1At that time the state at Rome was being violently convulsed by tribunician disturbances. 2Publius Lucullus and Lucius Annius, tribunes of the plebs, were striving to prolong their magistracy against the opposition of their colleagues, and this dispute held up the elections for the whole year. 3Led by this delay to hope either of finishing the war or of extracting money from the king through fear of his army, Aulus, whom we said above was left in the camp as propraetor, called the soldiers out of winter quarters in the month of January for a campaign, and by forced marches in a harsh winter reached the town of Suthul, where the king's treasures were.
4Although, because of both the severity of the season and the advantage of the position, it could be neither taken nor besieged — for around the wall, which was set on the edge of a steep mountain, a muddy plain had been turned into a marsh by the winter rains —, nevertheless, either for the sake of pretence, to add to the king's alarm, or blinded by desire to get possession of the town for its treasures, he began moving up mantlets, building a mound and hurrying on the other things that would be useful for the undertaking.