Go East Young Man

-74 BC- King Nicodemus of Bithynia (NW Turkey) died, and wanted the kingdom to be under Roman rule.
   -Rome had defended Bithynia from Mithridates VI (King of Pontus), and had agreed upon the kingdom of Bithynia to be given to Rome in exchange for Roman protection.
   -Mithridates VI, however, decided to preemptively strike during the transition of power.
-Pompey wanted a piece of the action in the East, but he was still stuck in Hispania fighting Marius-supporting rebels.
-73 BC- Pontus invades Bithynia!  This kicks off the Third Mithridatic War.
   -The First and Second Mithridatic Wars were pretty much fought between Sulla and Mithridates VI, with the second one being pretty minor.
   -Rome easily repelled Pontus' forces before deciding to invade the kingdom as a counterattack.
      -Rome first consolidated its forces in Anatolia, and then sent ambassadors to Armenia where Mithridates VI was hiding (his son-in-law, Tigranes II (Tigranes the Great), was the King of Armenia).
         -Rome demanded that Tigranes II give up Mithridates VI to Rome.  Tigranes II refused!
-69 BC- Rome invades Armenia!  Rome had a force of roughly 40,000, but Armenia had a powerful defense of 100,000-250,000.
   -Somehow, Rome won (the Battle of Tigranocerta), which was extremely surprising!  Tigranes II fled north to Artaxata, Armenia's old capital.
-During this time, Rome encountered Persians (the Parthian Empire) for the first time.
-68 BC- the Roman army moved north, defeating more Armenian armies, but winter soon set in and Rome couldn't push through the mountains.
-67 BC- the Armenians counter the Roman invasions by invading Pontus!
-66 BC- Lucullus, the Roman general leading the campaign, was recalled, and Pompey was installed as the new leader of the Roman forces in the East.
   -Pompey quickly gathered troops and eliminated ALL of the pirates in the Mediterranean after being given complete control over the Roman navy.  Within 40 days he had pretty much pacified all of them.
      -Most of these pirates came from the chaotic region of Cilicia in southern Turkey that was divided between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom, although they apparently didn't have much control over the area.
         -Pompey landed there, quickly dominated the region, and forced them to submit to Rome.
   -Pompey then invaded Pontus, crushing Mithridates VI.  He quickly fled to the Bosporan Kingdom in Crimea, where his son, Machares, was viceroy.  However, Machares was unwilling to get involved in his father's wars.  It's unclear as to what exactly happened, but it appears as if Mithridates VI somehow had Machares killed, and then Mithridates VI crowned himself ruler of the kingdom.  Unfortunately for him, the locals weren't down for getting into a war with Rome, so Mithridates VI committed suicide in 63 BC.
-At this time, Armenia submitted to Rome in hopes of appeasement, but not annexation.
   -It worked, and Armenia successfully stayed "independent", although they were a client state.  Technically, however, they were actually successful in never truly being conquered by Rome or incorporated into their empire!  Instead, they worked as a buffer state between Rome and the Parthians.
-Pompey then decided to march his army south into modern-day Syria, where petty warlords squabbled over the remains of the crumbling Seleucid Empire (which had previously controlled the land).
   -Pompey then conquered the whole territory in the name of Rome in order to annex it into the empire.
   -Pompey then went down into Judea and conquered the Hasmonean Kingdom, which was ruling the land after the Seleucid Empire had lost control of the area.
      -The kingdom was actually in the middle of a civil war, and both sides wanted the Romans to join them.
         -Pompey chose a side, helped them take over, and then set up the kingdom as a Roman protectorate.
-Pompey then returned to Rome and enjoyed a glorious triumph!
   -A crazy amount of money was now flowing rapidly into Rome.