<head>VI. Affairs of Asia</head>Not a few men from lust for gain have sacrificed even their lives for money, among them Orophernes, the king of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cappadocia&groupId=435&placeId=343">Cappadocia</a>, who falling a victim to this passion perished himself and lost his kingdom.
Now having given this brief account of the restoration of Ariarathes, I shall resume that regular course of my narrative which I follow throughout the whole of this work.
For in the present instance, passing over the affairs of Greece, I appended those Asiatic affairs which relate to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cappadocia&groupId=435&placeId=343">Cappadocia</a>, as I found no justifiable means of separating the departure of Ariarathes from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a> from his return to power.
I will, therefore, now go back to the events that happened in Greece at the same date.
Among these that which befell the city of Oropus<note place="end" resp="tr" id="note2">For some account of this matter see .</note>was especially singular and strange.
I will give a succinct account of the whole of this matter, partly recurring to the past and partly anticipating the future, so that, the separate details of it being by no means striking, I may not by relating them under different dates produce a narrative both obscure and insignificant.
For when the whole seems scarcely worth close attention what chance is there of any student really making it an object of study when it is told disjointedly under different dates?
For the most part when men are successful they get on well together, but when unsuccessful they get vexed with things and become irritable and fretful with their friends.
This was the case with Orophernes when things went against him and Theotimus, and each blamed the other.
Polybius says that Orophernes reigned for a short time in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cappadocia&groupId=435&placeId=343">Cappadocia</a>, and despising their traditional customs introduced the refined debauchery of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ionia&groupId=171&placeId=413">Ionia</a>.
Walbank Commentary