Nicomedes IV left Bithynia to Rome, Mithridates said the queen had borne him a son, and Mithridates invaded

Nicomedes IV, king of Bithynia, was driven out by his brother, backed by Mithridates of Pontus, and restored by Roman envoys led by Manius Aquillius. Appian says the envoys then pressed him to raid Mithridates's land. He still owed large payments he had promised, had borrowed at interest from Romans in his kingdom, and his creditors were pressing him. He invaded reluctantly, and the war with Mithridates followed. Suetonius says Julius Caesar's stay at his court as a young man was the one stain on Caesar's name. When Caesar later spoke in the Senate for Nysa, Nicomedes's daughter, and listed what he owed the king, Cicero cut him off. Appian says Nicomedes died childless and bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans. In a letter Sallust gives to Mithridates, the king says the Romans plundered Bithynia after Nicomedes's death though a son had without doubt been born to Nysa, whom Nicomedes had called queen. Mithridates invaded Bithynia at once. Rome fought Mithridates until 63 BC.