The Romans, from 75, occupy Dobruja (Romanian: Dobrogea), a historical region lying between the lower Danube River and the Black Sea.

Tomis, (modern Constanta) a port city in southeastern Romania, on the Black Sea, settled by Greeks in the seventh century BCE, comes under Roman rule in 72.

The Geto-Dacians, who, in opposing the Roman advance into the Balkan Peninsula, have revived their old tribal union under the leadership of Burebista (reigned 82-44 BCE).

In 72 BCE, the Romans launch a retaliatory strike across the Danube but withdraw because, as one account reports, the soldiers are "frightened by the darkness of the forests."

Lucullus is wary of being drawn into a direct engagement with Mithridates, due to the latter's superior cavalry, but after several small battles, Lucullus finally defeats him at the Battle of Cabira.

He does not pursue Mithridates immediately, but instead he finishes conquering the kingdom of Pontus and setting the affairs of Asia into order.

His attempts to reform the rapacious Roman administration in Asia make him increasingly unpopular among the powerful publicani back in Rome.

Mithridates, now nearly penniless, has meanwhile been forced to …

…Armenia and the protection of Tigranes.

Crete  had fallen into a pattern of combative city-states, harboring pirates, during the Classical and Hellenistic periods.

Gortyn, …

…Kydonia (Chania) and …

…Lyttos had challenged the primacy of …

…ancient Knossos, preyed upon one another, and invited into their feuds mainland powers like Macedon and its rivals Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt, a situation that all but invited Roman interference.

Ierapytna (Ierapetra), a Dorian city in continual rivalry with Praisos, the last Minoan city in the island, had gained supremacy on eastern Crete in the Classical Age.

Hierapytna was later notorious in the third century BCE for its tendency to piracy and had taken part in the Cretan War along with other Cretan cities in the side of Philip V of Macedon against Knossos and Rhodes.

Crete according to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus was aiding Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, by supplying him with mercenaries in the first century BCE.

Mithridates, intent on halting the advance of Roman hegemony in the Aegean, is at war with the Romans for the third time, and Rome is having a difficult time with him.

The Cretans also contribute to and are in alliance with the pirates of the Mediterranean, which represent a terrible problem at this time; they add the risk of kidnapping to sailing, they pilfer grain from shipments to Rome, and they attack ports.

Marcus Antonius, father of the famous Mark Antony, sends legates to Crete concerning their involvement with Mithridates and the pirates; the Cretans dismiss the matter, and a war begins.

The battle between Gellius' legions and Crixus' men was, according to Appia, the beginning of a long and complex series of military maneuvers that almost resulted in the Spartacan forces directly assaulting the city of Rome itself.

After his victory over Crixus, Gellius moved northwards, following the main group of slaves under Spartacus who were heading for Cisalpine Gaul.

The army of Lentulus was deployed to bar Spartacus' path, and the consuls hoped to trap the rebel slaves between them.

Spartacus' army met Lentulus' legion, defeated it, turned, and destroyed Gellius' army, forcing the Roman legions to retreat in disarray.

Appian claims that Spartacus executed some three hundred captured Roman soldiers to avenge the death of Crixus, forcing them to fight each other to the death as gladiators.

Following this victory, Spartacus pushed northwards with his followers (some one hundred and twenty thousand) as fast as he could travel, "having burned all his useless material, killed all his prisoners, and butchered his pack-animals in order to expedite his movement".

The defeated consular armies fell back to Rome to regroup while Spartacus' followers moved northward.

The consuls again engage Spartacus somewhere in the Picenum region, and once again are defeated.

Appian claims that at this point Spartacus changed his intention of marching on Rome—implying this was Spartacus' goal following the confrontation in Picenum—as "he did not consider himself ready as yet for that kind of a fight, as his whole force was not suitably armed, for no city had joined him, but only slaves, deserters, and riffraff", and decides to withdraw into southern Italy once again.