt by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most...

. He then assumed the command of the army and obtained several successes against Mithridates VI

Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...

, whom he shut up in Pitane

Pitane (Aeolis)

Pitane , near Çandarlı, Turkey, was an ancient Greek town of Aeolis, in Asia Minor. In ancient times it was a port city and a member of the Delian League. About 334 BC, Alexander the Great tried to take over the city, but was repulsed by Memnon of Rhodes and 5,000 Greek mercenaries provided by...

 on the coast of Aeolis

Aeolis

Aeolis or Aeolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located...

, and would undoubtedly have captured him had Lucullus

Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...

 co-operated with the fleet.

Fimbria treated most cruelly all the people of Asia who had revolted from Rome or sided with Sulla. Having gained admission to Ilium

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

 by declaring that, as a Roman, he was friendly, he massacred the inhabitants and burnt the place to the ground. But in 84 Sulla crossed over from Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 to Asia, made peace with Mithridates, and turned his arms against Fimbria, who, seeing that there was no chance of escape, committed suicide. His troops were made to serve in Asia till the end of the Third Mithridatic War

Third Mithridatic War

The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...

, but two of his officers, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, fled to Mithridates and were of long service to him.